Federal Resources Collaboration Lab

Ohio’s local communities are using federal funds to provide youth programming, make streets safer, spur economic development, and bring fresh food to neighborhood food deserts, according to a new report from the Ohio Mayors Alliance (OMA). 

The report, Resilience and Growth in the Face of Struggle: A Summary of American Rescue Plan Spending and Projects in Ohio Cities, summarizes how 30 of Ohio’s largest cities have spent and allocated the Local Fiscal Recovery Funds they received from the American Rescue Plan, a 2021 bill enacted by Congress and conceived by the Biden administration to help Americans recover from the economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The federal investments provided by the American Rescue Plan are having extraordinary impacts on our cities,” said Keary McCarthy, executive director of the Ohio Mayors Alliance. “Not only have these funds helped avoid budget cuts to key city services, they’ve allowed our cities to make significant investments in public safety. They have also bolstered our economic recovery, provided critical supports to businesses and nonprofits, and they have laid the groundwork for transformational change in many communities.”

The report uses data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to break down spending and allocations by cities into eight categories (see chart below). The data is updated as of March 31 of this year, as that is the most recent date by which all cities that accepted American Rescue Plan funds had to submit a quarterly or annual report to the Treasury Department.

The report also highlights 10 individual projects in OMA cities that are investing in critical city services and programs: 

• Youth programming and violence prevention programs in Akron
• Infrastructure funding in Beavercreek
• A summer education and employment program in Canton
• Pedestrian and street safety in Cincinnati
• Transformational objectives in Cleveland
• The RISE program that provides child care subsidies in Columbus
• A home ownership and home repair program in Kettering
• Water infrastructure fueling economic development in Lancaster
• Public safety and youth initiatives in Toledo
• A mobile grocery store in Youngstown

For more information and to read the full report, go to www.ohiomayorsalliance.org.

Climate change is costing Ohio’s cities money. And it will continue to do so. Earlier this month, Power a Clean Future Ohio and the Ohio Environmental Council released a report entitled The Bill Is Coming Due: Calculating the Financial Cost of Climate Change to Ohio’s Local Governments. The report explains in detail how climate change is raising costs of everything from street maintenance to construction projects in cities. As an example, this excerpt from testimony PCFO Executive Director Joe Flarida gave to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee describes how Cincinnati had to spend $18 million from its operating budget to reinforce a hillside that was collapsing due to increased rainfall in the city—$18 million that was intended for a new police station.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed into law on August 16, 2022, directs significant federal funds to initiatives to address climate change, and many of those funds will go directly to cities and other local governments that are impacted by climate change. Those funds could not be more needed or timely. Shortly after signing the Inflation Reduction Act, the White House released fact sheets detailing the impact of the law in each state—Ohio’s fact sheet highlights, among other things, funding for a new Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program and investments in clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades (more detail below).

Funding for Cities in the Inflation Reduction Act

The following is what we know about specific funding in the IRA for cities. This info is drawn from this fantastic post at Columbia Law School’s Climate Law Blog.

• Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund – a new greenhouse gas reduction fund, administered by the EPA, will provide billions of dollars in direct and indirect investment in projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the local level. Municipalities are eligible for the over $26 billion available via grants, loans, and financial and technical assistance via this program. $8 billion of that total is specifically earmarked for activities in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
• Climate Pollution Reduction Grants – $250 million to municipalities to develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and $4.75 billion for grants to implement greenhouse gas pollution reduction plans.
• Zero Building Energy Code Adoption – local governments that have building code authority can apply for $330 million in funding from the Department of Energy to develop or adopt new building codes.
• Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles – the IRA contains an appropriation for $600 million for costs associated with replacing non-zero-emissions heavy-duty vehicles with zero-emissions vehicles. The funds can also cover fueling and charging infrastructure for cities.
• Low Emissions Electricity Program – the IRA contains a $17 million appropriation for outreach and technical assistance to local governments for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that result from domestic electricity generation and use.
• Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program – funding for highway removal, remediation, or capping, with a focus on mitigating the impacts of highways and building or improving complete streets, multiuse trails, regional greenways, or active transportation networks. The IRA sets aside $1.893 billion for use in any community, and $1.262 billion for economically disadvantaged communities.
• Environmental Review Implementation Funds – $100 million in funding for local governments to facilitate and build capacity for environmental review of surface transportation projects.
• Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants – new block grant program that makes $2.8 billion available for (1) community-led air and other pollution monitoring, prevention, and remediation, and investments in low- and zero-emission and resilient technologies; (2) mitigation of urban heat islands, extreme heat, wood heater emissions, and wildfires; (3) reducing indoor air pollution; (4) climate resilience and adaptation; and (5) facilitating engagement of disadvantaged communities.
• Coastal Communities and Climate Resilience – $2.6 billion for the conservation, restoration, and protection of coastal and marine habitats.
• State and Private Forestry Conservation – $1.5 billion to support tree planting activities.

Ensuring that all cities that want help navigating the plethora of bipartisan infrastructure law funding opportunities have access to such help is crucial to the success of the law. Ohio cities have several options for information and help. We have compiled them here to ensure that they are all easy to find and access.

Local Infrastructure Hub Grant Application Bootcamp – technical assistance program to help smaller and mid-sized cities (with populations below 150,000) access federal infrastructure funds. The bootcamps will be 3-4 month programs focused on a particular federal grant program and is designed to help cities with less federal grant application expertise prepare competitive grant applications for the focus program. Registration for this fall’s programs is open until August 31, 2022.

