Columbus has received its second installment of American Rescue Plan funding and is seeking to appropriate the nearly $4.3 million for upcoming projects.
Columbus City Council has approved the first reading of an ordinance to appropriate $4,285,247.50 from the city’s American Recovery Act fund. Ordinances must pass on two readings to be approved. The council’s next meeting is Sept. 6.
The ordinance states that the city would like to use the funds “for various projects that were discussed with the Columbus Common Council as part of the original American Recovery Act award in 2021.”
Columbus has been awarded a total of $8,570,495 in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
“We received half of that money last year, with a promise we would receive the second half this year,” said City Director of Finance, Operations and Risk Jamie Brinegar. “Being fiscally conservative, I only budgeted what we had remaining from our 2021 award, because I just wanted to make sure we had the money in hand before we appropriated the money.”
The second half of funding was awarded to the city on July 11, and the ordinance is for the appropriation of those funds.
Brinegar reminded officials that they saw a resolution in 2021 on how ARP funds would be spent. This included communication services related to the pandemic, grant expenditures, capital projects (as a form of revenue replacement) and miscellaneous services.
He told the Republic that approximately $4.6 million of the $8.5 million in relief funding will be spent or encumbered by the end of 2022. As part of its plans for 2023, the city expects to spend $1.2 million on capital projects, which will leave a remainder of a little under $3 million.
Before voting to approve the ordinance, Councilwoman Grace Kestler suggested that the city should take more time to consider how it spends its ARP funds, since the guidelines have become more broad. She added that they might want to look at how other communities are spending their allocations.
“I know we’ve set some aside for housing and some other things, but I know this money is also really unique in that it we can’t just spend other money as freely, maybe, or as generally as some of this,” she said.
Councilman Tom Dell replied that these conversations might come up as the city budgets for 2023.
“The really great thing about this money is that we don’t have to have it tied to a certain expenditure by the end of 2024, with it not expended ‘til 2026,” said Brinegar. “So that’s part of the reason we’ve not been in a hurry to just spend it.”
