Funds from the American Rescue Plan will help Miami lead the way out of pandemic

Under the CARES ACT, passed by President Trump one year ago, the city of Miami received zero dollars from the federal government — nothing. Under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP), Miami will receive $139 million over the next year. This. Is. Huge.

And Miami is not alone. Every city in Florida with more than 50,000 residents will get its share. Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and others will see millions in much-needed funding that will spark spending and economic growth.

This is because Biden, and every Democrat in the House and Senate, recognized that cities are on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cities are providing COVID-19 recovery services, testing, home-based vaccines, food giveaways, rental assistance and much more. It is cities that are incurring significant fiscal expenses, while also enduring tragic personal losses. Our municipal employees are at the greatest risk. In the city of Miami alone, more than 1,000 city employees have contracted COVID-19. That’s a quarter of our workforce, primarily police, fire, parks and solid-waste employees, the people that make our cities run day in and day out. To add insult to injury, Gov. DeSantis required in-person commission meetings, but didn’t allow those who work in these meetings to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, our municipal budgets have been decimated by COVID-19, resulting in millions in lost revenue, affecting staffing and services.

Now that it is time to recover, cities are being empowered to fuel the engine that will get us back on the road. The municipal provisions of the American Rescue

Plan are broad and generous. With $139 million coming to Miami, we can patch gaps in our local budgets, ensuring a continuity of residential services — from permit filing to pothole filling. We can create smallbusiness recovery programs that are laserfocused on helping momand-pop shops instead of large corporations. We can provide much-needed rental assistance that supports both tenants and landlords alike.

There is even an infrastructure provision in the plan to enact job-creating projects that will make our cities more resilient. With the ARP, we can charge out of this pandemic with optimism and a will to thrive.

The municipal provision of the ARP was not by chance. It survived strong opposition and the misnomer of a “Blue City bailout.” Over the past year, I worked with leaders of Florida’s AFSCME general employees labor union to advocate for this municipal funding. As the Florida Democratic Party’s chairman of the Municipal Victory Program — MVP — I hosted roundtable Zoom meetings with dozens of elected municipal leaders from around the state to discuss how to budget during a pandemic-driven economic crisis and cut costs without firing valuable city employees. We pooled our efforts to advocate for the American Rescue Plan.

Cities across the country passed resolutions of support without any partisan squabbles or divides. My resolution at the Miami Commission supporting the passage of the ARP passed unanimously on our nonpartisan (but predominantly conservative) dais. That’s because local elected officials are here to solve problems and deliver for our residents. This is much more important than standing on one side or the other of the political aisle.

Unfortunately, Republicans representing us in Congress voted to reject the American Rescue Plan: Carlos Gimenez, Maria Elvira Salazar, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott all voted No. Local elected officials know better. We know what cities need to bounce back, and we’re thankful that Biden and Vice President Harris, who visited Jacksonville earlier this week to discuss ARP efforts with local leaders, have included us in the recovery.

Local government may not be perfect, but perhaps the federal government could learn a little something from city leaders now and then.