What Birmingham Will Get From $350 Billion American Rescue Plan

Birmingham AL

12 May, 2021

10:30 AM

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BIRMINGHAM, AL — The U.S. Department of Treasury on Monday released a breakdown of what kind of financial help communities can expect from the $350 billion Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Birmingham, one of 21 Alabama municipalities on the allocation list, is set to receive $141 million. "The American Rescue Plan provides direct funding to States, Counties, and Municipalities to help combat the Covid-19 pandemic," Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) said. "Many states have sustained massive revenue shortfalls and face a host of increased spending requirements. The need is particularly pronounced at the local level, a National League of Cities survey showed a 21-percent revenue decline among cities with losses and the National Association of Counties projected a 20-percent revenue decline." Sewell was the only member of Alabama's delegation in Washington to vote for the plan. "Our cities and counties are on the front lines in the fight against the COVID pandemic, and they need direct assistance to develop local vaccination plans, pay frontline employees overtime and hazard pay, offset revenue losses, bolster economic recovery, and continue to offer essential services to our families and neighbors," Sewell added. The emergency funding for local governments was established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The funds are meant to be used to respond to acute pandemic-response needs, fill revenue shortfalls among state and local governments, and support the communities and populations hardest-hit by the COVID-19 crisis, according to the Treasury. In addition to allowing for flexible spending up to the level of their revenue loss, the Treasury states, recipients can use funds to: Support public health expenditures, by funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts, medical expenses, behavioral health care, mental health and substance misuse treatment, and certain public health and safety personnel responding to the crisisAddress negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, including by rehiring public sector workers, providing aid to households facing food, housing or other financial insecurity, offering small business assistance, and extending support for industries hardest hit by the crisisAid the communities and populations hardest hit by the crisis, supporting an equitable recovery by addressing not only the immediate harms of the pandemic, but its exacerbation of longstanding public health, economic and educational disparitiesProvide premium pay for essential workers, offering additional support to those who have borne and will bear the greatest health risks because of their service during the pandemicInvest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, improving access to clean drinking water, supporting vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and expanding access to broadband internet.