President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) into law March 11, and it allocated $350 billion to help local governments with pains caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The law directs that the first round of funding must be sent by mid-May, the second half will be sent a year later and communities have until the end of 2024 to spend it.
Last week, Yellen’s department released some guidelines for the direct distribution of money to states, counties and local jurisdictions with 50,000 or more residents. The treasury’s plan also allocates $843.7 million to Ohio for distribution to “non-entitlement” entities or smaller jurisdictions below the 50,000 population threshold.
Townships were included in the version that passed the U.S. House but not the Senate version the president signed. Ohio Township Association Director of Governmental Affairs Marisa Myers told the Journal-News there was a definition change for “non-entitlement unit of local government” that apparently changed the funding formula.
U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, who along with his Republican colleagues opposed the legislation, said he and the other lawmakers who signed the letter to Yellen will be “surprised” if she adds townships to the funding formula.
“I hope that she says, you know, ‘We’re going to do what’s good for the economy and we’re going to do it in a consistent way,’” Davidson said.
Davidson has said the money should have been given to the states to divvy up amongst local jurisdictions rather than the distributions determined in Washington.
Butler County’s direct allocation is nearly $75 million, and the county commissioners have said they are willing to share if the townships remain excluded.
“It needs to be done in a highly focused way to projects that truly going to make a long-term difference,” said Commissioner Cindy Carpenter. “I don’t want to see this $74 million chipped away at a little bit here a little bit there.”
Some townships had trouble spending the first allocation of coronavirus relief funding known as the CARES Act last year, because of the tight timelines and restrictions on the money. The county auditor’s office said College Corner, Jacksonburg and Millville didn’t accept the money.
This new money can be used to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on households and businesses, non-profits and other industries; grant premium pay for essential workers, government or to employers dealing with the pandemic; revenue loss due to the pandemic and investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.
The Journal-News reached out to townships, which are unhappy the funds apparently cannot be used for roads, which could stimulate the economy. In Liberty Twp. the trustees would want to have money to put into the proposed Millikin Road interchange at Interstate 75, which could be worth $388 million in new investment.
A very preliminary breakdown of distributions that included townships showed Liberty Twp. could get $7.3 to $8.8 million. Trustee Tom Farrell hopes the CARES Act leniency that came later in rules for that money extends to these funds.
“The stimulation of the economy can be giving it to local businesses, giving it to infrastructure, controlling costs internally,” Farrell said. “There’s a lot of things it can be used for if they give us the flexibility.”
Ross Twp. had about $500,000 in CARES Act funding and carried over $235,000 into this year. Fiscal Officer Julie Joyce-Smith said it has about $25,000 still unspent.The preliminary estimate for ARP funds showed Ross Twp. would received $1.6 to $1.9 million. Joyce-Smith said she isn’t certain they could spend it all.
“I’ve been taking a very conservative approach on how we spend the money and I’m not anxious for an audit two years down the road,” she said. “I’ve told my folks no on some things, they said other entities are doing it, well just cause they’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s right.”
A couple of the small townships, namely Hanover, Madison, Ross and possibly St. Clair, said they could use the funds to expand broadband to their outer areas.
“We get a lot of complaints about the extension of internet and while we have no authority over that, we thought we could come up with project and work with the vendors in the area to extend that service to people who really need it,” Hanover Twp. Administrator Bruce Henry said.
Madison Twp. Trustee President Brian McGuire said this money “could be a game changer” but they only spend windfalls like this on one-time expenses, not things that require ongoing investment like salaries.
“We will use every dime we can,” he said. “I wish we could use it for anything we wanted to.”
Morgan Twp. Administrator/Fire Chief Jeff Galloway said he is scheduled to participate in a webinar by the state Office of Budget and Management to get clarification on the new money if there is any. If there is, they already have projects earmarked. About the CARES money he said “we spent everything but 2 cents.”
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