American Rescue Plan — Resources

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund — Overview

• Goes partly to states and partly to cities and counties; in Massachusetts, county funds will be redistributed to component municipalities.
• Established in Subtitle M of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
• Covers costs incurred before December 31, 2024 for specific purposes (see Section 602(c) for states and Section 603(c) for localities):
  • “to respond to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality”
  • “to respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID–19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers of the metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county that are performing such essential work, or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers who perform essential work”
  • “for the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county due to the COVID–19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county prior to the emergency;”
  • “to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure”
  • May not use funds made available under this section for deposit into any pension fund.
• Department of the Treasury will further define regulations (but as of this posting, March 14, 2021, does not appear to have done so); note that regulations are likely to continue to evolve to loosen spending category limitations — this has been the pattern with regulations related to the 2020 relief.

Combined 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 Relief Estimates from State Administration and Finance

We received the information below from the Governor’s Administration and Finance secretariat. The following caveats are from that office: The information below should be viewed as preliminary and subject to change, and we would strongly advise against the town making plans based on this preliminary information. The US Treasury will ultimately calculate the final payment amounts, so the town should not make plans about overrides based on these estimates.

Note the only new items from the 2021 legislation are the two italicized projections. The projected Coronavirus Local Stability Fund amount is limited to the particular purposes listed above. According to A&F, the ESSER III funds go to the schools and 20% are to be devoted for learning loss (summer school, extended day, etc.); the rest for general school support. 

Total Allocations from 2020 and 2021 legislation (expendable through 2024)

Calculations as of 3/12/21 – Subject to change	Belmont	Watertown	Boston
CvRF	$2,321,456.00	$3,169,982.00	$120,853,359.00
Other (CDBG, Shared Streets, ESG, etc.)	$1,000.00	$302,072.00	$50,438,426.00
Projection: Coronavirus Local Stability Fund	$7,641,526.00	$10,515,730.00	$569,007,917.00
Total Muni Aid Allocation Projection	$9,963,982.00	$13,987,783.00	$740,299,703.00
Total Muni Budget	$131,661,023.00	$151,943,638.00	$3,605,778,971.00
Projected Muni Aid Per Capita	$382.00	$389.00	$1,069.00
CvRF Reopening & Remote Learning Grants	$1,043,100.00	$635,153.00	$672,342.00
ESSER I and II Allocation	$573,475.00	$1,569,171.00	$155,303,305.00
Projection: ESSER III	$1,001,655.00	$2,760,514.00	$276,144,971.00
Total LEA Aid Allocation Projection	$2,618,230.00	$4,964,838.00	$432,120,618.00
Total LEA Budget	$61,485,641.00	$51,937,315.00	$1,258,683,042.00
Total COVID-Related Federal Aid Projection	$12,582,212.00	$18,952,621.00	$1,172,420,321.00

Documents from Representative Katherine Clark’s Office

• Fact Sheet – ARP State and Local Funding Provisions
• ARP State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Information Sheet FINAL
• Materials from Senate Democrats
  • ARP Title-By-Title Summary
  • ARP Summary of Modifications to the House Bill
  • State and Local Fiscal Relief (spreadsheet appears not to include funds allocated to counties and expected to be redistributed in Massachusetts)
  • Enhanced Federal Unemployment Insurance
  • Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit
  • Additional Round of Direct Payments
  • Education Relief Funding (state level aid estimates)
  • Emergency Rental Assistance
  • FEMA Disaster Relief Fund Estimates
  • Child Care and CCDBG
  • Head Start
  • Transit Relief for Urbanized Areas
  • Paratransit