The city and county of Denver are expecting a big payday after the passage of the $1.9 trillion federal spending bill last week, intended to foster recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Colorado Municipal League, the city is set to receive $170.04 million — more than double the amount of any other city in the state, with Colorado Springs coming in second-place at $76.77 million. Denver County is expected to receive $141.04 million.

“The funding for cities in the American Rescue Plan comes at a critical time for Denver and our residents,” said Mayor Michael Hancock. “We’re ready to help get this relief out to our communities as we move from rescue to recovery.” 

This funding can be used to pay for pandemic response, essential workers, infrastructure and assistance to small businesses, households and industries.

These spending guidelines are intentionally much broader than that of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act from last year, said Kevin Bommer, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League.

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“It is intended to spur the economy to ensure we don’t have the type of lagging recovery that we saw with the recession,” Bommer said.

For example, the funding can be used on water and sewer infrastructure projects to help put people to work and get communities across the state caught up on an ever-growing list of infrastructure needs, he said.

The funding can also be used for government services cut during the pandemic.

Approximately two out of every five municipalities in Colorado cut their general fund budget – typically spent on services like police and parks – because of the pandemic, according to a Colorado Municipal League survey.

The Mayor’s Office said officials are still awaiting guidelines from the Treasury Department regarding how Denver will spend its funding, adding that they could receive anything between $140 million and $300 million because Denver is a consolidated city and county.

Currently, Hancock plans to distribute the funds to restore service cuts, invest in areas of the city that support jobs and build on previous investments to economic recovery efforts.

“We will also continue to assess the equity and social impacts of budget adjustments to ensure programs, projects and other investments to help reduce disparities in our city,” Hancock said.

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“We also recognize the one-time nature of these much-needed funds, and hope to put them to work in a sustainable fashion while we get our city back on our collective feet again.”

The Mayor’s Office will work alongside the Denver City Council to identify a process for distributing the funds. The Department of Finance is presenting fund allocation planning to the City Council’s Budget and Policy Committee on March 25.

Council President Stacie Gilmore said she hopes the funds will address the Council’s priorities that they determined back in July 2020.

“(The priorities) still hold true today, such as mitigating involuntary displacement of our community members, supporting our residents experiencing homelessness and prioritizing the recovery of our workforce, local and small businesses and community organizations,” Gilmore said.

Other cities in the Denver metro area are also receiving a big chunk of the relief funds, including Aurora which is expected to get $73.27 million.

Arvada is set to receive $11.72 million; Commerce City, $10.45 million; Lakewood, $22.6 million; Longmont, $15.23 million; Thornton, $19.6 million and Westminster, $15.75 million.

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This comes out of Colorado’s total federal relief of $6.068 billion. Of that, $3.954 billion is going to state governments, $171 million is going to capital projects and $1.944 billion is going directly to cities, counties and towns.

The relief money will come in two payments, with the first half expected in the next two months for counties and larger cities, Bommer said. The second payment is expected in a year.

Governments have until 2024 to spend the relief dollars. Governments only had until the end of December 2020 to spend the CARES Act funding they received.

Last year, Denver received $127 million in CARES Act funding. Approximately $18 million was appropriated to the 2021 budget, to be spent in the year or returned to the federal government, according to a report from the Denver Post.

Of the remaining funds, $37.21 million was spent on city operations, $33.99 million on emergency shelters, $18.83 million on economic recovery, $8.2 million on housing support, $5.29 million on public health, $2.99 million on food assistance and $2.24 million on support for people impacted by COVID-19.

The Gazette’s Mary Shinn contributed to this story.