Towns to receive equal shares of Pinal block grant funding
by Mark Cowling | Apache Junction Central
Eloy, Florence, Mammoth and Maricopa will receive an equal share of federal Community Development Block Grant funding for the next two years, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors has decided.
The board last month delayed action on a plan for distributing the money amid concerns that Mammoth was due to receive so little. The proposal before the board at that time would have distributed the grant based 25% on population, 50% on poverty and 25% on housing needs. Mammoth, with only 1,600 people, would have received only about 5% of the allocation.
To give Mammoth a bigger share, Florence proposed a minimum of $100,000 for each community, with the rest distributed according to the formula. But Wendy Gort of Mammoth told the board March 11 that would still leave Mammoth with the short end “because of our population.”
