Del. Communities Get 1st Shares Of Rescue Plan Funding

Dozens of local governments in Delaware now have a share of just less than $44-million in their accounts from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

State Treasurer Colleen Davis’ office was charged by the Federal Government with developing the distribution process, and the first round has been completed. Davis said decisions on how to allocate the money were left to local governments.

“Residents of Delaware’s local communities can get the help they need now that their local leaders have their ARPA funds,” Davis said. “We understood that each city and town had specific needs, and the ability to start addressing those needs depended on our office making sure the appropriate amount of money got in the appropriate hands as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

“No one knows better than those on the front lines how to best help themselves,” Davis added. “Our job was to verify the amount of money each nonentitlement unit should receive, based on the budget information that each nonentitlement unit submitted to us, and then get the money out the door. We did not want to stand in the way of dollars being deployed into Delaware communities by making the distribution process unnecessarily burdensome. Our cities and towns have pressing issues in need of immediate funding, and that’s why we began developing our process back in March almost immediately after President Biden signed the legislation.”

Meanwhile, State Auditor Kathy McGuiness said more communities continue to take part in her office’s ARP spending tracker: CLICK HERE for more.

“Because we developed a secure process for local governments as well as our ARPA dashboard providing clear, transparent information to the public, everything is already in place to deliver the funding next year,” Davis concluded. “We faced what could have been an overwhelming task, but from day one, I knew we would rise to the occasion. I cannot thank every member of our office enough for making this happen, and also want to express appreciation to the Delaware League of Local Governments for its partnership in this effort.”