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NEWS FLASH > Arizona Federal Judge Vacates and Remands Navigable Waters Protection Rule

As part of ADEQ's commitment to keep you informed on federal changes regarding Waters of the U.S., we want you to be aware that a District Judge for the District of Arizona issued an order on vacating and remanding the Navigable Waters Protection Rule on Monday, Aug. 30, 2021 | Click here to view the order > The order will have the effect of setting Clean Water Act regulations in Arizona to those in place pre-2015. ADEQ will continue to follow applicable federal and state laws in its administration of the Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (AZPDES) Program and the upcoming Surface Water Protection Program.   ADEQ plans to publish a list of protected surface waters in compliance with state law and to continue outreach on the rulemaking required to implement the Surface Water Protection Program. David Lelsz, Ph.D. Program Manager, Water Quality Division 602-771-4651 About ADEQ Under the Environmental Quality Act of 1986, the Arizona State Legislature established the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in 1987 as the state agency for protecting and enhancing public health and the environment of Arizona. For more information, visit azdeq.gov.

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SPECIAL FEATURE POST: A Riff from Rogue Columnist Jon Talton 'How-to-Read The News' . . .Carefully, widely, and skeptically

Here ya go!

Just enough to get readers of this blog started - and a couple of clips closer to home about Superstition Vistas

August 30, 2021

How to read the news

Penelope Abernathy at the University of North Carolina has been tracking the expansion of "news deserts" in the United States — counties with no local newspapers at all, and those with only one. Even the survivors are hanging on

"U.S. newspapers lost 48 percent of their journalists between 2008 and 2018, and the losses are now accelerated by the pandemic. More than 1,800 newspapers have closed since 2004. Arizona newspaper circulation dropped by 37% between 2004 and 2019. All this is because of the collapse of the old business model because of Craig's List and self-inflicted wounds.

Many newspapers are being sucked dry by hedge-fund owners. As a result, the most experienced journalists are being pushed out. What's left are cub reporters while institutional knowledge is lost. The alternative is television news/entertainment, which is typically a shooting, an auto collision, and Heather-with-the-weather. (An honorable exception is Brahm Resnik at 12 News, a newspaper-trained newsman).

Meanwhile, a gray area of news also exists. In Phoenix, this includes Cronkite News out of ASU, KJZZ, and AZ Big Media. Flagstaff and Tucson are served by Arizona Public Media. Each of these have plusses and minuses.

This situation has profound implications for a self-governing society. Only real journalism exposes corruption, shines a light on self-serving politicians, explains complicated issues, and knits together civil society. Let's look at how to read the news — I've been a reporter, editor, and columnist for nearly four decades.

Let's look at a recent story on azfamily.com, the website of KPHO and KTVK. It's headlined, "New ADOT North-South Corridor would create traffic relief for Southeast Valley." With two reporters, the story states in part:

Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has selected a 55-mile North-South Corridor through Pinal County that would not only help relieve traffic from Phoenix to Tucson, but it would also connect areas of the Valley. 

ADOT is looking to connect those who live in Queen Creek, San Tan, and the overall congestion along the I-10 to Tucson along the 55-mile stretch that would go from the US-60 and Ironwood to Eloy along the I-10.

"The purpose of the North-South Corridor study is to enhance the area’s transportation network to accommodate the current and future population and employment growth, improving access to future development and other centers of activity, improving regional mobility, providing an alternative to and reducing congestion on Interstate 10, improving north-to-south connectivity and integrating the regions transportation network," according to a press release from ADOT. 

Garin Groff from ADOT says it's a big project that could take years but the effort is worth it.

"This is a big corridor. It's 55 miles, all the way from US 60 in Apache Junction down to Interstate 10 in Eloy. This is a corridor that ADOT has been studying for a number of years to improve north south connectivity as well as serve future growth in the area," says Groff. "We're looking at this corridor both for the current transportation needs and for the population growth and the growth of businesses that we expect in this area for the coming decades."

It continues on in this vein. Nowhere are some basic elements to a news story or Journalism 101 questions asked.

Who will benefit from this project besides, we're told, drivers? Experience with freeways in "the Valley" shows that speculators lock in parcels that would otherwise be worthless without the coming expressway. Also who will fund it? Is this another regressive sales-tax-funded freeway?

What are the downsides? The story contains no opposing voices, even though it appears this massive project would bring big environmental and climate-change emission consequences. Arizona is in a drought yet the story never mentions that and the huge costs of filling in this desert land with subdivisions and a freeway. Also, it never discusses induced demand, how building highways and wider highways actually makes traffic worse.

