ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
Communication from the City Manager and Finance Director with a Request to hold a POLICY SESSION on the CORONAVIRUS STATE and LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS
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BACKGROUND: With the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the Federal Government allocated $350 Billion for state and local governments. Over the next two years, the City of Peoria will receive $47,089,976 in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF). In late May, the City received the first $23,544,988. The City Council voted in June to use $10,301,585 of FRF to eliminate the need to issue working cash bonds in 2021, and to curtail furloughs for affected non-union employees. $36,788,391 remains to be obligated by December 31, 2024.
Congress outlined specific funding objectives:
* Support urgent COVID-19 response efforts to continue to decrease the spread of the
virus and bring the pandemic under control;
* Replace lost public sector revenue to strengthen support for vital public services and
help retain jobs;
* Support immediate economic stabilization for households and businesses; and
* Address systemic public health and economic challenges that have contributed to
the inequal impact of the pandemic.
Within these objectives, Congress and the Treasury Department outlined several areas of allowable expenditures:
* Support Public Health Response;
* Address Negative Economic Impacts;
* Replace Public Sector Revenue Loss;
* Premium Pay for Workers;
* Water and Sewer Infrastructure; and
* Broadband Infrastructure.
Since the pandemic has disproportionately impacted low-income families and communities of color, the FRF provides for additional flexibility for equity-focused services:
* Additional flexibility for the hardest-hit communities and families to address health
disparities, invest in housing, address educational disparities, and promote healthy childhood environments; and
* Broadly applicable to Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs), other disproportio...
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