Ohio has 35 percent remaining of the $5.4 billion that the U.S. Department of the Treasury allocated through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). A new tool is being used to track how the state utilizes the funds.
Advocates for Ohio’s Future, in partnership with the Ohio Poverty Law Center (OPLC), have launched a tool called the Ohio ARPA Tracker. This tracker provides up-to-date, detailed information on how Ohio spends its money.
President Joe Biden signed the ARPA into law in March 2021 in a response to COVID-19. The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, as part of ARPA, delivered funds to state and local governments to support their efforts to recover from COVID-19. Ohio’s state share was $5.4 billion.
The ARPA tracker is an online resource that compiles information from local governments to offer a detailed picture of how large cities and counties are allocating their funding. According to OPLC, its primary goal is to provide an easy way for Ohioans to track the data and to keep it centralized.
“It’s primarily an educational and informational piece. That’s why we tried to have it be objective. Data tends to be fairly objective as long as it’s representing what it’s supposed to represent. It’s information so you know where the money is, what has been spent, and where there is room for advocacy,” Carson Tucker, legislative specialist for OPLC, told The Ohio Star.
Since implementation, Ohio has spent nearly 65 percent of the money allocated from the ARPA. The largest portion of the recovery dollars, almost $1.5 billion, went towards replenishing the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund.
Local counties, municipalities, and townships received part of $5.3 billion in recovery funds. The tracker encompasses an interactive, clickable map to track financial allocation by county. Users can also track how other funds were allocated in categories such as the state fiscal recovery fund, childcare, head start, local fiscal recovery fund, CARES act relief funds, homeowner assistance fund, and high education emergency relief fund.
Other large portions of funding went to community grants, water reclamation projects, local water and sewer, school security, and behavioral healthcare facilities.
Advocates for Ohio’s Future and OPLC hope state leaders will continue to focus on meeting the community’s needs when allocating the remaining funding.
“With lots of other programs and funding being exhausted to address the health and economic impacts of the pandemic, we hope the next billion or two billion fund really the basics to really support families as they continue to recover,” OPLC Director Susan Jagers said on social media.
According to Advocates for Ohio’s Future Director Kelsey Bergfeld, now that they have the model for the tracker, they hope to either add to the current model or potentially create other trackers for other infrastructure in the future. They plan to do continuous updates through 2024 to the tracker and then determine what the best course of action is.
“We are happy that the tracker is out and excited to see what happens. I certainly see us doing this with other sources in the future,” Bergfeld told The Star.
Some funds are appropriated through the legislative process, and others are through the state controlling board. All ARPA funding needs to be appropriated by December 31, 2024, and expended by December 31, 2026.
– – –
Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “ARPA” by The White House.