Where is this land coming from? It appears to be part of the controversial Superstition Vistas project but the reader is never told.

All of these flaws are common on news stories from most sites. . ."

6 charts on COVID-19 this summer

Six new charts on COVID-19 this summer The Delta variant has upended some summer plans and impacted back-to-school plans for millions of students, parents, and teachers. It's also altered the state of coronavirus deaths from just a month and a half ago. Here are new charts from USAFacts to make sense of the state of the pandemic at the end of summer 2021. The daily COVID-19 death rate in the US has been six deaths per 100,000 people since July 1. Seventeen states have death rates above the national average, with Arkansas topping the list at 21 deaths per 100,000 people daily. See coronavirus deaths by state from the start of Q3 through August 18 below.  The deadliest wave of the pandemic was in December and January, when weekly death rates peaked for all racial and ethnic groups except for the non-Hispanic Black population. In December, non-Hispanic American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest weekly death rate: 13 deaths per 100,000. Older Americans comprise most COVID-19 deaths, but it's a smaller share than earlier in the pandemic. In the first quarter of 2021, people 65 and older accounted for 79% of the 191,232 COVID-19 deaths. That fell to 67% of deaths in the second quarter. During the same period, the share of COVID-19 deaths among 45- to 64-year-olds increased from 18% to 28%. See the four other charts and more metrics on COVID-19 at USAFacts. Pandemic rental assistance isn't getting to people who need it  Congress sent $25 billion to state and local governments in emergency rental assistance, but less than 13% of the money had made it to renters by the end of June. As the Supreme Court strikes down the federal eviction moratorium, what is the state of emergency assistance for renters nationwide?  Large governments like New York City and Los Angeles County redirected funds to the state for distribution. Texas and Virginia spent more than a third of their assistance funds by June's end. New York state distributed less than 1% of assistance, the lowest in the nation.  Households receiving assistance almost doubled in June. Over 25% of those were in Texas, with nearly 70,000 households approved that month.   According to the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, about 15% of renters were behind on rent at the end of July. Out of that group, 29% lost employment income in the previous four weeks. About a third of that 15% of renters are one month behind. Sixty-seven percent who can't make rent are two or more months behind. Learn more, including the demographics of Americans behind on rent, in this report. Background check laws, explained  Firearm background checks are designed to stop people who aren't legally allowed to purchase a gun from buying one. However, several states have enacted laws to fill what they see as gaps in the federal restrictions. USAFacts has a primer on these laws and gaps, including: Gun buyers must submit to a background check via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The system has conducted more than 300 million checks since launching in 1998, leading to more than 3 million denials.   Federal law prohibits people convicted of felony stalking offenses from accessing guns, but people convicted of misdemeanor stalking offenses (e.g., stalking outside of a domestic relationship) can still buy firearms. This is sometimes called the "misdemeanor stalking gap." Several states have passed laws to address this. What two other firearm ownership gaps do state laws try to fill? Read about them in this explainer. One last fact  The information industry had the second-lowest quit rate at 1.4% and average earnings of $44.33 an hour in May. Financial activities reported the same quit rate and $40 hourly earnings. The government had the lowest quit rate, but average earnings are not available. For more on the great resignation, click here.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me: The City of Mesa Received $52,757,862 in May 2021 Federal American Rescue Plan Act...How Much Has Been Spent?

Just in case you missed this - and admit it you it - this is most of what happened at last Week's Mesa City Council Study Session on Thursday 08.26.2021 at 07:30 in the morning.

The Power Point Slide Presentation that took up the last half-hour of that 2-hour 'Study Session'

The Local Fiscal Recovery Funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024. A time period covering over three years is designed to provide prolonged support and recovery with the understanding that the recovery from COVID-19 will take years. The proposed options included in this report are based on input from councilmembers during our initial discussion and are designed to fit within the parameters set forth in the federal guidance. Many of these new initiatives will require additional time and resources to fully develop and deploy.  

If Council supports this initial direction, staff will further investigate and develop the listed programs. ▸ Staff will continue to bring these programs as they become more developed to Council for adjustments/adoption. 

Timing of Receipt and Use of Funds  

▸ The City has certified and received $52,757,862 from the Federal government.

 

The remaining 50% is expected to be received in May of 2022. 

