Local governments are spending billions of pandemic relief funds, but some report few specifics
Joplin officials say they have big plans for $13.8 million of pandemic relief funds the tornado-ravaged southwestern Missouri city received under a twoyear-old federal law. Yet the latest federal records show none of the money has been spent — or even budgeted.
In fact, about 6,300 cities and counties — nearly 1 in 4 nationwide — reported no expenditures as of this spring, according to an Associated Press analysis of data released by the U.S. Treasury Department. About 5,100 of those listed no projects — either planned or underway.
So what gives? Is the money not needed? Are cities just sitting on it?
Local and federal officials told the AP in interviews that the publicly available data is misleading — pockmarked by differing interpretations over exactly what must be reported, lagging in timeliness and failing to account for some preliminary planning. Critics contend it’s an indication of a flawed pandemic response.
Federal officials estimate that governments have spending commitments for more than 80% of the funds, even if that’s hard to tell from their reporting requirements.
Joplin, for example, plans to spend its pandemic aid on housing projects, high-speed internet, streets, a bicycle park, public safety equipment and more. The City Council approved the plan last month. But it won’t show up on federal reports until October.
The city, which was devastated in 2011 by one of deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history, took a deliberate approach with its pandemic aid to develop “really transformational projects,” said Leslie Haase, the city’s finance director.
Over the past couple years, it leveraged the pandemic aid to win millions of additional dollars of state grants. With the combined funds, it plans to relaunch an expired post-tornado program that helps people make down-payments on homes. The city also plans to spend millions of dollars to repair or demolish old houses.
“I think by the time 2026 rolls around, Joplin will be a better community,” Haase said.
The $1.9 trillion American
Rescue Plan — passed in 2021 by a Democraticled Congress and signed by President Joe Biden — contained $350 billion of flexible aid to states, territories, tribes, counties, cities and towns. The Biden administration says the money was intended to provide both immediate aid amid a health crisis and a longer-term boost for communities.
Governments must obligate that money for projects by the end of next year and spend it by the close of 2026.
As of their April reports, more 26,500 governments collectively had spent 43% of their funds and approved plans for spending 77% of the money, according to the AP’S analysis.
The actual amount of spending commitments likely is well over 80% when accounting for lag times and different reporting approaches taken by local governments, said Gene Sperling, the White House American Rescue Plan coordinator
“What you see across the country is that counties, cities, states overwhelmingly have committed these funds, are using them, are on track to meet their legal deadlines to have all the funds obligated by the end of 2024,” Sperling said.
But Republicans and fiscal conservatives have questioned whether the spending is necessary, noting that most states rebounded quickly from an initial tax plunge during the pandemic to post large budget surpluses.
“Although the Left claimed their $2 trillion bill was designed to fight COVID, they wasted hundreds of billions of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars on ridiculous things,” Republican U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement to the AP.
Among other things, the money helped finance an upscale hotel in Florida, a minor league baseball stadium in New York and prisons in Alabama — drawing outrage from some members of Congress.
Some governments waited to do anything with the money until the Treasury Department finalized its rules in April 2022. Details are lacking on how some governments are using their funds because the Treasury relaxed reporting requirements for any money categorized by state or local officials as a replacement for lost revenues.