CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland is set to receive $511 million in federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act and is generating ideas on how to spend the money.
The city recently announced an online portal to collect ideas from the public for residents to submit their ideas.
As part of the infusion of federal dollars, the city has launched the ReStart Cleveland initiative, which the city says has the following three goals:
- To minimize the suffering and burden of people and businesses in our community who have been impacted by COVID;
- To better position all people and businesses in our community to take advantage of the recovery
- To make sure all people are better off as a result of the recovery efforts we undertake so that we can become a more equitable community.
The city said that the funds have to be spent by Dec. 31, 2024, and can be used for items such as public health response, replacing public sector revenue loss, providing direct aid to or infrastructure.
Along with the city, Cuyahoga County is also looking for ideas to spend its share of American Rescue Plan Act Funds.
ARPA was signed into law on March 11 by President Joe Biden after it passed through Congress without GOP support. The bill faced criticism as Republicans claimed the bill was not targeted to those who needed stimulus funds.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, $350 billion of the $1.9 trillion in ARPA will go to state and local governments.