Mayor Greg Fischer: How American Rescue Plan funds are transformational for Louisville

When signing the American Rescue Plan into law a year ago, President Joe Biden stressed that this landmark legislation was designed to help every corner of a struggling America, and every American, in the wake of a once-in-a-century pandemic that had already killed more than 500,000 people. 

The deaths from COVID-19 and the unknown potential for more misery had driven workers to stay home, businesses to close, and enormous losses of wages, which threatened our national economy – before widespread free vaccinations to fight it could gain traction.

“ … I promised the American people … that help was on the way,” President Biden said at the ARP press conference on March 12, 2021. “We’ve delivered on that promise. And I don’t mean I’ve delivered; we’ve delivered,” he continued, citing federal legislators who were key in ARP becoming law. 

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In that brief excerpt, the president used the most important words about the $1.9 trillion allocated to boost the human and economic recovery from the cruel impact of the virus:

“We” and “help.”

Words for people – and communities – to live, and thrive, by. 

I was President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors at the time, and I knew from what was happening in my own city and in conferring with my fellow mayors just how badly people and companies needed relief. Cities were on the front lines of the public health crisis, facing rising expenses to fight the virus, dealing both with the economic pain and increased demand for city support services. 

If the nation had a doctor writing a prescription for what we 330 million Americans in 50 states needed, she would have written “ARP.” 

We know it now as a fund to help people grapple with the fallout of the pandemic, and to help communities beat COVID-19 in their own backyards, provide resources for public services, and support cities in jump-starting efforts to get their economies back on track. 

Louisville Metro’s dose of that vital prescription was $388 million to fight the virus and build and create a more prosperous and equitable future for all of us – the goals of our Build Back Better, Together, initiative.

We leaned on the work of BBBT, as well as our plan for Advancing Racial Equity and the community-driven document, A Path Forward, along with guidance from Metro Council, residents, businesses and other partners, to help guide our city’s ARP investments. 

We knew from the start that, while $388 million is a great deal of money, it’s not nearly enough to solve every challenge facing our city. So along with the Metro Council, we began applying it to critical priorities, recognizing this influx of money as a rare opportunity to turn investments we hoped to make “someday” into “today,” and to do it with efficiency, accountability, equity and transparency. 

We focused our initial rounds of investments, around $30 million, on the immediate and urgent challenges of COVID-19-related health needs; the housing, food and utility instability experienced by vulnerable residents; and economic recovery.

A second round of funding was divided chiefly among public safety, homelessness and affordable housing, and premium pay for public employees.

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This includes: 

• Public safety – $42.6 million. We are making reforms in public safety, based on recommendations in the Hillard Heintze review of the Louisville Metro Police Department and improvements learned so far from a Department of Justice investigation. To further address violent crime, we accelerated investment in the prevention and intervention of violent crime. And we are developing a juvenile assessment center designed to receive and assess youth offenders and ensure accountability measures are in place combined with needed services from community partners. 
• Homelessness and affordable housing – $89 million. We are making a $40 million deposit in the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund to build new affordable housing throughout the city, which brings our total fund investment to a record $100 million since I took office. We invested $10 million in ARP funding in eviction prevention, helping residents across the community maintain safe and stable housing in the wake of the pandemic. For our homeless community, we’re creating permanent supportive housing units, including wrap-around services, and opening a safe outdoor space, called Hope Village, to address the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness as we work to help them transition to more stable housing.
• Premium pay – $21 million across Metro Government’s 5,500 employees. A well-deserved payment to recognize the work of public safety, public health and other essential workers during the pandemic.

We will be presenting our third round of funding soon that will focus on workforce development and neighborhood investments.

As I’ve said since the start, the ARP legislation and the funds it provides are transformational – for our cities and our country. ARP emphasizes our interdependence – as Louisvillians, as Americans and as human beings – a strong reminder of how much good we can do when we work together. 

President Biden said help was on the way, and indeed, we are seeing evidence – from the work we’ve done to test and vaccinate residents against the virus to the thousands we helped avoid eviction, to the work we’re doing to ensure our city’s economic momentum continues.

And with the additional investments we make this year, and those made through 2024, more help is coming. 

As we seize this historic opportunity to work together on transformative investments in equity, public safety, economic development, housing, transportation and human capital, we are moving our city forward in an exciting and dynamic fashion.

WE – all of us together - are delivering.

Greg Fischer is the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky.