Covid relief bill cash of $76 million for Asheville, Buncombe County governments expected
The American Rescue Plan is providing a windfall to local governments
Talk about the proverbial “shot in the arm.”
Buncombe County government will receive about $50 million from the just-signed federal Covid relief bill, with Asheville city government seeing another $26.1 million, according to one estimate.
Local municipalities also stand to receive cash. The estimates are as follows for Buncombe municipalities: Black Mountain, $2.39 million; Woodfin, $1.97 million; Biltmore Forest, $410,000; Montreat, $250,000. The estimates come from Democratic U.S. Senate leaders. (The amounts cited here aren’t final.)
President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion bill, known as the American Rescue Plan, last week. It provides a massive influx of funding that local governments rarely see. It comes just as Western North Carolina cities and counties begin putting together their spending plans for the coming fiscal year.
One year ago, local government officials around the country took note of the immediate, frightening declines in critical revenue streams such as sales tax monies as the pandemic forced an economic shutdown. They were forced, in some cases, to furlough or lay off workers and take other action to curtail spending.
Asheville city government installed a hiring freeze, kept it operational spending flat and dipped into its rainy day fund to balance its annual budget. The city didn’t layoff any workers.
Since last summer, the economy has slowly rebounded, along with budget outlooks for local governments. The overall financial outlook for the city of Asheville, generally positive even in the face of the pandemic, just got rosier with the federal stimulus.
So how will local governments spend the money? The bill offers outlines: respond to the Covid-19 emergency and address its economic affects, by offering aid to households, small business, nonprofits and industries such as tourism and hospitality.
Local governments can also offer premium pay to essential workers or extend funds to their employers. They can fund nonprofits. Money can also be used for water, sewer and broadband infrastructure investments.
The N.C. League of Municipalities has posted its guidance to local governments here, and will be offering more.
Stay tuned. City and county governments will start making decisions on how to spend the money soon as they craft annual budgets, which must be adopted by the end of June.