Ferndale: Stimulus may help city cover lost parking funds, other expenditures
Ferndale is expected to get close to $2 million in funding from the federal $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
City Manager Joseph Gacioch said he has not received any formal notification on the amount, but expects the money will total somewhere between $1.5 to $2 million.
Michigan counties, townships and cities are getting a total of $4.4 billion, while the state government will rake in close to $6 billion.
“This is an extremely important program for local governments like ours,” Gacioch said.
Aside from legacy pension costs and some other expenses, cities like Ferndale are allowed a wide range of options in how to spend the money.
“Our first priority is budget stabilization,” Gacioch said.
Ferndale’s downtown parking revenues are down $1.5 million since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Michigan last year.
Parking revenues are used to make the annual $1.5 million payments on the $20 million bond the city has for the dot, a parking deck designed as a mixed-use development on Troy Street.
“Without those parking revenues, we have to find other ways to meet our debt obligations,” Gacioch said.
That means the money to make payments could potentially have to come from the city’s general fund, or making cuts in some city programs.
But the city in the past year has also lost money because building permits are down and the city has waived online fees for people doing business
with the city, Gacioch said.
The pandemic has created financial shortfalls for nearly all local governments.
Gacioch said the American Rescue Plan funds are a lifeline for Ferndale because it allows the City Council and staff to decide how to use the money to offset losses caused by COVID-19.
“We’ve had a lot of revenue impacts from the pandemic,” he said. “And this money gives us the discretion on how to replace those lost revenues.”
Beyond debt from parking, Ferndale officials have been looking at a number of other areas where the city wants to make investments.
Those other areas include reducing the effects and causes of climate change, increasing mobility beyond motor vehicle traffic, and investing in parks.
Ferndale officials are expected to begin discussions on how to best use the stimulus funds at the City Council’s public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. April 12.