Kristen Hare | Poynter
In our third and final session on covering the American Rescue Plan Act, reporter Shelby Harris said something that’s important for all of us to remember about the millions in federal-to-local funding — every ARPA dollar spent on one project is an ARPA dollar not spent somewhere else.
There’s no prescription about how this money gets spent. It’s mostly up to local governments, if they’re spending it at all. They could use it to fund budget shortfalls due to the pandemic. They could reject it. They could opt to fix roads and bridges, but not broadband.
There are stories in where the money’s going, and there are stories in where it’s not going.
