Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday announced that the Michigan Department of Treasury has distributed more than $319 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to more than 1,650 communities in Michigan.
These ARPA dollars provided to cities, villages and townships across the state can be used to respond to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, bring back jobs, provide premium pay to essential workers, make up for lost revenue or invest in water, sewer or high-speed interest infrastructure. Local units of government have until 2024 to identify projects and obligate funds.
“This funding represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Michigan’s communities to make investments in local economies, services, infrastructure, and so much more,” Whitmer said. “I encourage our dedicated local officials to look at how they can effectively utilize these dollars to invest in aging roads and bridges, replace lead-service lines or provide broadband to underserved communities. We can use this funding to put Michiganders first and make investments today that will benefit generations to come.”
“These ARPA funds will facilitate transformative growth in Saginaw and provide opportunities to build our economy, uplift our residents, and strengthen our community,” said Brenda Moore, mayor of Saginaw.
“The American Rescue funds will allow Marquette County to address some of its local challenges and priorities such as affordable housing, homelessness, childcare challenges, as well as the opportunity to partner with others to address County wide matters,” said Marquette County Commission Board Chair Gerry Corkin. “It will also provide an opportunity to focus on long term facility infrastructure challenges that the County has not been able to fund. These dollars will be spent in many different ways that will benefit Marquette County, its business, and residents.”
In total, ARPA will allocate more than $644 million in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to Michigan’s smaller communities. The U.S. Department of Treasury will release the second half of the award to Michigan in mid-2022, providing communities a second payment once the funds are received from federal government and appropriated by the legislature.
The U.S. Treasury Department is responsible for directly distributing $1.80 billion to 49 Michigan metropolitan cities and townships and $1.93 billion to all 83 Michigan counties. The state of Michigan is responsible for distributing federal ARPA dollars to smaller cities, villages and townships, known as Non-Entitlement Units (NEUs) of Local Government.
The Michigan Department of Treasury worked with local government partners and NEUs through webinars, phone calls and certified letters to ensure local officials wouldn’t miss the opportunity to claim their allotted federal funds. This summer, the Michigan Legislature passed and Whitmer signed into law the bill that appropriated the funds.
Local units of government that have yet to claim their funds still have time to do so. A completed, error-free application must be received by 4 p.m. on January 12.
“I am pleased by the efforts taken by my staff and our local government partners to get these federal dollars into the pockets of our local communities,” State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks said. “Local units of government should take their time to plan to use these dollars in a viable and sustainable manner that will have a lasting impact. The Michigan Department of Treasury continues to be a resource for helping local officials navigate through the ARPA process.”
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The U.S. Treasury Department is responsible for providing rules on how local units of government can spend their ARPA dollars.
Details about the state Treasury Department disbursements to NEUs is available. To learn more about the program, go to Michigan.gov/ARPA.
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