State Legislators Prepare for Appropriation of $7 Billion from American Rescue Plan Relief Package

As many Americans find stimulus checks cushioning their bank account over the last week, the state expects $7 billion from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan COVID-19 relief package. State legislators are preparing the process to have the federal funds flow through the state.

"We have to figure out how many of those dollars have strict funding formulas for municipalities, educational entities, cities, counties and all these other forms of government, because we may not have as much flexibility as we'd want to on all those dollars," said 12th District Senator Brad Hawkins.

Senator Hawkins added like previous stimulus packages, there is a percentage of funds the states can retain and appropriate later. This would allow the state to retain up to potentially $1 to $2 billion to apply toward its budget.

"While I'm excited about the revenue and know there's a lot of need, I'm just kind of scratching my head, wondering if we're going to have to borrow from China to do all this," said Senator Hawkins.