Travis County still slated to spend millions in 2021 ARPA funding

Travis County has until the end of 2026 to spend $146 million of federal funding it received two years ago, according to the Planning and Budget Office.

On Tuesday, Dashiell Daniels with the county’s Planning and Budget Office told the Commissioners Court about the state of expenditures of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund – an almost $250 million allotment Travis County received in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

While the county has planned all of the allotted funds for county projects, it must obligate them by the end of next year and expense them by the end of 2026.

“We plan to provide continuous briefings over the next couple of months and quarters and years as we work toward expending all the funds within the required timelines,” Daniels assured commissioners.

Daniels said that Travis County received $247.5 million total from the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, and that, as of July, it has spent $18 million and “encumbered” – (or designated funds for a set purpose) – $83.6 million. Daniels told commissioners “encumbrances” are only reflected in the budget when there’s an actual contract written and approved by the Commissioners Court.

“That leaves a current unencumbered or unobligated balance of about $146 million,” Daniels said.

According to an overview of the expenditures provided by the Planning and Budget Office, about $35 million must still be obligated and spent toward social services projects; about $97 million will go toward supportive housing (and a small amount of that will go toward broadband infrastructure planning); and about $13 million will go toward “county direct and joint response,” a large portion of which is allocated for developing a radio frequency identification (RFID) system in the county jail.

“It’s envisioned to be an active system where (Travis County Sheriff’s Office) correctional employees would have a wristband, along with inmates, and it would track everyone’s movement throughout the campus,” Budget Director Travis Gatlin said of the project two years ago at a Commissioners Court meeting.

At the time, the RFID tracking was justified as a Covid measure – informing authorities whom to quarantine and when.

Daniels said there were 16 projects in the works – totaling about $27 million – that had not yet been obligated due to their recency.

“None of these projects are yet obligated because, as I said, there are no contracts with outside entities, vendors or nonprofits yet executed for them,” Daniels said.

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