The Times-Independent

City mulls how to spend its Biden bucks



The City of Moab expects to receive $600,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed by President Joe Biden on March 11.

File photo

Though the city expects to receive half the cash sometime in May, it is “still evaluating how the funds might be used once they are received,” according to Lisa Church, the city’s communications and engagement manager.

In January, then-Finance Director Klint York said that the city had a budget surplus of $1.5 million, mostly due to an infusion of $1.2 million in federal CARES Act funding. At that point, the city had also spent $1 million less than it did in 2019.

In December, the city had been down $2.5 million from pre-pandemic expectations. Of that, $1.4 million was from lost sales tax revenue; the remainder was shortfall the city had already anticipated.

Half of the $600,000 allocated to Moab by the Rescue Plan will come sometime this summer; the other half will come next year, according to Rachel Stenta. She was the city’s finance director before York and is helping the city prepare a budget in light of his recent departure.

Though the local economy lost revenue by virtue of the pandemic, local sales had recovered to 85% of normal by June and even set record highs by September.

The somewhat surprise recovery put the city and county in better financial positions than each had feared as the pandemic started to take over.

With federal funds more than replacing both the county’s and city’s deficits, both now face the question: What can and should be done with the extra cash?