Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis M. Davin announced today that the final batch of payments under the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARPA) Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery program has been sent to qualifying Pennsylvania municipalities.
“The effects of the pandemic have impacted municipalities across the commonwealth. The nearly $500 million that has been distributed over the past 10 weeks will help communities respond to the challenges they’re facing,” Garrity said. “Municipalities have a great deal of flexibility in how to use these funds, and Treasury’s goal was to issue payments promptly so that municipalities can decide how to best meet their local needs. It has been a pleasure to work with Secretary Dennis Davin and his team at DCED.”
DCED established the application process for smaller municipalities and reviewed the submitted applications. On a weekly basis, DCED provided the list of approved municipalities to Treasury, which distributed the payments.
Municipalities can use Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund payments to address negative economic impacts due to the pandemic, replace lost public sector revenue, support public health, assist essential workers, and invest in infrastructure improvements such as water, sewer or broadband services.
The final disbursements were sent to 72 municipalities and totaled nearly $5 million. Combined with previous payments, that means 2,445 Pennsylvania municipalities have received more than $489.7 million distributed by the Pennsylvania Treasury Department.
Current payment information can be found on this interactive map on Treasury’s website. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, a second round of payments is scheduled to begin in May 2022.
ARPA gave states the responsibility to disburse these federal funds to municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents. Larger municipalities were required to apply to the U.S. Treasury in order to receive payments directly from the federal government. Information about payments to larger municipalities – and Pennsylvania’s 67 counties – can be found via links available on the Pennsylvania Treasury Department’s website.
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