LOC News
DAS Now Accepting ARPA Requests
Cities getting American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds through the Oregon Department of Administrative Services (DAS) should have received an email from DAS on July 21 with the necessary forms and instructions to request funding. The U.S. Treasury refers to these cities as non-entitlement units of local government (NEUs) in its guidance. Generally, these are cities with a population less than 50,000.
To verify the person at your city who has received this information, along with their email address, see this contact list. Cities can email DAS to update their contact at Coronavirus.ReliefFund.DAS@oregon.gov (please copy the LOC at loc@orcities.org). The LOC has heard of at least one case where the DAS email was filtered as a spam, so cities are advised to please check their spam folder if the email did not come through and add the DAS address as a safe sender for future correspondence.
DAS has now calculated official estimates for the distribution amounts to smaller cities. Allocated amounts may change depending upon whether all NEUs respond to this opportunity and if the 75% budget cap applies to a responding NEU.
DAS Estimated Distributions to Smaller Cities
The ARPA request form will ask for the “total NEU budget (annual total operating and capital expenditure budget) in effect as of January 27, 2020.” The total ARPA grant cannot exceed 75% of this number. The LOC is not aware of any U.S. Treasury guidance that requires deducting contingencies, reserves or unappropriated funds. Cities will be asked to submit a copy of actual budget documents to the U.S. Treasury validating the “top-line budget total” provided to the state as part of the initial reporting. This could include the budget resolution (and any supplemental resolutions) that were in effect as of January 27, 2020.
The LOC expects and encourages all cities will utilize their ARPA funds and will serve as a resource to member cities as they work through the process. Any city that does not plan to use the funds should contact the LOC at the email address or phone number below. One quirk of the program is that if a city tells the state they do not want the money, the state is allowed to keep the funds; but if a city fails to respond to the state, that money is distributed to the other responsive cities. The LOC asks any city not using their ARPA funds to not respond to the DAS email, but again, our strong preference is every city use their allocation.
Previously released guidance on the use of American Rescue Plan funds is available on Treasury’s main ARPA webpage. The spending guidance is contained in three main documents. The regularly updated FAQ document gives plain language answers to some of the questions cities will most likely be considering. The recently released Compliance and Reporting Guidance document explains ARPA recipients’ responsibilities. The Interim Final Rule is still the most comprehensive guidance and like all the documents is searchable using CTRL+F on your keyboard.
The LOC will continue to update our American Rescue Plan Resource Hub as more information becomes available. The National League of Cities has additional resources on the NLC ARPA Hub.
Contact: Mark Gharst, Lobbyist - mgharst@orcities.org or 503-991-2192
Last Updated 7/23/21