(1) The care subfund is created in the general fund. The subfund consists of seventy million dollars transferred to the general fund in accordance with the governor's executive order D 2020 070. Money in the subfund is subject to appropriation by the general assembly for allowable expenditures under section 42 U.S.C. 801 (d).
A state department that receives an appropriation from the care subfund shall complywith any reporting or record-keeping requirements established by the state controller or the office of state planning and budgeting for the federal funds included in the subfund.
Any money transferred from the care subfund to another cash fund is subject to thereporting and record-keeping requirements set forth in subsection (2) of this section. If as of December 30, 2020, there is any unexpended money that originated from the care subfund in another cash fund, then the state treasurer shall transfer the unexpended amount from the cash fund to the subfund prior to the transfer required in subsection (4)(a) of this section.
(a) Just prior to the close of business on December 30, 2020, any unexpended appropriations from the care subfund revert to the subfund, and the state treasurer shall transfer the final balance in the subfund to the unemployment compensation fund, created in section 877-101 (1).
(b) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:
The public health emergency caused by COVID-19 caused a historic increase in unemployment in the state and this has caused a dramatic increase in the number of claims for benefits from the unemployment compensation fund;
As a result, it is estimated that the unemployment compensation fund will have adeficit of approximately two billion dollars by the end of the fiscal year 2020-21;
These costs will not be reimbursed by the federal government, nor are they accounted for in the budget approved as of March 27, 2020;
The United States department of treasury has stated that payments to the state unemployment insurance fund are an allowable use of the money from the federal coronavirus relief fund, under section 42 U.S.C. 801 (d); and
The transfer from the care subfund to the state unemployment compensation fund isa necessary expenditure incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19.
(c) The money transferred from the care subfund is not a grant to the unemployment compensation fund under section 24-77-102 (7)(b)(III).
Source: L. 2020: Entire section added, (HB 20-1417), ch. 117, p. 489, § 1, effective June 22.