Read SOG's blog post here
Cities and towns roughly know how much money they can expect to receive from the American Rescue Plan. How those funds can be spent, however, remains unclear.
What authority do municipalities have when spending ARP funds? What is allowed, and what is not? Guidance from the U.S. Treasury is not expected until May, yet with preparations underway, clarity on these key questions is critical.
Kara Millonzi with the UNC School of Government published a blog post Monday that aims to decipher the ARP's allowable uses as it pertains to local governments. While Millonzi notes that this is only an interpretation, the breakdown looks closely at both state law and the ARP itself, and serves as a valuable insight for local leaders.
From the post:
Aside from their expected allocation amount, local government officials want to know the purposes for which the monies may be spent and whether or not the grant of funds from the federal government is sufficient to provide North Carolina local governments expenditure authority. This blog post addresses these two issues.
Millonzi covers the most central concerns of the ARP for local governments: general state authority, ARP parameters, and specific uses--such as revenue replacement, local programs, grants to nonprofits and broadband related expenditures.
You can read the full School of Government blog post here.
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On March 23, the N.C. League hosted a webinar with the National League of Cities and a panel of experienced local leaders to examine what municipalities can expect from the ARP and, more importantly, what preparations should be taken now as it relates to accounting, reporting and staff capacity for these monies.
A recap of that webinar can be read here.