Treasury: ARPA Funds Must be Spent, Under Contract, or Under Purchase Order by 12/31/24; Appropriating for 2025 Budget or 2025 Expenses is Not Sufficient  

Some Notices Contained Incorrect Calculations; Check Portal for Correct Numbers 

U.S. Treasury personalized notices to townships last week detailing the amount of funds that each had obligated or spent through the April 30, 2024 report. However, some of these notices contained erroneous information. As such, Treasury sent a follow-up notice on October 31st that an error in their communications system may have resulted in townships receiving an email with an incorrect calculation of the amount of American Rescue Plan Funds not yet reported as obligated. Treasury clarified that they will provide corrected notices in the coming days. In the meantime, if your township would like to verify your prior reporting information, you can access Treasury’s portal at portal.treasury.gov/compliance using your login.gov credentials. The information in the portal is correct. 

As a reminder, all ARPA funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024. If townships are planning to spend on a project or purchase, this means that the bid must be awarded by December 31, 2024 for those services or purchases. Funds are also considered to be obligated if an item has been ordered for purchase but is not yet received. ARPA funds can also be considered obligated as personnel costs, including all salary, wages, and covered benefits.  

Please note that appropriating funds towards a specific project or for the 2025 budget or for a specific account is NOT sufficient and will result in the need to return these funds to Treasury in 2025. All unspent and unobligated funds will need to be returned to the federal government in 2025.  

Please note that reporting requirements for townships are NOT changing. All townships must file annual reports, not quarterly. As such, all townships will need to file an annual Project and Expenditure Report in April 2025, even if they previously reported spending all their ARPA funds. No reports are due until April 2025. PSATS will provide guidance on how to properly complete these reports when the reporting window opens in April 

As a reminder, ARPA funds can be used for nearly any normal township expense, such as payroll, fuel, insurances, and utilities; road, bridge, sewer, stormwater, public buildings, parks and recreation facilities, or other infrastructure; public safety costs, such as fire, ambulance, and police; and park and recreation expenses. The ARPA fund may used to pay for expenses between now and the end of the year or to reimburse the township for expenses from earlier this year. Want to learn more? Click here for PSATS ARPA Fact Sheet. Questions? Give PSATS a call at 717-763-0930.