Washington, D.C. – Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced over $5.7 billion in funding for state and local governments in Colorado as they continue to rebuild and recover from the economic fallout of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The funding comes from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, established by the American Rescue Plan Act.
“The COVID-19 public health and economic crisis has taken a toll on communities across Colorado, and we still have some hard months ahead as our local communities continue to rebuild and recover,” said Bennet. “Through these funds in the American Rescue Plan, Colorado state and local governments will receive much-needed, flexible funding to support a wide range of efforts, from investing in broadband to helping the hardest-hit businesses reopen their doors to funding our public health infrastructure. This support will help us bridge our way out of this pandemic into an economy that provides opportunity to all.”
The funding for Colorado breaks down as follows:
- State government – $3,828,761,790
- Counties – $1,118,566,954
- Metropolitan cities – $551,290,906
- Non-entitlement units of local government*- $265,396,436
* Non-entitlement units of local government are areas with populations of 50,000 or fewer people.
In total, the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds will provide $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments across the country. This program will allow state and local governments the flexibility to meet their communities’ needs — including support for households, small businesses, impacted industries, essential workers, and the communities hardest-hit by the crisis. In addition to allowing for flexible spending up to the level of their revenue loss, recipients can use funds to:
- Support public health expenditures, by – among other uses – funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts, medical expenses, behavioral healthcare, mental health and substance misuse treatment, and certain public health and safety personnel responding to the crisis;
- Address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, including by rehiring public sector workers, providing aid to households facing food and housing or insecurity, offering small business assistance, and extending support for industries hardest hit by the crisis;
- Aid the communities and populations hardest hit by the crisis, supporting an equitable recovery by addressing not only the immediate harms of the pandemic, but its exacerbation of longstanding public health, economic, and educational disparities;
- Provide premium pay for essential workers, offering additional support to those who have borne and will bear the greatest health risks because of their service during the pandemic; and,
- Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, improving access to clean drinking water, supporting vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and expanding access to broadband internet.
The full rule can be found HERE. More information on how this funding can be used is available HERE. A complete list of allocations from the program is available HERE.