AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA)
On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law, and established the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, which together make up the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (“SLFRF”) program. This program is intended to provide support to State, territorial, local, and Tribal governments in responding to the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19 and in their efforts to contain impacts on their communities, residents, and businesses.
The final ARP plan allocated $65.1 billion to municipalities throughout the country. Connecticut towns and cities will receive $2.55 billion statewide, with $1.56 billion to general government and an additional $995 million to boards of education. Entitlement cities (those with a population over 50,000) receive funding directly from the Treasury Department and non-entitlement towns (those with a population under 50,000) are distributed by the State as a passthrough.
Local governments will receive allocations in two tranches. The first half was received in June, 2021. The second tranche are scheduled for one year later. The Town of Essex will receive a total of $1,951,568 of ARPA funds over the two tranches. A full list of the Connecticut town-by-town allocations is available in the Resources/Documentation section below.
The Town of Essex has substantial discretion to use the award funds in the ways that best suit the needs of our Town and residents – as long as such use fits into one of the following four statutory categories (various subcategories exist and are detailed in xxxxx on this webpage):
1. To respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency or its negative economic impacts;
2. To respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to such eligible workers of the recipient, or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers who performed essential work;
3. For the provision of government services, to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such recipient due to the COVID–19 public health emergency, relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the recipient prior to the emergency; and
4. To make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.