Committee OKs grant fund, agreement for spending $308 million from American Rescue Plan
The Denver City Council finance committee approved the establishment of a grant fund and agreement Tuesday to receive and spend the $308 million of federal funding Denver is getting from the American Rescue Plan.
The proposed grant fund and agreement will now be sent to the full City Council for a final vote in the coming weeks.
Under the grant fund and agreement, all spending of the $308 million will have to be authorized by the City Council. Spending must also be in compliance with various federal funding requirements, including the Civil Rights Act and debarment.
The COVID-19 relief funds can be used for public health expenditures, addressing negative economic impacts from the pandemic, replacing lost public sector revenue, paying essential workers and investing in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.
The funds cannot be used for direct pension contributions, debt service payments or tax rate reductions, according to spending guidelines from the U.S. Treasury Department.
The city has not yet announced specifically where the funds will go, but Mayor Michael Hancock has expressed prioritization for investing in infrastructure and restoring city services cut during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Denver Budget and Management Office, the office plans to submit a bill request next month to allocate the first wave of funding towards revenue loss and restoration of services. This bill request will have to be approved by the City Council.
The office is also currently collecting community feedback on how the funds should be spent. This feedback will influence the bill request for funding allocation to be submitted in July or August. A third bill request will also be submitted in September or October, following 2022 budget decisions.
Of Denver’s $308 million, half will be given to the city this month and the other half will be distributed in approximately one year. All of the funding must be spent by the end of 2024.
The proposed grant fund would only be able to be used to administer money from the federal American Rescue Plan.
