COVID-19 has presented some unique problems.
The Greensboro City Council spent over an hour at the Thursday, Aug. 12 work session discussion on how it could spend the $59.4 million it will receive in American Rescue Plan funding.
The city’s actual loss of revenue and additional expenses due to the COVID-19 restrictions have largely been covered by other funds, so the $59.4 million is federal money the city has to decide how to use and then spend by Dec. 31, 2026.
Having nearly $60 million in largely unrestricted federal funds is a unique problem for the Greensboro City Council.
However, it is not a unique problem for local governments. Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said he participated in a weekly Zoom meeting with representatives from peer cities to discuss how ARP money could be spent and the various processes being used.
Davis said that according to the formula provided by the US Treasury Department, Greensboro suffered a loss of $30 million due to COVID restrictions. According to the report, AFP recipients have a “broad latitude to use these funds to provide government services. So a little more than half the $59.4 million can be spent on most services that the city provides.
The other $29 million has to be spent on “Specific Eligible Uses.”
Those uses are listed as “Public Health, Economic Impacts, Premium Pay” and “Infrastructure.”
The administrative cost of spending the money is also an eligible expense.
Davis said that the city could spend money in “qualified Census tracts,” which in Greensboro is what Davis referred to as “the fire crescent.” The area is also called the “crime crescent” or the “poverty crescent.” It stretches from the northeast through east Greensboro to the southwest.
Davis said that funds spent in this area were “eligible on their face.”
Funding for food, rent mortgage, utility assistance, job training and direct cash payments are all eligible expenses in this area.
Funds can also be used for equity investments in disadvantaged communities and to address community infrastructure disparities.
ARP funds can also be used for loans or grants to small businesses and nonprofits.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, “I’d like to see us put this up on our website and get some input from the public.”
Vaughan added, “Its lot of money and I want to make sure that a lot of voices are heard.”
This is a HUGE sum of money.
“ Funding for food, rent mortgage, utility assistance, job training and direct cash payments are all eligible expenses in this area.”
I would love to see monies sent directly to landlord who have suffered mightily while the Biden Administration violates the Constitution.
I think a large amount of this $59.4 MILLION would be well spent by paying existing businesses to Intern or Apprentice disadvantaged youth and young men and women.
Let’s see if our Council is bright enough to administer such a program or if they just divide it among themselves as they’ve done in the past.
How about spending it in the “bad roads cresent”? The roads here are now worse that those in Durham, which is the armpit of the State.
Of course they will spend it for residents on the East side. Those of us on the West side are assumed rich and able to afford everything. Guess what City Council, there are many of us on the West side that are poor, jobless, disabled and need help. Never assume, but Hightower will get everything for the East side. Council, it’s time you look at the City as a whole. The whole City is suffering. Poor and needy are all over the city. And white people also are needy. Don’t let Hightower take over the available funds. She out argues you every time.
Exactly. The money should be returned to the taxpayers whose money it actually is, based on the percentage they were taxed in the first place. They are the ones who paid the money to the Federal Government in the first place, so the government could send it to the City, so the City could mess around figuring out how to spend the windfall. Give it back to the people it belongs to (and I say this as a County resident).
Out arguing Nancy Vaughn is not a positive for anybody. She has to be one of the worst mayors any city has ever elected. March can’t come fast enough.
G I V E I T B A C K !
It’s obvious the clowns don’t know how to appropriate funds, and there is no free money.
“ARP funds can also be used for loans or grants to small businesses and nonprofits” and also “to address community infrastructure disparities.”
We all know what that means. . . . more “mu nay” for Yvonne and her list of 501c(3) charities.
How about the orange cones on West Market? How about the numerous pot-holes in our city? How about the weeds growing up on sidewalks and streets? How about some “tax” relief for the citizens?
This is all about a transfer of wealth from those who create it, we citizens, or borrow for it (e.g., the Federal Reserve), and not about taxpayers who pay taxes. . . . .which goes into the pockets of those on the council.
The way money is allocated and spend in Greensboro proves that there will never be “all people are equal here” because All people are not treated equally. There is no doubt that there must be white men making decisions for ALL of us. The City Council is NOT balanced equally for ALL people here in Greensboro.