Metro Atlanta governments discuss how to allocate COVID-19 relief funds

ATLANTA - Metro Atlanta will receive millions of dollars from President Biden's American Rescue Plan. Now, local governments must decide how they plan to spend that money.

Fulton County government officials said they expected to receive around $206 million from the relief package.

Business owners like Brandon Tonge, who owns Lemonade Event Productions, said the last year has caused business to slow down substantially.

"If you are not earning money from those events then you're not feeding your family," said Tonge, "It really hit us hard, especially during social distancing and things of that nature."

On Sunday, Fulton County Commissioner Kahdijah Abdur-Rahman met with small businesses in Atlanta that have been hit hard by the pandemic.

"The small business owner is the bloodline of the economy, and if we don't do something for the small business owner, we're going to find ourselves in a deep, deep recession," said Fulton County Commissioner Abdur-Rahman

Commissioner Abdur-Rahman said she is sponsoring a resolution that accepts the money from the American Rescue Plan and helps decide how to use that money.

"You got small business owners that are really, really trying to keep their doors open. A lot of them have sent people home," said Abdur-Rahman.

Abdur-Rahman said her resolution will also call for every Fulton County employee to get a raise. She also told FOX 5 she would like to see some of the money be put towards a youth jobs program.

"We've had issues with the water boys. We've got to find something for our summer youth to do," said Abdur-Rahman.

Part of the resolution will also call for the relief money to be used for mortgage relief to help struggling Fulton County homeowners.

"As this money starts coming in, it really will be a lifeline to a lot of people, especially small businesses in the community," said Tonge.

The Fulton County Board of Commission is expected to talk about how to use the relief money at a meeting on Wednesday.

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