St. Joseph County will have the luxury of time and leeway to decide what to do with more than $800,000 in remaining funds it was issued through the federal government.
During last week’s executive committee meeting, finance director Angie Steinman said she was recently provided an update on a matter related to American Rescue Plan Act money county officials have not yet allocated. The county still has $818,000 of the $11.8 million it landed in 2021.
Steinman said original guidance mandated any ARPA expenditure over $10 million be categorized. Steinman said the requirement has been relaxed and, as a result, the county can instead declare the $818,000 as revenue loss and allocate it later. It previously faced an end-of-year deadline to follow through on this matter.
Steinman said the fate of the $818,000 will be determined in due time. However, she noted that when the county has one-time dollars, she typically recommends using the money under such circumstances for one-time expenditures, such as capital projects.