RALEIGH — On Nov. 16, the North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office (NCPRO) announced the closeout of $3.6 billion in Coronavirus Relief Funds.
“Coronavirus Relief Funds were among the first to get into the hands of local leaders, at a time when we were just beginning to realize the magnitude of COVID-19’s impact on our economy, schools, government services, and healthcare system,” NCPRO Executive Director Stephanie McGarrah said in a press release. “Closing this chapter is a major achievement for NCPRO’s staff and everyone who worked with us during one of the most difficult periods in our state’s history.”
The funding was appropriated by the General Assembly for the most urgent needs across the state during the pandemic and was distributed through a network that included NCPRO and more than 1,700 state agencies, local governments, hospitals, schools, businesses and nonprofits, per the NCPRO release.
North Carolina received $3.6 billion out of the $150 billion in Coronavirus Relief Funds provided to the states, as well as local governments and U.S. Territories, by Congress through the 2020 CARES Act.
Per NCPRO, the funding amounts included $1.35 billion to state and local Governments, $826 million for health, $664 million went to public services, $478 million for education, $208 million for business relief and recovery, $36 million in individual relief, and $21 million was allocated to infrastructure.
According to the release, NCPRO has submitted its final reports to the U.S. Department of Treasury and the North Carolina General Assembly.
More details about how North Carolina utilized Coronavirus Relief Funds and COVID-19 funding are located on the NCPRO website under its Funding Data Dashboard: https://ncpro.nc.gov
As of July 1, 2022, North Carolina has received more than $110 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding through three pieces of legislation, the CARES Act of 2020, Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSA), and the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
In addition to aid for state and local governments, the CARES Act also included programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Interest Payments and enhanced unemployment benefits.
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSA) provided North Carolina with an additional $9 billion for additional Economic Impact Payments and more than $4 billion allocated to state agencies for specific programs. Of the $4 billion, the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER II) program received $1 billion.
North Carolina received more than $31 billion through ARPA. Included in that allocation were $12 billion in non-grant based Economic Impact Payments and $8 million in other grants. Another $3 billion was supplied for continuation of ESSER. State leaders appropriated an additional $10 billion for other programs, $5 billion of which went to the State Fiscal Recovery Fund.
