Baltimore City Council got its first chance to weigh in publicly on how the city’s $641 million in American Rescue Plan funding should be spent and urged city officials to eliminate backlogs for existing city services as well as equitably allocating the money.
The city’s newly created Office of Recovery Programs is responsible for reviewing applications and distributing the funding allocated to the city by Congress earlier this year as part of a coronavirus relief package. The application process in Baltimore is currently underway both for city agencies and nonprofits, but no recipients have been announced despite the first half of the funding arriving in May.
City Council has little authority over the distribution, which has been controlled by the administration of Mayor Brandon Scott, but the board recently introduced legislation calling for quarterly and annual updates on the spending process. The legislation is still pending, but the Ways and Means Committee held the first hearing Tuesday.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Emily Opilo over at The Baltimore Sun
