How Wausau is spending millions in ARPA funding

Here we break down how Wausau is spending funds from the American Rescue Plan Act

President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law on March 11, 2021. The act is a $1.9 trillion aid package to address economic shortfalls that occurred as the result of the pandemic and America’s response to it.

Municipalities, including towns, villages and cities, along with counties, are getting millions in pandemic relief.

How is Wausau spending its ARPA funds? They’re still being allocated. But The Wausonian decided to break down how that money has been allocated so far, and list out proposals for future spending that the city’s Finance Committee will be weighing in on.

So far Wausau has allocated $3.2 million in ARPA funding. In May it approved another $600,000. And in June another $3.9 million will be considered. Altogether, that means roughly half of the city’s ARPA funding will be allocated (the city has a total of $15.5 million in funding), according to documents included in a recent Finance Committee meeting.

Some of the spending might seem odd if looked at through the lens of pandemic relief funding — but the goal is economic relief, and that means the city can do a lot of good putting these federal dollars to work.

Should that money have been allocated in the first place? That’s not for The Wausonian to decide, but with trillions being poured into the economy while interest rates remained suppressed, it’s not a surprise that inflation has skyrocketed. Now the feds are proposing multiple rate hikes this year, as opposed to starting early and easing into them more, the impacts could be swift.

But nonetheless, here is the breakdown of the city’s ARPA spending.