Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said last week that tough decisions must be made soon, as the city awaits a final agreement on how federal aid money will be distributed by the county and state governments.

The city didn’t receive funding directly from the CARES Act, so its fiscal fate rests with the Douglas County Board of Commission and Gov. Pete Ricketts. County and state officials indicate they plan to provide funding to Omaha, but it’s unclear how far it will go – especially given declining revenues to the city also related to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We don’t have that much longer to wait,” Stothert said at a news conference last Wednesday afternoon.

Omaha has compiled two accountings of its coronavirus-related expenses, one using U.S. Treasury guidelines and another using Ricketts’ guidelines. Under the Treasury rules, Omaha would be eligible for about $66 million. Under the state’s rules, it’s $38 million.

Before receiving CARES Act funding, Stothert said the city is seeking money from FEMA – which she said was at Ricketts’ request. She said that the FEMA application process has been “quite long.”

“Hopefully, we’ll get some good news from both FEMA and Douglas County and the State of Nebraska, but we still do not know,” Stothert said.

That uncertainty means the city must proceed with caution with its budget, Stothert said. Police overtime for the protests around the deaths of Black men in Minneapolis and Omaha have tallied between $2.5 million and $3 million, she said, which adds to the city’s financial stress.

Most city part-time staff have been furloughed, and layoffs are a possibility. The city’s public libraries still remained closed, except for some limited circulation of materials by appointment. Stothert said the Omaha Public Library has a reopening plan, but the branches will remain closed amid the uncertainty.