Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Spokane has received more than $80 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The city has been gradually spending that money down, but as the looming deadline to contract all funds out by the end of 2024 has grown closer, the process to get dollars out the door has become more fraught.
During the June 10 Spokane City Council meeting, the council voted on a plan for how to spend the last remaining $5 million, setting the conflict to rest — for now: if any ongoing ARPA-funded projects fall through before the end of the year, that money will have to be quickly reallocated to something else by December 31, 2024, or the funds will need to be given back to the federal government.
The process has been a little messy, with dot exercise disagreements between council members, a ninth-inning curveball proposal from Mayor Lisa Brown creating a tug-of-war over the last remaining money and a slew of different proposals submitted by different arrangements of council members clogging up agendas for the last few weeks, but it has been guided by a framework approved by the council
back in 2021.
That framework states that federal funds would be used to replenish lost government revenue, reach out to community partner organizations to remedy damage caused by the pandemic and create resiliency for Spokane with long-term, sustainable growth investments and bring relief for residents and businesses.
While the list of projects was publicly discussed and approved last week, some of the details were thin (who knows exactly what an “alleyway activation” even means?) so RANGE did a deep dive into the 14 projects officials decided to move forward with.
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