Friends eat first

John Bel went ahead and signed a Republican bill to scheme money out of the state's CARES act federal allowance and pass it out to friends and supporters.... er... "small businesses."

Edwards agreed to the legislation despite publicly arguing that after using $1 billion to plug state budget holes, the other $811 million should go to local governments to offset coronavirus expenses.

Instead, $300 million of that money will now go to small businesses through a program managed by Republican Treasurer John Schroder, who has frequently butted heads with Edwards. The other $511 million will still be available for local governments.

It's bad enough that localities are as restricted as they are in the use of these funds in the first place. A city government has to apply its portion to "COVID related expenses" but the feds have said this cannot mean lost revenue resulting from the shut down. John Schroder's grantees (or anyone he hires to do the granting) won't have any such concern.

Legislative leaders have said they expect the program to get off the ground quickly to send money to businesses. Schroder’s office is required to submit a proposal for distributing grants to lawmakers by June 20, and to announce the date the program will begin on July 1. Schroder is also allowed to use up to 5%, or $15 million, of the fund for administrative expenses, a sticking point for opponents. Backers of the bill argued he would not end up using that much.

Municipal governments are still waiting on a mythical "Phase IV" COVID relief action from congress, although that seems less and likely as Washington moves toward more of a full-on "Get used to it" policy.  But there is still some chance that the rules concerning the money already allocated might be loosened.  Which is why it's a better idea for the state to send it on now rather than just allow politicians to give it away.

Or worse.  Maybe something like this is in the works.

At least four members of Congress have reaped benefits in some way from the half-trillion-dollar small-business loan program they helped create.

And no one knows how many more there could be.

It’s a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have acknowledged close ties to companies that have received loans from the program — businesses that are either run by their families or employ their spouse as a senior executive.

How many legislators who carved out this fund for aggrieved business owners might also consider themselves to be among that number.  Will Schroder get to decide that too?