It’s been two years since ARPA was signed into law and almost 70% of cities have committed their allotments

At the pandemic’s height two years ago, American cities and counties were facing an uncertain future. Nationally, reported daily cases had peaked at more than 1 million, and renewed lockdown orders threatened to stifle the economy as it was re-emerging from a year marked by the onset of COVID-19.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law last March, provided much more than $350 billion in necessary fiscal aid to floundering local, state and tribal governments—it paved a path beyond lockdown orders and social anxiety, letting local administrators build for the future. A new collaborative report from Brookings Metro, the National League of Cities (NLC), and the National Association of Counties (NACo) documents how 329 large cities and counties have prioritized expending their combined $65 billion federal allocation.

As of September, the tracked metros had committed 68% of their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) dollars to 8,825 projects, an increase of 17% from the 7,537 projects that were reported in June. Of those, 34 counties, and 29 large cities and consolidated city-counties had committed 100% of their fiscal shares. Notably, 79% of large cities and consolidated city-counties have budgeted their allotments, compared to 59% of counties. 

“This faster pace may be due to large cities/consolidated city-counties’ decision to devote a greater share of their budgeted SLFRF dollars (57%) to revenue replacement as compared to large counties (37%),” the report says.

The data was collected via the Local Government ARPA Investment Tracker, an online tool created in collaboration by Brookings Metro, NLC and NACo.

Broadly, communities tracked by researchers for the report had committed nearly half their recovery dollars (43%) to government operations. This includes fiscal health, employee wages, and facilities and equipment. Community aid and public health (both 11%), infrastructure and housing (both 10%) followed government investment as the most popular categorical allotments.

Investments differed based on geography. Behind government operations, for example, Western cities and counties prioritized community aid (17%), those in the Midwest focused on public safety (14%), Southern communities invested in infrastructure, and those in the Northeast put their allotments toward public health (13%).

“The housing affordability crisis is nationwide, but its impact on homelessness has been largest in West Coast regions such as the Bay Area, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. Cities and counties in the West committed nearly 8% of their SLFRF allocations to combatting homelessness—more than twice the share as cities and counties in the other three regions,” the report says. 

In the South, communities directed 8% of their federal funding to water and sewer infrastructure, more than twice the percentile of investment made by other regions. And in the Midwest, neighborhood revitalization was a primary priority by communities, accounting “for over 2% of SLFRF commitments in the Midwest—more than eight times the share in the Northeast, South, and West,” the report says.