NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Lee Administration will pay $250,000 to private accounting firm the Horne Group to help it handle more than $7 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds, the Daily Memphian reported.
The national firm with offices in Memphis, Nashville and Jackson will be responsible for setting a strategy for how to spend the COVID-19 funding and ensuring all expenses comply with federal rules. CARES Act money must be spent, not just obligated, by the end of 2020.
About two-thirds of the federal money is already dedicated to programs that include federal unemployment relief and TennCare. But the state has more discretion over the other $2.3 billion. Of that, nearly $1 billion is going to the unemployment insurance trust fund. Another $215 million is going toward small business relief, with checks scheduled to start going out in the next week.
Another $280 million will go toward payroll expenses for health and safety employees. Those salaries were already part of the state’s $39.45 billion budget, so the funds will be set aside in reserve, adding to some $4 billion the state has stored.
Initially, Tennessee set aside $1 billion of the CARES Act money to replace lost revenue, but the federal government has not allowed that type of spending.
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