According to official guidance released by the U.S. Treasury (Treasury), the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) appropriated $2 billion to Treasury across fiscal years 2022 and 2023 to provide payments to eligible revenue sharing counties and eligible Tribal governments for use on any governmental purpose except for a lobbying activity. Eligible recipients must submit a request for funding to receive their payments, and further instructions can be found on the Treasury website. There is no pre-approval process for projects funded by the program. Recipients must submit periodic reports to Treasury on their expenditures.  
  
The purpose of the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) program is to serve as a general revenue enhancement program. Many eligible revenue sharing counties and eligible Tribal governments have historically experienced fluctuations in their revenues, and this program is designed, in part, to supplement existing federal programs that augment and stabilize revenues for these communities. In providing support to these communities, allocations under this program consider the economic conditions of recipients.  
  
Under this program, recipients have broad discretion on uses of funds, similar to the ways in which they may use funds generated from their own local revenue sources. Specifically, recipients may use these funds on any governmental purpose other than a lobbying activity. Recipients may maintain or expand public services – such as health, educational, housing, and public safety services – to their communities with these funds. Recipients may also invest in infrastructure – from roads and bridges to water infrastructure – to facilitate economic development, improve health outcomes, or transition their communities to clean energy. Recipients may also invest in restoring and bolstering government capacity, such as increasing the size of their government workforce or investing in improvements in service delivery, like technology infrastructure and data analysis resources, that will improve delivery of services to their communities for years to come.  
  
Based on methodology developed by Treasury, Contra Costa County is eligible for a non-competitive allocation of $100,000 over a two year period for broad use on local government projects (with the exception of lobbying as stated above). The County Administrator's Office plans to seek direction from the Board on how best to allocate these funds at the scheduled November 8, 2022 ARPA quarterly update.

The County will not be able to accept its allocation of Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund allocation.