County should share ARPA windfall with nonprofits

Money provided by the American Rescue Plan Act was meant to be given in part to nonprofit organizations to help them meet the needs of their communities.

The general purpose of the $350 billion distributed to state and local governments by the federal government under ARPA was to provide relief for people recovering from the Covid pandemic. Government programs and projects are prominent in the spending guidelines issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, but support for nonprofits is included among the defined uses of ARPA funds.

This makes perfect sense. Nonprofit groups provide means that are often more effective than government to assist the families and individuals affected by the pandemic.

There seems to be some confusion about this among the officials who are deciding how to spend the remaining millions of Ozaukee County’s $17 million ARPA grant. Several of the County Board members on the Executive Committee are insisting that the money is meant to be spent on county government projects and very little or none of it to support nonprofits. Indications are that a relatively paltry $1 million or less may be earmarked for nonprofit groups.

The first ARPA spending decision made by the County Board—$5 million to help Ozaukee communities hire emergency medical personnel—aligns ideally with the goals of the federal relief program. The EMS staffing that communities will now be able to afford is a direct bene fit to the public.

The same cannot be said, however, about a decision to spend $1 million of the ARPA funds on a Sheriff’s Office storage building or large amounts on other county projects of less than urgent need.

Resistance to more generous help for nonprofits may be fueled by some of the outlandish funding requests the county received. In retrospect, it was a mistake for the county to invite groups to “dream big” in submitting their applications for a share of the ARPA funds.

The nonprofit organization involved in the Northern Gateway development in Saukville dreamed of getting $1.5 million toward constructing a 200-unit apartment building for people with developmental disabilities. Interfaith Caregivers asked for $1.2 million to buy a fleet of 12 Tesla electric cars. The Saukville Community Food Pantry sought $1.1 million to buy a building and the Feith Family YMCA wanted $650,000 for a new swimming pool.

The county should ask all of the nonprofits to reapply within reasonable limits and support their applications with information on how the pandemic affected their sources of funding and increased the need for their services. Relief, rather than grand expansions of facilities, should be the essential purpose of ARPA distributions.

Then the Executive Committee should heed the words of Supr. Patrick Foy, who is not a member of the committee but said at the panel’s recent meeting: “I don’t buy the argument that our responsibility (in spending the ARPA money) is to county government. Our responsibility to the betterment of the county.”

The county’s nonprofits are devoted to the betterment of the lives of the people of Ozaukee County. Federal pandemic relief money was intended to support organizations like them. The County Board should show its respect for that with a generous distribution of its nearly $9 million of remaining ARPA money—even if it means spending a bit less of it on that storage building.