On Monday, Gov. Inslee announced that the state will create a $40 million Immigrant Relief Fund “to assist Washington residents who are unable to access federal stimulus programs due to their immigration status” and a $3 million Food Production Paid Leave Program for “certain food production workers who remain home when ill.”

According to the request for proposals for the Immigrant Relief Fund, the $40 million will come from the state’s share of the federal coronavirus relief fund (CRF). Not much information has been released about the Food Production Paid Leave Program, but the Seattle Times suggests that its funding is also coming from the CRF.

Additionally, last week the Office of Financial Management (OFM) made two more distributions from Washington’s share of the CRF:

• $10 million for the Dept. of Social and Health Services “to continue funding the Disaster Cash Assistance Program to support individuals who face an emergency and do not have the money to meet their basic needs.”
• $3 million for the Dept. of Corrections to help it “in closing out the 2020 fiscal year by covering the cost of [its] COVID-19 response activities, including equipment and supplies, staff positions and overtime costs, and other coronavirus response resources and supports.”

Assuming the $43 million for the two new funds is also distributed from the CRF money, the state will have about $1.372 billion left.

OFM has also allocated $500,000 for the Office of the Attorney General “to address the backlog of cases related to the eviction moratorium extended in Proclamation 20-19.2.” These funds come from the $200 million that was appropriated from the state rainy day fund earlier this year. After this allocation, there is $3.3 million left of this state appropriation.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has updated its CRF frequently asked questions document to specify that states may use their CRF payments to meet matching requirements related to the president’s recent memorandum on lost wages assistance. Treasury also notes that if governments us the CRF for a grant program supporting businesses, those grants would be considered taxable gross income for the business.