CITY OF TALLAHASSEE
CITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED ON: March 25, 2009
SUBJECT/TITLE: American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Update
TARGET ISSUE: Financial Viability of the Government Target Issue

STATEMENT OF ISSUE
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. The purpose of ARRA is to create jobs, promote economic recovery and assist those who are most impacted by the recession by providing $789.5 billion in tax cuts, spending provisions and general welfare assistance to eligible entities and the public. This agenda item is intended to provide an update on activities that have taken place as it relates to the stimulus legislation and provide information on what actions staff is currently taking to ensure that the city is maximizing available opportunities to receive stimulus funds.

While many details of specific programs are forthcoming, city staff have been actively monitoring and taking action to ensure that we maximize available stimulus funding. There are three ways for the City of Tallahassee to access ARRA funding: formula allocation, competitive discretionary grants from federal agencies and/or through state agencies. To date, City of Tallahassee has received notification that it will receive $7,268,526 in ARRA funding in the areas of transportation, transit, community development, homelessness, and law enforcement (Attachment 1). Additionally funding totaling $5,257,102 has been identified and/or allocated to various agencies in the community. A listing of these is included in Attachment 2.

The City has also received notification of additional federal grant opportunities in the areas of water reclamation and reuse, water marketing and efficiency grants, COPS hiring, Edward Byrne Memorial competitive grant, brownfields, clean diesel technology, Neighborhood Stabilization, housing energy retrofits and Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants. Departmental staff have been notified of these and will be applying for funds as applicable.

Carrie Blanchard, Office of the Mayor

Anita Favors Thompson, City Manager

For additional information, please contact: Raoul Lavin at #8488 or Carrie Blanchard at #8002.

The Department of Management & Administration has been tasked with monitoring the federal grant announcements daily through www.grants.gov and forwarding the information to the appropriate departments with applicable deadlines for submitting grant applications. Attachment 3 provides a listing of grants identified to date through this process. The state of Florida has also established a website, www.flarecovery.com where information on the state’s role in distributing ARRA funds is forthcoming. Department of Management & Administration staff is also monitoring this website.

As grant writing skills will be critical for ensuring that the city’s grant applications are completed and submitted within the short time frames established by the federal and state governments, we are currently in the process of assembling a team of experienced grant writers from existing city staff that will be made available to assist departments with grant applications as necessary.

The funds that the City of Tallahassee receives through ARRA will also be monitored to meet federal and state compliance requirements as well as to be internally consistent with the City’s policy of Commission approval for the utilization of grant funding. The City Manager and the City Auditor have held discussions on how best to ensure processes are in place to meet all compliance and transparency requirements for federal stimulus funding. Moreover, as these funds are not currently appropriated in the fiscal year 2009 budget, these grant awards will have to be brought back for City Commission appropriation before any grant funds can be expended.

The ARRA also includes revisions to 2009 U.S. Federal tax withholding and Advance Earned Income Credit calculations. In accordance with the new legislation, staff in Accounting Services has recently updated the payroll system with the newly released withholding tables from the IRS that will result in more take-home pay for many of our employees. The approved tax cuts provide for a maximum tax cut of $400 to single filers making less than $75,000 and $800 to married couples making less than $150,000 and filing jointly. City employees who qualify will see the revised withholding amounts effective with the April 3, 2009 paychecks.

Fiscal Impact
To date the city has been notified of awards totaling $7.2 million in federal stimulus funding.

Attachments
Attachment 1 - Listing of City stimulus funding received/notified to date.
Attachment 2 - Listing of outside agencies stimulus funding received/notified to date.
Attachment 3 - Listing of grants identified to date through monitoring process.