Careful With The Cash-Commissioners Plan For Federal Stimulus

Doug Emhoff, the husband of the Vice President is supposed to visiting Yakima today. He is of course a political dignitary and as such, in the course of normal events, the County's elected officials would be introduced in a meet and greet gathering. But his time - not so fast.

Is it concern for COVID or partisan politics that has limited the invite list so as not to include Commissioner Amanda McKinney.

Regardless, she's not on the list and frankly she's ok with that! The pre-event media indicated the Second Gentleman would be visiting the County's mass vaccine site.

McKinney says Yakima County was short changed in the State's distribution of COVID vaccine and she thinks politics was likely at play, but she is thankful that the Feds saw the need for a vaccine center for Yakima and the necessary doses were made available. From the Governor's website:

"The Yakima Valley has been selected for a six-week federal mass vaccination program that will used fixed and mobile operations to administer more than 1,000 doses a day....the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had approved the application from the state and the Yakima County Health District...This joint effort will include a fixed, drive-thru vaccination site at Central Washington State Fair Park as well as mobile vaccination units. Through this partnership, vaccination capacity at this location will expand from approximately 200 vaccines per day to 1,200 vaccines per day between the fixed, drive-thru site and mobile units."

The Commissioner is still frustrated by a lack of open and regular communication with the Governor's office but says she hasn't heard anything yet about the rumored possibility of a return to Phase Two restrictions for the region. She doesn't rule out the prospect of a "pause" decision by the Governor despite the increasing number of people with vaccinations and the fact that other states are opening up.

The Federal Government's American Rescue plan will send nearly 50 million dollars to the County by McKinney says the commissioner haven't been given any details about the "strings" that always come with federal programs. She does say that her plan would be to use some of the money to replenish the County's reserve account.

Categories: Coronavirus updates, Politics, Yakima News