COVID-related county funding is uncertain
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock says the biggest COVID-19 issue on the horizon is how the state’s counties can afford to respond to Oregon Health Authority guidelines and mandates from Gov. Kate Brown when the current funding stream is due to run dry.
“How in the world are counties going to be able to comply with mandates from the governor and directives from the OHA with an unknown source of funding,” he questioned.
Murdock said the county expects to receive an estimated $600,000 in funds that will be expected to last to November.
“Between July and mid-December, we spent $1.2 million on COVID activities,” he said. “You can see that’s not going to last for every long.”
Murdock added that Umatilla county has been careful in managing its resources so it won’t come to the edge of the financial cliff as soon as many other Oregon counties.
“Basically, that cliff will appear somewhere around April 1,” he wrote in his weekly newsletter.
