County will get $1.43 million in fed aid soon

In the coming weeks, Rappahannock County will decide how to allocate the rst tranche of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending package.

The county is expected to receive a lump sum of $1.43 million from the ARPA’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. Last week, County Administrator Garrey Curry told the News that the county was still awaiting exact details on “what the funds may or may not be used for,” but that he expected public safety and broadband would be among the supervisors top priorities.

Curry said he is still reviewing the details, as guidance was only released on Monday of this week. “As of right now, I am working on entering county information in the Treasury portal to start the process necessary to transfer funds,” he told this reporter on Tuesday a ernoon.

The spending bill provides $350 billion in direct emergency aid to local, state and tribal governments. The Commonwealth of Virginia will

receive nearly $4.3 billion in direct relief, with an additional $2.9 billion allocated to municipalities, including

Rappahannock County.

Of the $195.3 billion set aside for state governments, the ARPA earmarked $25.5 billion to be distributed equally among the 50 states and required that the remainder be allocated to each state in proportion to its “average estimated number of seasonally-adjusted unemployed individuals … over the 3-month period ending with December 2020.”

In essence, states with higher unemployment than the national average receive more money, while states with lower unemployment than the average receive less.

Allocations to county governments were based on each county’s share of the total population of all counties as of the 2019 Census.

U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine issued a joint statement earlier this week applauding the treasury’s release of funds. “We welcome the $7.2 billion in relief for Virginia and are pleased the Biden Administration has listened to our calls to give states, localities, and tribes signi cant exibility in determining how best to use these emergency funds,” the senators said.

“These funds will allow the Commonwealth

and localities to recover from the economic harm of COVID, promote public health, invest in broadband, make up for lost revenue, and address many of the other impacts of the pandemic. We will keep working with the Commonwealth and local governments to ensure Virginians receive this much-needed relief.”

Endeavoring to stimulate economic recovery a er the pandemic, the federal government has imposed only two restrictions on what municipalities can do with those dollars. It cannot be used to “directly or indirectly” subsidize tax cuts, and it can’t be used to postpone tax increases, stipulations that drew criticism from some Republican lawmakers.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, eligible uses fall into four broad categories: response to the public health crisis and economic recovery; support for workers performing essential functions during the COVID-19 pandemic; supplementing government revenue for the purpose of providing public services; and investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.