Escambia County received $57.6 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. About 60 cents of every dollar will be spent on county operations – either for Public Health and Safety, Government Response  & Compliance or COVID-19 Operations & Oversight.
Families and businesses will receive only 34 cents of every dollar.
Palm Beach County has spent $215 million of its CARES funds and placed a priority on helping small businesses, 37 cents of every dollar, and families with rent, utilities and mortgages, 15 cents of every dollar. The county has spent a combined 52 cents of every dollar on helping businesses and families.
Palm Beach only spent 20 cents of every dollar on general government.
How many businesses could have been saved if the Escambia County administration had gotten $21 million into the hands of small businesses rather than only $3.6 million?
And sadly the majority of the CARES dollars for families in Escambia County is being issued only weeks before the federal deadline of Dec. 30 – not in the summer when the dollars could have helped even more.
Was the long delay in disbursing CARES funds in Escambia done to make sure the majority of the dollars went to county government instead of businesses and households?
| ESCAMBIA | ||||
| Families | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 16,000,000 | 27.9% | ||
| Businesses | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 3,600,000 | 6.3% | ||
| Combined – Family & Business | 34.2% | |||
| Food Assistance | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2,300,000 | 4.0% | ||
| Rapid Testing | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,250,000 | 2.2% | ||
| Oversight | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 400,000 | 0.7% | ||
| Govt Response & Compliance | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 3,400,000 | 5.9% | ||
| Public Health & Safety | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 30,300,000 | 52.9% | ||
| Combined – Government | 59.6% | |||
| Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 57,250,000 | ||||
| PALM BEACH | |||
| Businesses | Â $Â Â Â Â Â 78,600,000 | ||
| Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 678,760 | |||
| Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 79,278,760 | 36.9% | ||
| Families | |||
| Rents, utlitlies | Â $Â Â Â Â Â 21,500,000 | ||
| Mortgage | Â $Â Â Â Â Â 11,400,000 | ||
| Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 32,900,000 | 15.3% | ||
| Combined – Family & Business | 52.2% | ||
| Food Assistance | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 25,100,000 | 11.7% | |
| General Govt | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 43,800,000 | 20.4% | |
| Broadband | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 12,900,000 | 6.0% | |
| COVID Testing | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 8,200,000 | 3.8% | |
| Shelter for exposed | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,600,000 | 2.6% | |
| Non-profits | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4,200,000 | 2.0% | |
| Unmet needs- Human Services | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,100,000 | 0.5% | |
| Contact Tracing | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,000,000 | 0.5% | |
| Child-care | Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 998,162 | 0.5% | |
| Â $Â Â Â Â Â Â 215,076,922 | |||
The real question everyone needs an answer to is, why is she still employed?
We lost everything during Covid. Our apartment we just got with all of our new furniture, our car, even our jobs. Everything fell apart for us. We tried to reach out and get help for rent with different organizations. I’ve never been offered being able to actually help 1 cent in rent. We have to rent a room now which is completely unstable. We want our lives back. Escambia County Government, get it together, like yesterday! We are drowning out here and we just want our lives back. Asap, please.
Dammit–this isn’t what this community needs. While people are looking for ways to grow flowers out of a flood, Escambia County Administrator Janice Gilley is stealing their seeds and syphoning the last drop of water out of the bottom of the hour glass.
When will it finally be enough for the BOCC recognize that this woman doesn’t know how to do anything but look after Number 1?
Apparently, she has grown the area of her brain so big that instinctively knows how to grab up resources to cultivate her own back yard, there isn’t a lot of thought process or care left unused for how to pay the gardeners. This just can’t continue in 2021.