COVID-19 Update: President Signs American Rescue Plan - March 11, 2021
Posted March 11, 2021 in Legislative briefs
The Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) press release announcing their daily test data is available via this link.Preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from March 4 through March 10 is now 2.2%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from March 4 through March 10 is 2.5%. Cases by county can be found on the state’s coronavirus website at coronavirus.illinois.gov.
As of March 11, the State of Illinois has administered more than 3.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccinations. There are approximately 12.6 million residents of Illinois.
One year ago, the World Health Organization designated COVID-19 as a global pandemic. March 11 is also the anniversary of IML's first COVID-19 Update to municipal officials. Illinois Municipal League (IML) staff has created an infographic (available via this link) to highlight the actions IML has taken to empower our members and, more generally, what has happened during the last year.
On March 11, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., signed H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, into law. The new law will distribute $1.9 trillion in direct stimulus payments for state and local governments, agriculture and nutrition programs, schools and institutions of higher education, child care, COVID-19 vaccinations, mental health and substance-use disorder services, among other provisions. A title-by-title summary of the law is available via this link.
IML's federal partners, the National League of Cities, issued a statement (available via this link) upon passage of the bill.
Included in the law is $65.1 billion in financial assistance for all municipalities, nationwide. Of that, $45.57 billion will be allocated to metropolitan cities, which either are the central city of a metropolitan area or have a population above 50,000, and will be distributed based on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) formula. The remaining $19.53 billion will be sent to state governments to distribute directly to non-metropolitan (non-CDBG) municipalities based on population. For non-metropolitan (non-CDBG) municipalities, the amount of funding a municipality may receive is capped at 75% of the municipality’s pre-pandemic budget as of January 27, 2020.
The allocation estimates for metropolitan (CDBG) municipalities in Illinois are available via this link.
The allocation estimates for non-metropolitan (non-CDBG) municipalities in Illinois are available via this link.
Please note that these are estimates and are subject to change by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Earlier this week, IML sent a letter to Governor JB Pritzker (available via this link)urging him and the General Assembly to expedite the legislative work necessary to ensure that funding is distributed to municipalities without delay or additional state-imposed restrictions or reductions.
Payments to municipalities will be split between two rounds of funding. The first round of funding is required to be distributed by the federal government no later than 60 days after ARP’s enactment. For non-metropolitan (non-CDBG) communities that will receive their funding from the state, there will be additional time allotted for the state to distribute that funding. The second round of funding may not be distributed earlier than 12 months after the first round distribution, meaning sometime in spring or summer of 2022.
Municipalities will be allowed to use ARP funds on eligible costs incurred by December 31, 2024. Eligible costs include: (click here to keep reading)