For now, at least, the initial estimates put forward by the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission earlier this year appear to be more accurate than those that Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., With both councils in on consecutive nights. shared in late March. In Barre, City Manager Steve Mackenzie delivered the news by memo. In Montpelier, where city councils recently started a discussion on how to spend the expected money, city manager Bill Fraser warned that they might not get as much as they thought as the virtual meeting ended on Wednesday night.
Barre, Welch told local councilors on March 23, could expect to receive a total of nearly $ 2.5 million in two equal installments, including one that he understood at the time should have arrived by the end of last month. It didn’t. This is important because it accounts for roughly two-thirds of the money reported to Barre, Montpelier, and several other Vermont communities earlier this year.
Despite lobbying by Vermont Congressional Delegation Governor Phil Scott and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the Treasury Department has yet to change its unexpected decision that Vermont has general units of county government and a significant portion of the state’s ARPA allocation – more than $ 121.2 million – should go to them and not be distributed directly to cities and towns using a population-based formula. This week, the State Department of Finance and Management opened the web portal through which Vermont communities can request their share of $ 58.8 million in “local funding for financial recovery” available as part of the pandemic rescue plan. This is around a third of the previous plans and the payments to the individual municipalities are significantly closer to the original estimates of the regional planning commission.
Welch claims that funds earmarked for the county governments will be redistributed to local Vermont communities – an adjustment that the U.S. Treasury Department has not yet made and that, as Mackenzie and Fraser both warned their respective councils this week, may not he follows. Montpelier, Welch said the following evening, would receive $ 2.15 million in the same way in two installments.
According to the latest estimates posted on the VLCT website, both parishes will receive slightly more than forecast by the regional commission, but far less than Welch announced during his virtual visit to Barre. The commission originally forecast that Barre would receive a total of $ 840,000 and Barre Town would receive $ 760,000. Welch raised those estimates to $ 2.5 million and $ 2.26 million, respectively, based on the assumption that Vermont communities would receive county funds.
The same story is in Montpelier, where Fraser told city councilors on Wednesday night that they may not get the $ 2.15 million they should expect. Without a change, the city would receive around $ 772,000 in total in equal installments of about $ 386,000. Barre is currently expected to receive approximately $ 893,000 in equal installments of just over $ 446,000, while Barre Town will receive approximately $ 808,000 in installments of approximately $ 404,000 – one this year and one the next. In Barre and Barre Town, both payments do not add up to the first installment that would have been according to the figures published by Welch.
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