▸ Eligible expenditures need to be obligated by December 31, 2024 

▸ Performance (use/payment) through December 31, 2026

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) 

▸ The President signed the $1.9T American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law in March of 2021 

▸ ARPA included $360B to establish the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds “to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease.”

FEMA $50.4B

Homeowners $10B

Airports $8B

Stimulus Checks $424B

Unemployment Insurance $246B

State and Local Fiscal Assistance $360B

Tax Credits and Aid to Families $219B

Public Health $176B E
==========================================================================

Update 

▸ Based on Council feedback staff identified projects and purchases that are consistent with the eligible uses found in the IFR. 

▸ These projects have been grouped by reporting classifications required by the Fiscal Recovery Funds: 

1. Public Health 

2. Negative Economic Impact 

3. Services to Disproportionately Impacted Community 

4. Premium Pay 

 

▸ A detailed summary of the proposed ARPA projects can be found as an attachment at end of the Council report

Public Health - $7.8M 

▸ The ARPA authorizes the use of payments from the Fiscal Recovery Funds to respond to the public health emergency and provides many ways in which the funds can be used to support communities working to reduce and respond to increased violence. 

1. PD Real Time Crime Center - $3,300,000 

2. Behavioral Health - $2,500,000 

3. Ambulance - $1,800,000 

4. PD Body Scanner and Thermal Reader - $159,000

Negative Economic Impact - $49.9M ▸

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on households and businesses. 

The Interim Final Rule (IFR) noted, “as businesses closed, consumers stayed home, schools shifted to remote education, and travel declined precipitously, over 20 million jobs were lost in March and April 2020.” 

 

1. Energy Commodity Cost- $20,000,000 

2. Food Distribution Center - $10,000,000

3. Downtown District Revitalization - $10,000,000 

4. Wi-Fi and Mobile Broadband - $6,000,000 

5. Mesa Small Business Learning Lab - $3,800,000 

6. Convention Center Floor Replacement - $145,000

Services to Disproportionately Impacted Communities - $20.7M 

▸ These programs should “alleviate the immediate economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing insecurity, while addressing conditions that contributed to poor public health and economic outcomes.” 

1. Homeless Solution - $20,000,000 

2. Recreational Programming for K-6th- $447,000 

3. Education and Enrichment Scholarships- $245,000
DETAIL:

Services to Disproportionately Impacted Community - $20,692,000

1. Homeless Solution - $20,000,000 Local Program: Provide services, infrastructure and programs to address economic impacts to housing-vulnerable, low-moderate income and homeless populations due to pandemic/COVID-19 hardships.

Focus of this investment will be on sustainable, longterm facilities and programs to help strengthen the City’s Housing Path to Recovery, namely emergency and bridge housing projects and also workforce development programs to help ‘skill up’ these same populations. Regional Partnership: Partner with Maricopa Association of Governments member cities, towns, counties and native communities to support the launching of a regionwide, outcome-based, data-driven strategy to build sustainable, regional infrastructure and programs to serve populations of homeless and households at risk of eviction due to the global pandemic. The goal of a regional approach is to share the burden regionally of addressing homelessness and to coordinate limited resources in the region for maximum community benefit for the entire region

Essential City Operations - $12.8M 

▸ “Fiscal Recovery Funds payments may be used by recipients to provide premium pay to eligible workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency…. Since the start of the COVID-19 public health emergency in January 2020, essential workers have put their physical well-being at risk to meet the daily needs of their communities and to provide care for others.” 

1. Premium Pay - $12,800,000

Future Allocation 

1. Unallocated Funding - $14,319,724 

Potential Uses: 

• Food Security Initiative 
  
• Restaurant Incubator 
  
• Rental Assistance 
  
• COVID-19 Vaccinations 
  
• Broadband Subsidy Cybersecurity
  

=================================================================

File #:

21-0869

Type:

Presentation

Status:

Agenda Ready

In control:

City Council Study Session

On agenda:

8/26/2021

Title:

Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on the City's proposed expenditure plan for the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.

Attachments:

1. Presentation, 2. Council Report

==========================================================================================================================================

American Rescue Plan Act – Local Fiscal Recovery August 26, 2021

COUNCIL REPORT 11 Pages

Date: August 26, 2021

To: City Council 

Through: Chris Brady, City Manager 

From: 

Michael Kennington, Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer

Irma Ashworth, Finance Director 

Subject: Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Discussion 

 

Purpose 

This Council report serves as a follow up to the discussion at the May 20, 2021 City Council meeting regarding the use of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds

 

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