Flooded with cash after Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act last year, state and local governments have devised some creative ways of spending their stimulus funds.
A number of state and local governments experienced budget surpluses in 2021 after bringing in higher-than-expected levels of revenue.
Colorado, for example, took in $3.3 billion in revenue from state taxes above what was expected and heading into this year had an additional $2.6 billion in untapped relief funds to spend as well.
HOW HAVE STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SPENT THEIR AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN RELIEF FUNDS?
California is projected to finish the fiscal year with a budget surplus north of $50 billion thanks to state income and corporate taxes.
The state of California received $26 billion from President Joe Biden’s signature partisan spending bill, and local governments within the state divided up another $16 billion in stimulus money.
The ARP doled out $350 billion to state and local governments in what was described at the time as emergency relief funding.
The Treasury Department placed few limits on what recipients could spend the money on, giving states and cities the flexibility to tailor their programs to local needs.
Some states, entertaining what to do with their surpluses, looked to give money back to taxpayers.
Georgia lawmakers voted earlier this year to use some of their state’s budget surplus on a tax refund for Georgians who filed in 2020 and 2021.
Their tax rebate would send single filers $250, heads of households $375, and married couples $500 checks.
Texas Republican lawmakers have advanced a bill that would spend $3 billion of the state’s relief funds on property tax refunds to homeowners — more than 5 million of whom would receive $525 checks under the proposal.
Local governments that received ARP funding were required to file reports to the federal government that detailed how they plan to allocate their share of the stimulus. Virtually all used at least some of the funding on the kinds of COVID-19 relief efforts that lawmakers advertised when negotiating the size of the relief bill, according to the Brookings Institution, which tracks the spending reports.
Many cities created job training and placement programs for people who lost their livelihoods due to pandemic-related closures.
Others used significant portions of their relief funds to replace revenue losses and fund city services, such as by shoring up their police and fire departments. Still others invested heavily in expanding internet access, addressing homelessness, and providing support for small businesses still struggling to get back on their feet.
But many local governments spent vast sums of money on matters unrelated to COVID-19 or the secondary effects of pandemic restrictions.
Buffalo, New York, plans to spend $23 million on a “state-of-the-art athletic area for students,” for example, outfitting the new facility with playgrounds, a pool, and a field.
Duchess County, New York, plans to overhaul a Minor League Baseball stadium, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades, for upward of $12 million.
Further west, in Texas, the city of Dallas submitted plans for a $2 million program to distribute home garden kits for people to grow healthy foods.
Boston officials plan to use $1.1 million of the stimulus money for a marketing campaign called “All Inclusive Boston,” which the city said aims to “[draw] a more diverse audience of visitors” to Boston.
The city plans to use another $3 million of its funding for a green jobs youth program.
Officials in Broward County, Florida, have faced scrutiny over their enormous investment in a new luxury hotel after they spent $140 million on the new complex.
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Despite the surpluses of cash sitting in state and local coffers, the White House has continued to request more emergency COVID-19 funding in recent weeks, citing the depletion of federal funds for booster shots and testing kits.
House Democrats quashed an effort earlier this month to pay for the administration’s latest request — in large part with unspent ARP funds in states and cities.
