Smiley Proposes Changes to City ARPA Allocations: More for Housing and Replacing Parking Meters
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
The Providence City Council will introduce amendments at its upcoming meeting on Thursday proposed by Mayor Brett Smiley’s Administration to American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) ordinances I and II that will shift spending of these one-time federal funds toward "long-term investments."
Among the proposed changes would be moving more money to housing — and using $1,000,000 for replacing the city’s parking meters.
There are currently 2300 parking spots, with 1059 single-space meters and 92 multi-space meters, in the City of Providence.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCurrently, many of the city's parking meters do not accept credit cards or are broken.
According to the city, $1,550,925 was collected in parking meter revenue in the last fiscal year.
SEE PROPOSED CHANGES BELOW
“We have one opportunity to use this unprecedented funding, which is why I believe we should be using ARPA funds to make long-term investments that can improve critical infrastructure throughout our city,” said Smiley. “My Administration has carefully reviewed each line item and believes that while there have been some great investments made thus far, there are some allocations that need to be modified. We are working with the Providence City Council to ensure that the amended ordinance reflects our shared priority of wanting to get the most out of these federal dollars.”
According to his office, Smiley believes these one-time federal funds “should be used to improve the quality of our infrastructure, improve city services, meet current needs like the lack of housing in Providence, and to support long-term investments that will serve the people of Providence for generations to come.”
The office added that upon conducting a line-by-line review, the Administration “found several line items that weren’t appropriately funded to meet the intention of the initiative and or used one-time dollars to start programs that could not be sustainably incorporated into the City’s budget.”
Funding in Focus
Of the $166 million received in 2021, $81,415,264.18 in ARPA funding has been spent and a total of $84,898,864.82 is remaining. Of that $84,898,864.82, $64 million are obligated or encumbered and nearly another $20 million is being proposed for reallocation by the Smiley Administration.
The proposed amendments increase or adds eight ordinance lines, and 16 ordinance lines are proposed for reallocation in full or partially.
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