Every town or county has four buckets to place their ARPA funding into, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury: premium pay, public health/economic recovery initiatives, infrastructure improvements and revenue loss. 

The “revenue loss” category makes it difficult to fully understand where ARPA funds are being spent in Western North Carolina, so Carolina Public Press compiled Treasury data and categorized all projects — even those technically funded through claiming revenue loss — according to Treasury’s main buckets.

Here’s a breakdown of all projects — both those funded directly through ARPA and through claiming revenue loss — reported to the federal Treasury Department as of July 2022:

• Public Health/Economic Recovery: $14,227,702
  • Includes vaccination clinics, nonprofit funding, hospital enhancements, public education and financial assistance programs in Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Polk and Transylvania counties.
• Premium pay, staff salaries and administrative costs: $36,839,882
  • Includes county worker salaries, bonuses for essential workers and vaccine incentive payments in Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain and Yancey counties. 
• Infrastructure and broadband: $6,965,068
  • Includes water/sewer improvements, road enhancements and matches for state broadband expansion grants in Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Madison, McDowell, Transylvania and Yancey counties. 
• Unspecified: $22,517,963
  • Includes amounts claimed as revenue loss by Jackson, Rutherford and Transylvania counties. No specific projects were listed in Treasury data.
• Total allocated as of July 2022: $80,550,615
• Funds remaining: $96,983,169

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here. Read our Republishing Guidelines for more information.

From public health to ‘premium pay’: Where federal pandemic relief funds are going in WNC

by Shelby Harris, Carolina Public Press
September 21, 2022

<h1>From public health to ‘premium pay’: Where federal pandemic relief funds are going in WNC</h1> <p class="byline">by Shelby Harris, Carolina Public Press <br />September 21, 2022</p> </p> <p>Every <a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/56552/where-is-federal-covid-19-relief-going-in-nc-most-wnc-counties-opt-to-pay-public-employees-salaries/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">town or county has four buckets to place their ARPA funding into</a>, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury: premium pay, public health/economic recovery initiatives, infrastructure improvements and revenue loss.&nbsp;</p> <p>The “revenue loss” category makes it difficult to fully understand where ARPA funds are being spent in Western North Carolina, so Carolina Public Press compiled Treasury data and categorized all projects — even those technically funded through claiming revenue loss — according to Treasury’s main buckets.</p> <div style="text-align:center" class="wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-cta gb-block-cta"> <div class="gb-cta-content"> <h2 class="gb-cta-title gb-font-size-32" style="color:#32373c">Is this where ARPA relief should be spent?</h2> <div class="gb-cta-text gb-font-size-32" style="color:#32373c"></div> </div> <div class="gb-cta-button"><a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/56552/where-is-federal-covid-19-relief-going-in-nc-most-wnc-counties-opt-to-pay-public-employees-salaries/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="gb-button gb-button-shape-rounded gb-button-size-medium" style="color:#ffffff;background-color:#3373dc">Read More</a></div> </div> <p>Here’s a breakdown of all projects — both those funded directly through ARPA and through claiming revenue loss — reported to the federal Treasury Department as of July 2022:</p> <ul> <li>Public Health/Economic Recovery: $14,227,702 <ul> <li>Includes vaccination clinics, nonprofit funding, hospital enhancements, public education and financial assistance programs in Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Polk and Transylvania counties.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Premium pay, staff salaries and administrative costs: $36,839,882 <ul> <li>Includes county worker salaries, bonuses for essential workers and vaccine incentive payments in Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain and Yancey counties.&nbsp;</li> </ul> </li> <li>Infrastructure and broadband: $6,965,068 <ul> <li>Includes water/sewer improvements, road enhancements and matches for state broadband expansion grants in Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Haywood, Madison, McDowell, Transylvania and Yancey counties.&nbsp;</li> </ul> </li> <li>Unspecified: $22,517,963 <ul> <li>Includes amounts claimed as revenue loss by Jackson, Rutherford and Transylvania counties. No specific projects were listed in Treasury data.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Total allocated as of July 2022: $80,550,615</li> <li>Funds remaining: $96,983,169</li> </ul> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/56559/from-public-health-to-premium-pay-where-federal-pandemic-relief-funds-are-going-in-wnc/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://carolinapublicpress.org">Carolina Public Press</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/carolinapublicpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/cropped-cropped-CPPlogo_icon_RGB.png?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://carolinapublicpress.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=56559" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p> Copy to Clipboard

1