Borough cancels plans for small individual grants, citing new federal guidance

Disclosure: KTNA is a grantee of the Mat-Su Borough’s small business and non-profit grant program.

The Mat-Su Borough is canceling plans for an individual grant program after receiving new federal guidance.

The plan was for the borough to pay its residents $100 to help offset additional costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Residency was to be verified through the state’s Permanent Fund Dividend records from 2019 after an application period.

That application period was supposed to start Monday, but the borough’s CARES Act website now reads that the program will not be going forward after new guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Treasury last week.

The borough’s small business and non-profit grant program is continuing, with the fourth application period open through Friday.  As of Monday afternoon, the borough has issued more than seven-and-a-half million dollars in grants.

The small business grants were initially allocated more than thirteen million dollars, and the individual grants were budgeted for more than ten million dollars.  Unless there is an extension from Congress, the Mat-Su Borough has to decide how to spend its remaining CARES Act funds on approved expenses before the end of the year or else give back the remaining money.