City Council vote on spending American Rescue Plan funds on hold
City Council vote on spending American Rescue Plan funds on hold By Mike Schell | May 11, 2021 at 6:28 PM EDT - Updated May 11 at 6:28 PM
CINCINNATI (FOX19) - Cincinnati City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee was supposed to start the process of approving $35 million in federal funds, but that is now on hold.
It now appears City Council is not exactly sure yet what it can spend the American Rescue Plan money on.
“At the very end [of Tuesday’s meeting] we heard from the administration, their take on the final guidance from the Treasury Department on what we can spend this money on, and it really did cause us to pause and have a bit of a reality check,” said Interim Council Member Steve Goodin.
Nick Swartsell / WVXU
Despite some concerns about moving too quickly, Cincinnati City Council Wednesday unanimously approved plans to spend more than $134 million in federal stimulus. All the ordinances passed so far come from the spending plan proposed by the mayor and city manager.
Cincinnati is expecting about $311 million total from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The first payment is expected next week, with the remaining $146,795,000 coming this time next year.
Nearly $107 million approved for spending this week is set aside to fill deficits in the current and upcoming fiscal year budgets:
$18.7 million to fill the projected general fund deficit for FY 2021, which ends June 30
Ambriehl Crutchfield / WVXU
The affordable housing charter amendment on Cincinnati s Tuesday ballot failed with about 73% of the vote in opposition. Issue 3 would have required the city to put at least $50 million in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund every year with no end date.
Advocates say they re not done fighting for more funding to respond to the housing crisis. We knew that no matter how the results turned out this evening, our work for affordable housing would not end tonight, said Josh Spring, director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. Unlike typical campaigns that are run by PR firms with glossy cards, we re a movement, and movements don t stop until they get where they re supposed to be.
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