ARPA

The American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (ARPA CSLFRF) is an initiative to directly assist states, counties, municipalities, and tribal nations in responding to the primary and secondary effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Pima County received $203.4 million in ARPA CSLFRF award revenue.

Final federal guidance for $203,421,668 ARPA CSLFRF award revenue stipulates that all funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024, and fully spent by December 31, 2026. ARPA CSLFRF therefore has a long performance period, and many County programs funded by these monies are just now ramping up. As these programs begin to implement and expend their budgets (the Board approved full ARPA CSLFRF allocation as program budgets at the December 21, 2021 meeting), this data will populate live on the PimaRecovers.com dashboard. Similarly, as these programs are rolled out in the community, performance metrics will also be shared on this website.

CARES

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) was a $2.4 trillion emergency funding program passed in March 2020 that provided urgently needed funds to federal agencies, states, and other local governments responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pima County directly received $87.1 million in Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF), which was authorized by CARES.

Please note that the $87,107,597 in CARES CRF federal funding has been completely expended. CARES CRF monies were spent quickly by Pima County because CRF guidance stipulated that the end of the funding performance period was December 30, 2020; at the last minute, the federal government added an additional year on December 27, 2020 when the Consolidated Appropriations Act was passed. Performance outputs and outcomes will also be shared on this website.

Rules and Restrictions

The federal government prescribes how the various relief funds are to be used by local governments.
For the American Rescue Plan Act, the provided funds to Pima County can only be used for the following:

From the U.S. Treasury:
“The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds provide eligible state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments with a substantial infusion of resources to meet pandemic response needs and rebuild a stronger, and more equitable economy as the country recovers. Recipients may use these funds to:

• Support public health expenditures, by, for example, funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts, medical expenses, behavioral healthcare, and certain public health and safety staff
• Address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, including economic harms to workers, households, small businesses, impacted industries, and the public sector
• Replace lost public sector revenue, using this funding to provide government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue experienced due to the pandemic
• Provide premium pay for essential workers, offering additional support to those who have and will bear the greatest health risks because of their service in critical infrastructure sectors
• Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure, making necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water, support vital wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and to expand access to broadband internet

Within these overall categories, recipients have broad flexibility to decide how best to use this funding to meet the needs of their communities.”

For the Coronavirus Relief Fund, the funds for local governments were intended to reimburse governments for expenditures made responding to the public health crisis. The Act provided considerable flexibility to local governments via the following use guidelines:

The CARES Act requires that the payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund only be used to cover expenses that:

• are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID–19:
• were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and
• were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 31, 2021.