City hall building in small town
Article

Maximize the impact of ARP funds

With the Treasury Department’s final rule now available for the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARP)’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, many city and county leaders are finalizing plans on for how to use the funds to maximize assistance to hard-hit communities.

The work associated with ARP is time-consuming and detailed, and streamlining the process with specialized supplemental assistance is often more efficient than adding to staff workload. Management Partners has helped local governments across the U.S. plan and implement their use of ARP funds, including Clark County, Nevada, Concord and Union City, California, and Burien, Washington. We’ve developed methodologies for each step:

  • Engaging the community
  • Determining lost revenue
  • Facilitating decision-making
  • Preparing the ARP Plan
  • Providing technical assistance
  • Tracking and reporting spending

This is a good time to begin preparing for the Recovery Plan Performance Report due July 31, 2022, especially for jurisdictions over 25,000. Their reports will require significant individual programmatic reporting in the following four areas for each program or project funded:

What steps have been taken to promote equitable outcomes for disadvantaged communities?

How has community engagement been accomplished?

What labor practices have been followed, and results received?

What evidence-based performance evaluations have been used to measure the impact of each project / program funded, and what has been the impact?

Our fiscal and engagement assistance during the 27 years we have helped local governments with continuous improvement makes us ideal to help you get the most out of your ARPA funds.

Rising interest rates impacting state and local governments and community projects
Next up

Managing in a rising interest rate environment