Literature Reviews with Envisio - 2 Years Since ARPA Was Signed Into Law (AC&C Article)
Welcome to Envisio's Literature Review series, we do a short shout out to interesting news and pieces on performance measurement, strategic planning, and trust and transparency in the public sector.
Let's talk about the American Rescue Plan Act!
The American Rescue Plan Act committed more than 350 billion dollars of the 1.9 trillion budget to local, state, and tribal governments to rebuild following the devastating socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. Andy Castillo, in American City & County , draws out some critical numbers for us from the data tracked by the Local Government Investment Tracker, and we highly recommend reading the piece!
Making ARPA spending transparent to constituents and community stakeholders is part of a process of rebuilding trust. It’s interesting to note?that, generally speaking, 43% of APRA funds were invested in government operations. The process of rebuilding community trust includes being transparent about what those government operations are. Following government operations, the most popular investments of ARPA funds have been improving infrastructure, promoting affordable housing, community aid, and public health.?
One of our clients, Washington County , made the move to embrace transparency around their ARPA spending by using a public dashboard. Their allocations show their spending in five main investment areas:?
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The County’s Government Operations section includes improving technological infrastructure and supporting administrative staff, to promote “nimble, flexible, healthy” and community focused service to the greater public.
The rest of their plans are inspiring too: for instance, some of their public health spending included a dedicated focus on helping migratory and seasonal agricultural workers achieve equitable access to food and protective work gear.?
We love seeing the strategies for solving critical problems get off the ground, and it’s amazing to see local governments and publicly accountable entities getting on board the transparency train.?
We hope you take some time to investigate the Local Government Investment Tracker, and see some of the other stats shared in this fantastic AC&C article!