Power a Clean Future Ohio Infrastructure Grant Assistance Program (IGAP) – available to all Power a Clean Future Ohio communities. IGAP is a technical assistance program designed to make Ohio cities and counties more competitive for federal grants. The focus is on clean energy and clean transportation projects that will further expand Ohio’s clean energy economy and reduce emissions.

The Ohio Mayors Alliance Grants Navigator Assistance – Ohio Mayors Alliance members may access one-on-one advice and assistance in developing a plan to access and maximize federal funds available to meet their cities’ goals. Interested OMA members may contact Sarah@ohiomayorsalliance.org for more information.

Federal Agency Resources

• Department of Transportation Navigator
  • The DOT Navigator is a new resource to help communities understand the best ways to apply for grants, and to plan for and deliver transformative infrastructure projects and services.
• Department of Energy Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding Opportunities
  • For the next five years, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will stand up 60 new DOE programs, including 16 demonstration and 32 deployment programs, and expands funding for 12 existing Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (RDD&D) programs.
• Internet For All
  • Information about programs related to planning, infrastructure, and adoption of high speed internet, with links to grant programs through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Treasury, and the Department of Agriculture.
• Green Infrastructure Funding Opportunities
  • US Environmental Protection Agency grant programs and information.

Finding Grant Programs

If you want to search for grant programs available to cities more generally, here are a couple of good places to start:

• The Local Infrastructure Hub grant search engine – this will give you absolutely everything available right now through the IIJA/bipartisan infrastructure law, and can be a bit overwhelming, but is comprehensive.
• The Ohio Grants Navigator – a list of grants available from various Ohio state agencies (click on “funding opportunities”). Examples of currently-available grant programs include the body-worn camera grant program and H2Ohio lead line mapping (both funded by state American Rescue Plan money).

“I do not believe purchasing of snow plows is transformational.”

The statement above, from a City Council member in Warren, Ohio, summarizes one of the struggles cities are grappling with as more and more of them propose, commit, and spend American Rescue Plan (ARP) Fiscal Recovery Funds. On one hand, Congress and the U.S. Department of Treasury have explicitly tasked cities with building “a strong, resilient, and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity.” On the other hand, cities face an endless list of general budgetary needs–from snow plows to street maintenance to law enforcement salaries and equipment and so on. These budgetary realities intersect in a variety of ways and are demonstrated clearly in the diverse ways cities are allocating and spending ARP (and bipartisan infrastructure act) resources.

The Ohio Mayors Alliance has been busy compiling U.S. Treasury data on how OMA cities have been planning for and spending their ARP funds. As of March 31, 2022 (when all cities had to file either a quarterly or annual report with Treasury), OMA cities had spent only about 12% of their total ARP allocations. They have, however, budgeted over $325 million to 170 projects across the state of Ohio, and are continuing to grapple with the question of meeting basic needs v. spending ARP’s one time funds in transformational ways. We expect to see the amounts of funds budgeted, approved, and spent rise drastically as more report data from cities is released by Treasury.

As Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said in a recent op-ed, “we are not talking about spending ARPA dollars on one-off projects and programs. Such a list would be endless and, after three years, we would find ourselves in the same place we started. Instead, we need transformational strategies that can reverse decades of decline and disinvestment, improve residents’ quality of life, address economic and social disparities and enhance our competitiveness.” Cleveland, for example, has taken an explicitly transformational approach to planning for the expenditure of the over $400 million in ARP funds it has remaining to budget. Cleveland is assisted in this effort by experts from the Brookings Institute, and has created an explicit evaluation guide that will provide a matrix of factors for city leaders to consider as they evaluate and make plans for the city’s available funds. Other OMA cities, like Warren and Elyria, are taking a hybrid approach, using funds to fund needed equipment upgrades (including, yes, snow plows), but balancing that approach with an analysis and discussion of what kinds of spending plans will provide long term benefits to their communities.

As cities grapple with these choices and make decisions, OMA will catalog and report on the innovations they pursue and the successes they achieve. If nothing else, however, publicly discussing and sharing the decision making process provides state policymakers and residents with a crash course in understanding the issues local policymakers balance every day as they govern their communities.

The passage of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) made it clear that the switch to electric vehicles is happening, and that cities need to get ready. This Bloomberg Cities Network piece outlines four steps cities across the country are taking in furtherance of the switch to electric vehicles (EVs). Some Ohio cities are already doing some of these things, but for cities that aren’t, it’s a useful list of ideas for planning and development topics:

1. Establishing community car sharing programs and charging stations
2. Electrifying city-owned vehicles
3. Electrifying public transit
4. Requiring new buildings to be ready for EV charging infrastructure

Among the EV-ready ordinances highlighted in the Bloomberg article is Columbus’ draft EV-Ready Parking Ordinance, which was open for public comment during the month of May 2022 and is under consideration in Columbus City Council. This comes after a 2019 ordinance that eased installation of EV parking spots for developers and businesses.

Youngstown mayor Tito Brown co-chairs a national EV infrastructure task force for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, leading discussions with cities across the nation about how they’re making use of IIJA and ARPA funds and preparing their cities and neighborhoods for EVs. Youngstown also recently joined Power a Clean Future Ohio, so expect to see more leadership from Youngstown on this issue.

Links to more information about EV policy planning is at the bottom of the Bloomberg article, and there is lots of support and information to be found for Ohio cities at the Clean Fuels Ohio website as well. Cities that would like to get some free support and planning assistance may also consider joining Power a Clean Future Ohio.