Toledo outlines how it will spend $188 million from American Rescue Plan

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Now that the American Rescue Plan has been signed into law, the City of Toledo will officially be receiving more than $188 million in COVID-19 relief funding. On Monday, city leaders outlined how they plan to spend that money in the coming months.

According to the mayor’s office, the $188 million won’t be arriving in one giant check, but as two payments: one in May of 2021 and the next a year later. All the funding must be spent by the city by the end of 2024 and it comes with a few rules as to how it can be spent. For one, it must be used to respond to the pandemic and its negative economic impact, which means it can be used to help businesses, aid non-profits, and help offset losses of individual households.

Toledo plans to prioritize the funding of a number of city projects, including green housing, youth recreation, job creation, redevelopment, and stabilizing the budget. The plan outlined on Monday allocates the federal funding in the following ways:

• $53 million for Budget Stabilization, including maintaining a $25 million rainy day fund and investing in capital projects.
• $15 million for Employee Health & Wellbeing, including investment in essential city employees, improvements to city equipment and office space, and Engage Toledo.
• $30 million for Youth, Recreation, and Parks, which would include accessible equipment, educational opportunities, arts funding, and community center improvements.
• $30 million for Safe and Liveable Neighborhoods, which includes staffing for police and fire, emergency vehicle replacements, food insecurity programs, and programs to reduce traffic fatalities and gun violence.
• $30 million for Job Creation, Site Clean Up and Redevelopment, including new housing construction, demolition of residential and commercial buildings, blight reduction, and investments in small businesses.
• $30 million for Green and Healthy Housing & Housing Preservation, which includes matching grants for lead safety, grants for energy efficiency, home renovation for new homeowners, and investments in historic preservation.

Along with the budget allocations, the City’s plan includes the creation of a Toledo Recovery Committee to review and evaluate projects as part of the Toledo Recovery Plan. The committee will review and evaluate a series of projects over the next several months before submitting them to the Toledo City Council for approval on August 10.

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