Colorado has spent more than $9 billion of federal money from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act intended to foster recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the amount, more than $300 million went to the City and County of Denver.

Nearly 16 months after President Joe Biden signed the act, the Colorado Health Institute released an interactive graphic on Wednesday, tracking Colorado’s spending of the one-time ARPA funds.

“ARPA funding might not be top-of-mind for a lot of people right now, but it’s an unprecedented amount for the state, cities, counties and schools,” said Joe Hanel, communications director of the Colorado Health Institute. “A lot of the money is just starting to be put to use, and the impacts are going to be felt in health and social policy in Colorado for many years to come.”

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In total, the graphic shows just over $9.59 billion in spending, split amongst the state legislature, local governments, education, state agencies and other categories.

Here’s how the spending breaks down:

State legislature

The Colorado legislature spent the largest chunk of the ARPA funds, sitting at $3.62 billion. That money was delegated through more than three dozen bills in categories, including discretionary spending, economic development, behavioral health, housing and workforce.

Discretionary spending took up the most money by far, accounting for $1.65 billion or nearly 46% of the legislature’s total ARPA funds. The legislature invested $600 million into the state’s unemployment insurance fund, $380 million into transportation systems and $350 million into capital construction. Another $300 million was earmarked to be allocated at Gov. Jared Polis’s discretion.

Economic development bills received $649 million in ARPA funds, which were split between more than a dozen projects. The most expensive projects included $200 million for homeless resource campuses and prevention grants, $75 million to expand broadband internet access, $61 million to support the healthcare workforce and $52 million to recruit educators. Other notable efforts invested in local nonprofits, crime victim services and wildfire prevention.

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Behavioral health projects got $547 million of the funds, including efforts to expand the workforce, increase residential care capacity and address the fentanyl crisis. Housing took up $528 million with loans, grants and manufacturing efforts. Finally, $241 million was invested into the state workforce, including multiple grants and employee development programs.

Local governments

The state allocated $1.96 billion directly to local governments to spend themselves, with $1.12 billion going to counties and $845 million going to cities.

Denver got the plurality of the money, acquiring $141 million of the county funds and $167 million of the city funds, totaling $308 million. The other largest spending: $140 million to El Paso County, $128 million to Arapahoe County, $113 million to Jefferson County and $101 million to Adams County.

For the cities, Colorado Springs got $76 million, Aurora got $65 million, Pueblo got $37 million and Fort Collins got $28 million.

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Education

In the third-largest allocation, the state spent $1.53 billion on education — $1.04 billion of which went to K-12 schools and $495 million to colleges and universities.

The Denver County School District got the largest chunk of the funds with $210 million, followed by $77 million for Aurora Public Schools, $68 million for Jefferson County Public Schools, $60 million for Colorado Springs School District 11 and $46 million for Mesa County Valley School District 51.

The University of Colorado raked in $85 million, including $51 million for its Boulder campus and $34 million for its Denver campus. Other large investments included $50 million for the Colorado State University system, $46 million for the Metropolitan State University of Denver and $29 million for Front Range Community College.

State agencies

Four state agencies were granted $1.47 billion in ARPA funds, with most of the money going to the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

The Department of Human Services got $541 million, $465 million of which went to child care investments and grants. Another $28 million was spent on creating a mental health block grant, $23 million created a substance abuse block grant and $21 million was invested in programs and services for older Coloradans.

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The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing received $530 million and spent $280 million of it on workforce and rural sustainability projects. The department also spent $79 million on tools and technology, $63 million on COVID-19 recovery efforts, $57 million on expanding access to underserved populations and $17 million on crisis and acute services.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment got $281 million, all of which was spent on emergency COVID-19 responses. The Department of Education received $117 million, which was used as additional funding for K-12 schools.

Other

Just over $1 billion was spent on other miscellaneous projects throughout the state, with the biggest portion being $378 million for public transit. The vast majority of those funds — $304 million — went to transit projects in Denver and Aurora. Another $32 million went to Boulder, $18 million went to rural areas, $11 million went to Fort Collins and $7 million went to Colorado Springs.

Airports received a hefty $264 million of the ARPA funds. Of that, $233 million was invested in the Denver International Airport and the remaining money was split among smaller airports, such as the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.

Other projects that acquired substantial funding from ARPA included broadband internet, which got $170 million, local healthcare centers, which received $132 million, and small city homeless grants, which got $25 million.

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