American Rescue Plan Act

Under the United States American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, Cumberland County is issued $57,300,874 in recovery funds to replace lost revenues and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The payment is split into two tranches, with the first payment of $28,650,437 arriving in May 2021 and the second payment of an equal amount scheduled to arrive no sooner than May 2022.

ARPA funds must be obligated no later than December 31, 2024. Funds must be spent no later than December 31, 2026.

Further guidance on the use of ARPA funds is in the links below; but broadly, these funds can be spent in the following categories:

  • Supporting the public health response
  • Addressing negative economic impacts 
  • Replacing public sector revenue loss 
  • Premium pay for essential workers 
  • Water, sewer, broadband infrastructure

Funds can generally not be used for:

  • Reducing taxes
  • Depositing extraordinary funds into a pension account
  • Certain non-federal matches
  • Debt Service
  • Legal Settlements
  • Rainy Day Funds
  • Infrastructure outside of water/sewer/broadband, or revenue loss to infrastructure projects
  • General economic development or workforce development unless related to the pandemic

Guidance Documents

The following are resources offering guidance for how counties can spend ARPA funds.

County Process

The following is Cumberland County's process for determining use of ARPA funds:

  1. Identify County needs - May/June 2021
    • Cumberland County staff will perform an audit of losses to Cumberland County 
    • County staff will identify further response measures necessary to the COVID-19 pandemic
  2. Identify short term qualified regional needs and issues - Summer/Fall 2021
    • Open public comment through County web site
    • Meetings with municipal leadership, state legislators
    • Meetings with industry experts and service providers
    • Meetings with Maine State department leadership
    • Public meeting(s) for comment to County Commissioners
  3. Identify medium-long term regional needs and issues - Ongoing
    • Continue to seek input from stakeholders on further investment
    • Continue to seek public comment through web portal
    • Continue to update and seek input from County Commissioners in public meetings

Upcoming Events

Public Comment Window: Open Now

Residents and interested parties can submit written comment through an online survey. This portal will remain open throughout the period that American Rescue Plan funds are available in Cumberland County.

Submit Public Comment here.

Public Forum - June 23, 2021, 7 p.m.

Cumberland County will also hold an online public forum on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 at 7 p.m. 

After a brief presentation from County staff, members of the public and interested parties are invited to make comments with their suggestions for use of the ARPA funds. Interested participants may register to speak until 3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23.

Because we're expecting a large turnout, we'll ask speakers to keep their remarks to within three minutes

Registration is closed.

To view the public forum: https://cumberlandcounty.org/live

Reports

Required reporting of County ARPA fund use will appear here.