At the Anchorage Assembly
meeting Tuesday night, Budget and Finance Co-Chairs Austin Quinn-Davidson and
Meg Zaletel announced that the Municipality has received nearly $25 million in FEMA reimbursement payments in the last month and made the following statement:
"At last week’s meeting of
the Budget and Finance Committee, we received really good news from Alden Thern
in the Finance Department who is overseeing our FEMA reimbursements. Mr. Thern,
who has worked for the Municipality since 2015, and his team have done a
tremendous job in recovering our expenses from the 2018 earthquake and the
COVID emergency response.
At the most recent count last week, we have submitted 95% of our COVID
expenses, and of those, 73% have now been obligated by FEMA, which means they have
paid or promised to pay those funds. Over the past year, we have seen a steady
stream of expenses submitted, obligated and then paid. Last month, we received
payments of $24.9 million and the latest calculation is that we will recoup the
costs for all but $68,000 of the $126.5 million COVID response (leaving only
0.00005% of the total expense to the city unreimbursed).
To put this into perspective, because of the Municipality’s strong financial
health, we were able to put in all of the resources needed to address the
biggest crisis of a generation, including testing, vaccines, protective gear
and sheltering for people experiencing homelessness, and within three years, we
have been made almost whole again.
This is no small feat, and we wish to extend a heartfelt thank you and
congratulations to Mr. Thern and his team for your commitment to the
Municipality and your work to safeguard municipal finances. This is the good
work Anchorage deserves from their city, and the Municipality is incredibly
lucky to have dedicated public servants like you with a wealth of knowledge and
a passion for making our city a better place."
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CONTACT
Austin
Quinn-Davidson | District 3
austin.quinn-davidson@anchorageak.gov
Meg Zaletel | District
4
meg.zaletel@anchorageak.gov