On June 4, 2021, the Department of Community Affairs, Division of Local Government Services (DLGS), issued Local Finance Notice 2021-11, American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) of 2021: Requirements for Grant Funds. This notice provided guidance to counties and municipalities on the permitted use of these Federal Funds. The first allowable use was for the replacement of lost public sector revenue. Counties and municipalities were required to compute the extent of their reduction in revenue by comparing their actual revenue to an alternative, representing what could have been expected to occur in the absence of the pandemic. Analysis of this expected trend began with the last full fiscal year prior to the public health emergency, and projected forward at either the recipient’s average annual revenue growth over the three full fiscal years prior to the public health emergency or 4.1%, whichever is greater. As a result, the calculation of the Village’s revenue losses exceeded $4 million.

The first payment under the Federal ARP funding, in the amount of $1,311,287.65, was received subsequent to the adoption of the 2021 municipal budget. Accordingly, DLGS required government entities to hold such funds in reserve for use in subsequent budgets. The second payment of $1,311,287.65 was scheduled to be received in mid-2022. This provided a total of $2,622,575.30 ARP funding available to the Village to anticipate as revenue to offset the shortfalls in prior years. Even after the Village Council requested that budget reductions be made to all 2022 departmental requests, the use of the entire ARP funding was needed in order to limit the 2022 municipal property tax increase to 1.99%, which increase was the directive of the Village Council. The $2.6 million was shown as support for Public Safety Salaries & Wages in the 2022 adopted budget.