Now is the time to make and enact your business plans to deliberately benefit from this large influx of money into our economy.
The American Rescue Plan is the largest of several federal bills enacted into law. Let’s take a look at the enacted laws (acts) to prepare local businesses to provide services and or goods to meet the needs of the programs and local governments that are receiving billions in American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The American Rescue Plan has expansive funding for states, local governments, businesses, individuals and Native American Tribes – $1.9 trillion nationwide in total. A local break down of the $8.6 billion dollars of funding for Arizona State Programs is as follows:
Education gets $3.1 billion to augment K-12 education, Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding and Emergency Connectivity funding, which is primarily focused on internet connection for education purposes.
Health is getting $1.6 billion to continue vaccinations, contact tracing efforts, fund behavioral health programming and fund rural health care providers.
Human Services is receiving $1.1 billion to further fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women Infants and Children (WIC), Child Care, Elderly Care and Low Income Heating and Electricity Assistance Programs (LIHEAP).
Housing is getting $787 million to pay for Emergency Rental Assistance, Homeless Assistance and Emergency Housing Vouchers.
Transportation is receiving $421 million to fund Amtrak and Airport operations, and Transit Funding.
Emergency Management Programs, Shelter and Food Grants and Libraries are receiving $18.5 million.
The American Rescue Plan also is giving direct and flexible funding to the Arizona state government in the amount of $4.6 billion and to local Arizona governments in the amount of $2.6 billion, plus an additional $187 million to fund COVID-related Capital Projects (health, education). Coconino County and its local cities and towns are expected to receive flexible funding in these approximate amounts:
Coconino County will receive $28 million.
The City of Flagstaff $15.2 million.
The City of Sedona $2.4 million.
The City of Page $1.8 million.
The Town of Williams $755,000.
The Town of Fredonia $305,000.
The Town of Tusayan $138,000.
The American Rescue Plan is moving an enormous amount of money into Arizona state programs and governments, but there is direct funding for businesses and individuals at unprecedented amounts as well. About $1.2 billion is directed at Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), Restaurant Assistance and Economic Adjustment Aid. Individual stimulus payments will total $8.5 billion in direct payments to the people of the United States. This money is available to you and your business now. If you want to know how to get access to it, contact me directly or attend regular free webinars that continue to be held in partnership with the Coconino Small Business Development Center and the Arizona Commerce Authority.
Nationwide, Native American Tribes are expected to receive $20 billion in direct flexible funding, plus $11 billion for Tribal Program funding. Public lands are also receiving a nationwide total of $1.5 billion and Native American Tribal lands are receiving $500 million nationwide. All of these listed funding amounts, recipients and purposes will drive a spike in demand of goods and services directly and indirectly related to their intended outcomes. The flow of this money is expected to be expensed by local government recipients by Dec. 31, 2024. This means that flow of money will be coming soon (anticipating a June 2021 release of funding from federal to state and local governments) and will last for several years. The positioning of your business to access this flow of federal funding (either directly or by proximity) will have tremendous impact on the financial performance of your business. Now is the time to make and enact your business plans to deliberately benefit from this large influx of money into our economy.
Next month, we will examine the upcoming bills (and other acts) and identify what they are for, because when these bills become laws, they will trigger another rush of cash for specific purposes. We will discuss the funding impacts of the Environmental Infrastructure Assistance Act, the Great American Outdoors Act, The FAST Act, the American Jobs Plan, the New Promise Act, and the Presidential fiscal year 2022 Discretionary Budget, all bringing considerable amounts of money to the economy for specific purposes.
If you want to know more about the topic of this article or how to position your business to benefit from the funding, please contact me directly. FBN
By Chris Pasterz
Chris Pasterz is the economic development manager for Coconino County. Pasterz can be reached at cpasterz@coconino.az.gov or 928-679-7134.