May 2020
Dept. of Transportation Monthly Newsletter
Connecting the DOTs... Hawaii Receives CARES Act Fund to Support Transit Industry During COVID-19
By: Pradip Pant
• Lost revenue is an eligible expense under the CARES Act.
Transit providers have seen a drastic decrease in ridership and revenue as a result of social distancing while incurring unplanned costs for health and safety. On March 27th, the CARES Act was signed into law providing $2 trillion in support for a variety of industries affected by COVID 19, including the transit industry. The CARES Act provides an unprecedented $25 billion in funding to support the transit industry response to COVID 19. Hawaii will receive $107.6 million. Honolulu City and County will receive the bulk of the fund at $90.8 million and the remaining three county transit agencies will collectively receive $16.8 million. The CARE Acts supplementary funds can be used to cover:
To implement this provision, FTA will reimburse any eligible expenses that occurred on or after January 20, 2020, including eligible expenses that would have otherwise been paid for by the lost revenue. This includes all of the expenses normally eligible under Urbanized Area Formula Grants (Section 5307) or the Formula Grants for Rural Areas Program (Section 5311) that occurred on or after January 20, 2020, at a 100% Federal share. • All net operating expenses (after subtracting fare revenues from the eligible operating expenses) are eligible under Section 5307 and Section 5311 for all recipients in large urban, small urban, and rural areas that are incurred on or after January 20, 2020 • Administrative leave for operations employees (including employees performing maintenance): Administrative leave is an administratively authorized absence from duty without loss of pay or reduction in an employee’s available leave. See CARES page 2
