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Resources and Key Topics

Technical Assistance Cheat Sheet: Sample Policies, Resources, Examples and More

Since the passage of the American Rescue Plan, many organizations have provided valuable resources, guidance, templates, sample policies and more to help cities and towns navigate this generational opportunity. 

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For your convenience we have aggregated them in a single place. They can be found here. 

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These include:

  • The 5 ARP Policies Your Town Must Pass

  • Treasury Guidance

  • Reporting Tutorials

  • Templates for Important Procedures

  • And more

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Key Provisions
Key Provisions

As a leader in your community, you know best what is needed for your city or town. We are here to help by providing the resources and assistance needed.

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Below, you will find a brief explainer on a number of topics critical to cities and towns

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  • Small Business Relief

  • Broadband

  • Water and Wastewater

  • Local Investment

  • Mental Health and Substance Abuse

  • Unemployment

  • Transit

  • Affordable Housing

  • Emergency Rental Assistance

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For a full list of ARP provisions, you can read the NCSL's summary here.

Small Business Relief

What the ARP Provides:

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  • $10 billion for the SSBCI to help states support small businesses as they recover from the pandemic

  • $15 billion in new funding for Targeted EIDL grants

  • $28.6 billion in direct relief to the restaurant industry

  • $1.25 billion for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program

  • PPP eligibility is expanded, as is the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC)

Broadband

What the ARP Provides:

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  • Funds provided directly to municipalities can be used for expenses related to broadband.

  • Additionally, the ARP provides more than $7 billion to the Federal Communications Commission to help schools and libraries ensure that students can fully participate in remote learning.

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Water and Wastewater

What the ARP Provides:

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  • Funds provided directly to municipalities can be used for water and wastewater expenses.

  • Additionally, the law includes $4.5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and $500 million for low-income water assistance.

Local Investments

What the ARP Provides:

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  • Local, direct fiscal relief funds from the ARP can be used for local economic recovery purposes, including:

    • Assistance to households, small businesses and nonprofits

    • Assistance to hard-hit industries like tourism, travel, and hospitality

    • Infrastructure investment

Mental Health and Substance Abuse

What the ARP Provides:

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  • $3.88 billion to expand on the investments made in the year-end 2020 package to increase availability of treatment

Unemployment

What the ARP Provides:

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  • Extension of the federal unemployment insurance bump that is added to all unemployment benefits at the current law amount of $300 

  • Extensions of program that expands unemployment eligibility for the self-employed, gig workers, freelancers and others in non-traditional employment

  • Makes additional weeks of benefits available to workers who exhaust their state benefits

Transit

What the ARP Provides:

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  • $30.4 billion of relief funding to transit agencies to prevent layoffs of transit workers and prevent severe cuts to transit services (provided as formula grants based on operating costs) 

  • Additional funding to support ongoing transit construction projects

  • Additional funding to preserve intercity bus service

Affordable Housing

What the ARP Provides:

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  • $100 million in housing counseling

  • $5 billion for assistance for people experiencing homelessness

  • $5 billion for emergency housing vouchers

  • $100 million for rural rental assistance

  • $9.9 billion for mortgage and utility assistance

  • Additional funding for fair housing organizations

Emergency Rental Assistance

What the ARP Provides:

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  • $21.55 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance to augment $25 billion in funding provided to states, localities, and territories in December 2020 relief package

Reporting Requirements and Deadlines
Reporting Requirements

Updated Aug. 10

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UNC School of Government professor and resident ARP expert Kara Millonzi has published a helpful blog post on reporting requirements and deadlines for both metro and non-metro municipalities in North Carolina. 

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As Millonzi notes, according to US Treasury, the guiding principles of the reporting requirements are accountability, transparency, and user-friendliness. To that end, there are three categories of report. Which reports need to be completed depends on the type and size of local government and amount of total ARP funding received. 

 

Millonzi's post looks at all three types of report, and the deadlines for each. It serves as a helpful guide for all local governments in North Carolina.

 

Read the entire post here.  

Using ARP Funds to Incentivize Employee Vaccination
Incentivize

Updated Aug. 18

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UNC School of Government professor and resident ARP expert Kara Millonzi has published a helpful blog post on an increasingly pressing topic: encouraging vaccinations.

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Millonzi writes, "There is broad state law authority for NC counties and municipalities to provide vaccination incentive rewards to current employees as employee fringe benefits... The ARP presents a slightly more complicated analysis."

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You can read the entire post here.  

Revenue Loss Calculator
Revenue Loss Calculator

One eligible use of ARP funds for cities and towns is the replacement of lost revenue.

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The law, when listing eligible uses, reads: 

 

"For the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county due to the COVID–19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county prior to the emergency."

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To determine the what would have happened in absence of the pandemic, cities, towns, and villages, will use a predetermined growth rate of 4.1% or the average annual growth rate over the three full fiscal years prior to the pandemic. Recipients should calculate the extent of the reduction in revenue as of four points in time: December 31, 2020; December 31, 2021; December 31, 2022; and December 31, 2023.

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Steps to Calculating Lost Revenue

  1. Identify the revenue collected in the most recent full fiscal year prior to the pandemic (i.e. Jan. 27, 2020). This is the base year.

  2. Estimate the growth rate your city, town, or village would have experienced using either 4.1% or the average annual revenue growth in the three full fiscal years prior to the public health emergency, whichever is higher.

  3. Identity actual revenue collected over the past 12 months.

  4. Lost revenue is equal to the expected growth rate less actuals. If actuals exceed expected, then set the figure to zero.

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Calculator

To aid in this calculation process, two outlets have published detailed calculators to help local governments.

The most detailed calculator has been created by the Government Finance Officers Association, which can be viewed here. Additionally, NLC has published a Revenue Loss Calculator, which can be downloaded here. 

Sample Grant Project Ordinance
Sample Grant Project Ordinance

Updated June 23

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The UNC School of Government has published a helpful Sample Grant Project Ordinance for the budgeting of American Rescue Plan funds. 

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That template can be downloaded at the link below. Additional information on accepting funds, managing funds and budgeting funds can be found here. 

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