When Baltimore received a windfall of $641 million in federal pandemic aid, Mayor Brandon Scott spread it across dozens of projects touching nearly every corner of city government.
But with federal deadlines to earmark and spend the money bearing down, the mayor’s plan is changing. Scott’s top pandemic aid official said Thursday that the city will redirect tens of millions of dollars to different causes.
In total, Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs Director Shamiah Kerney told the City Council during a budget hearing Thursday, $66.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds originally committed to transportation, health, broadband and public safety will go toward other uses. Those include park renovations, city hiring incentives, scholarships, and school and fire house improvements.
Baltimore has until the end of 2024 to earmark all of its American Rescue Plan Act money and until the end of 2026 to spend it.
While Baltimore has been slow to spend much of its ARPA funding, a recent change in oversight requirements has ameliorated some urgency. As of the end of April, the city had spent 40%, or $256 million, of its pandemic aid and, under new an expanded federal definition for obligated funding, it has earmarked $603 million, putting the city 94% of the way to meeting the end-of-2024 deadline.
Wednesday’s announcement comes after officials with the pandemic aid office first warned more than a year ago that changes might be coming to the city’s $641 million spending plan. The Office of Recovery Programs, which was established to oversee the implementation of the city’s pandemic aid, undertook a review of agencies’ spending in recent months to determine where the city’s plan might need to change.
Kerney said Thursday that her office plans to continue its review of the city’s spending for potential additional changes.
The agency losing the most is the Health Department, which will see $35 million of its $80 million allotment clawed back. The city has opted to prioritize funding its COVID-19 efforts with other federal funding streams, leaving the city with extra American Rescue Plan Act cash to work with.
The city is also pulling back $14 million from its transportation department, using a different funding source to finance a street resurfacing program.
And a program designed to set up incarcerated people with jobs in the city’s parks department has seen lower-than-expected enrollment. The agency overseeing the program, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, is seeing its original $50 million pledge knocked down to under $41 million.
Supply chain and labor problems have hampered efforts by the office of Broadband and Digital Equity to build out fiber broadband infrastructure, a $35 million project that the city will reduce by $5 million.
A final $3 million to bolster city staffing is also being pulled back.
Other projects funded by American Rescue Plan Act funding have come in under budget. That has left another $1.4 million available, for a total of nearly $68 million in reprogramed money.
Nearly $21 million, the largest piece, will go toward covering higher-than-expected costs in the new Gardenville Recreation Center Project, renovation of the Greater Model Pool and a South Baltimore recreation center, among other work. The city is also directing about $10 million toward improvements for the beleaguered Fire Department and another $10 million for school buildings and scholarships for recent grads.
Also included in that funding is a recently announced $4 million City Hall jobs program for students at local historically Black colleges.
Councilman Zeke Cohen asked Kerney Thursday what steps her office has taken to prepare grant recipients, especially community organizations with limited resources, for the impending financial cliff when the city’s pandemic influx runs dry.
Those conversations have been going on since organizations were first awarded money, the pandemic director said. There are likely some organizations that might have had to close their doors if it weren’t for this funding, she added, a reality she said they might face again when the support expires.
This money was always meant to be “a shot in the arm,” Kerney said, not “a slow IV drip.”
