Prisons, Water Infrastructure And Broadband: Where States Are Spending Their Pandemic Relief Funding

When President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law last March, he funded federal programs designed to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and provided a third round of stimulus to Americans. But the bill also provided $350 billion in aid sent directly to states, counties and local governments to spend as they saw fit. 

It was an almost unprecedented amount of money. According to an analysis from The Pew Charitable Trusts, states received aid equivalent to anywhere from 4.9 percent (Wisconsin) to 22.7 percent (Wyoming) of their spending in the previous fiscal year. Most states have a legal obligation to balance their budgets, which means unexpected surpluses like this are rare. But combined with previous coronavirus response bills and spending packages, the federal government has now spent almost $5 trillion addressing the pandemic, money that will flow through communities over the next decade and change the funding landscape in states and cities across the country.

States are awash with cash.