AUSTIN, Texas — Travis County commissioners voted Tuesday on how to allocate nearly $74 million of the federal money available to the County through the American Rescue Plan Act.
County staff separated the spending into three different buckets, according to meeting documents.
The first bucket of $38.3 million will go to County programs that are already running, including workforce development, COVID-19 outreach, food assistance, child care assistance and more.
The second bucket of $500,000 will go to County programs that still need to be researched and developed, including $250,000 for broadband infrastructure and $250,000 for behavioral health and homelessness. More spending is expected to be added to this bucket after a community engagement process and County staff research.
"We have to have a process otherwise we are just going to be nickeled and dimed, and we'll end up giving it out like they're playing cards and passing out the money before we've done what we were going to do in response to the requests from the community," Travis County Precinct 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea said during Tuesday’s meeting.
The third bucket of $35 million will go directly to the County’s COVID-19 response, including technology for telework and personal protective equipment.
The County still has about 70%, or $173.5 million, left of American Rescue Plan funds to allocate.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: