No one can doubt Mayor Frank Jackson’s commitment to Cleveland, its young people, and its future. Understandably, he would like Cleveland to spend it just announced grant of $ 511.7 million from the American Rescue Plan Act wisely, sustainably and long-term, taking into account justice.
And he’s right. Cleveland should be wise, strategic, and fair when it comes to allocating one-time money, which, unlike CARES Act dollars, appears to come with very few conditions.
But that doesn’t mean that Jackson, who is in office just a few months after the May 6 announcement and is not seeking re-election, should be the one to commit this stroke of luck or determine how it will be spent.
That would be unfair to the city and its next mayor and regardless of the dangers ahead when Cleveland is far from the pandemic forests.
For Cleveland this is multimillion-dollar unanswered question Post COVID-19, testing is being done to ensure that suburbanites who worked in the city and traditionally paid most of Cleveland’s income tax are returning in sufficient numbers to keep those tax revenues from falling through the floor.
Half a billion dollars is a gigantic temptation to spend myself – not just on Jackson. The city council also spits the chance to do more for the residentsincluding the pedestrian paving of streets.
Jackson, to his credit, has a broader vision. Comments from Cleveland’s senior mayor suggest that he sees these dollars as an opportunity to achieve four of his long-term goals – reducing income inequality; put the city’s economic growth on a more inclusive path; Revitalizing neighborhoods;; and to keep the young people of the city away from the abyss.
In Jackson’s recent interview with cleveland.com town hall reporter Robert Higgs, there was a hint of urgency when the mayor insisted he had much more work to do – including planning – before leaving office early next year for Cleveland’s allocation of the $ 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
“We have to program this,” Jackson said to Higgs, who summarized the conversation as follows: “As he finishes his term, Jackson will try to establish a program that is well in place before he leaves office.”
But Jackson – and the city council, who rightly wants input into planning the use of the money and having to put new programs in place – shouldn’t “use” the majority of that money. That would be foolhardy and premature.
Jackson is a lame duck. It’s the people of Cleveland who choose the next mayor based in part on that person’s vision of how best to distribute the majority of that money. Half of this will not arrive until May 2022 and must all be issued by December 31, 2024 – who should have the strongest vote.
The first half of the $ 511.7 million for Cleveland announced by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday was due last week. The other half will arrive in about a year.
Cleveland’s actual allotment is about $ 29.7 million less than Cleveland’s $ 541 million expected, and the previously estimated Congressional Research Service would make up the city’s stake. The Treasury Department says these were only estimates. But the Treasury Department also had to tinker with the formula because ARPA was formulated that way. In describing its method of calculating “metropolitan” grants, the Treasury Department notes that ARPA has instructed that “metropolitan” be replaced by “metropolitan” when using established weights for community development block grants (things like extent consider poverty and aging) housing) to calculate how much each big city would get. This substitution, according to the Treasury Department, then forced it to change some weightings in order to “conform” to the formula required by ARPA.
Jackson is right – ARPA’s money should be spent on projects that will make a long-term difference in the fortunes of this city and the well-being of its people. It should not be falsified in projects with high visibility and low durability. Nor should it be rashly used for projects that might appear worthy, but that could be implemented by an outgoing administration without sufficient planning or accountability.
Jackson already has a significant legacy. He should continue to be a good steward, the solid financial planner he had throughout his tenure, and defy the siren call to try to cement nearly $ 512 million in his personal vision of Cleveland’s future before leaving office. This 15 year old mayor is better and wiser.
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