COVID money boosted Alaska federal funds by a third, study finds
“For the state of Alaska, COVID dollars in 2020 were nearly equal to the state’s allotment of federal Medicaid spending, which was about $1.5 billion.
Most of the pandemic spending in the report is from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. States couldn’t use CARES Act funds for items that were already in their budgets, or unrelated to the pandemic. Thiess said that created some inflexibility for states.
‘There were specific prescriptions that the Cares Act could be used for, and that didn’t allow states to kind of do whatever they want with it, or plug whatever holes they wanted with it,’ she said.”