This Illinois State Association of Counties (ISACo) News and Views e-newsletter includes information about the U.S. Treasury Department's release of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) revenue replacement and expenditure reporting clarifications, reports on ISACo's partnership with a coalition of municipal associations to increase funding to counties and municipalities via the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF), announces upcoming National Association of Counties (NACo) webinar opportunities, spotlights ISACo corporate sponsor Comcast and invites counties to join ISACo.
The U.S. Treasury Department Releases ARPA and Expenditure Reporting Clarifications
On Tuesday, January 25, the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) released the following important clarifications on how to report revenue replacement and other expenditures in the Project and Expenditure Report:
- Option to defer the choice of claiming $10 million standard revenue loss allowance: If a county has not decided whether or not to take the standard allowance, Treasury won’t commit them to their reported choice in the January 31st report.
- What to do if a county has no projects to report on the January 31 Project and Expenditure Report: If your county has not yet identified any projects to report, please know that maintaining a project list is a core requirement of the Recovery Fund program. For the Project and Expenditure Report due January 31, 2022, Treasury will be offering an option to select “No Projects to Report” at this time. Selecting this option will require providing a written explanation and may result in additional compliance follow-up from Treasury. Please see the user guide for additional guidance; information will also be provided in the Project Overview module of the Project and Expenditure Report. If you have questions or need additional information, please send an email via SLFRP@treasury.gov.
- Additional resources and helpful information from Treasury: If you are unable to log in to Treasury’s State, Local, and Tribal Support portal after establishing your accounts or need technical or other assistance, please send an email to covidreliefitsupport@treasury.gov for assistance.
Treasury has posted a series of recorded webinars to assist recipients to understand and comply with relevant reporting requirements and assist recipients in accessing Treasury’s Portal. These webinars, along with additional information on these clarifications are available on the ISACo website via this link.
As a reminder, the following counties, the following counties are required to submit a Project and Expenditure Report the Treasury by January 31, 2022:
- Counties with populations that exceed 250,000 residents (referred to as Tier 1 recipients by Treasury)
- Counties with a population below 250,000 residents which received more than $10 million in Recovery Funds (referred to as Tier 2 recipient by Treasury)
The Project and Expenditure Report will cover the period between March 3, 2021, and December 31, 2021, and requires the reporting of project, obligations and expenditure data, subaward data, as well as certain required programmatic data.
ISACo Joins Coalition to Increase LGDF Funding
ISACo is partnering with a coalition of municipal associations asking the General Assembly and Governor to increase the income tax dollars the State shares with counties and municipalities via the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF).
On January 25, the coalition sent a letter to Governor Pritzker in support of two bills (HB 4169 - Representative DeLuca and SB 3010 - Senators Murphy and DeWitte) that would increase the local share of LGDF to 8% and make the distribution of these funds subject to automatic appropriation authority.
LGDF was established in 1969 as part of the newly-enacted state income tax. Counties and municipalities are allocated a percentage of the total state income tax revenues through this fund. The local share is distributed on a per capita basis. LGDF revenue is an important funding source for local governments and is a successful partnership between the state and eligible local governments.
Until January 2011, counties and municipalities received 10% of total state income tax revenues through LGDF. Following a temporary increase in state income tax rates in 2011, the percentage of income tax revenue allocated to LGDF for distribution to local counties and municipalities declined to 6%.
ISACo requests that county officials ask their state legislators to sign-on as co-sponsors of HB 4169 and SB 3010.
ISACo's Policy Brief about LGDF is available via this link.
NACo has announced the following upcoming webinar opportunities:
County Broadband Program: Key Considerations
(Tuesday, February 1, 2022, 11:00am-12:00pm CST)
Join the National Association of Counties (NACo) and KPMG for a webinar on how counties and local governments can successfully implement local broadband programs and effectively leverage public investment and funding programs. This webinar will help public sector agencies and officials understand key challenges and considerations for establishing a comprehensive broadband program for their counties and effectively leverage public-private partnerships to deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable broadband.
Click on this link to register for this event.
Family Farms: The County Role in Supporting America's Agricultural Institutions
(Wednesday, February 2, 2022, 12:00-1:00pm CST)
Join a discussion with NACo leadership to discuss the county role in supporting family farms. According to the USDA, almost 96 percent of farms in the United States are family-owned and operated.
Click on this link to register for this event.
CORPORATE SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
This week's corporate partner spotlight highlights ISACo's partnership with Comcast.
Comcast Corporation is a global media and technology company with three primary businesses: Comcast Cable, NBCUniversal, and Sky. Comcast Cable is one of the United States’ largest video, high-speed internet, and phone providers to residential customers under the Xfinity brand, and also provides these services to businesses. It also provides wireless and security and automation services to residential customers under the Xfinity brand. NBCUniversal is global and operates news, entertainment, and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures, and Universal Parks and Resorts. Sky is one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies, connecting customers to a broad range of video content through its pay television services. It also provides communications services, including residential high-speed internet, phone, and wireless services. Sky operates the Sky News broadcast network and sports and entertainment networks produce original content and has exclusive content rights.
With more than 6,000 local employees, Comcast’s Greater Chicago Region (https://chicago.comcast.com) serves customers in central and northern Illinois, including the Chicago area, northwest Indiana, and southwest Michigan.
More information about the services provided by Comcast is available via this link.
Click on this link to learn more about the benefits and opportunities available through ISACo's Corporate Partner Program.
Become an ISACo Member!
Is your county a member of ISACo? If not, why not?
ISACo is a statewide association whose mission is to empower county officials to provide excellent service to their residents.
ISACo member counties are comprised of forward-thinking public servants who recognize that the challenges confronting county governments require new and innovative ideas, collaborative solutions and collective advocacy at the state and federal levels of government.
Members of the association will benefit from education and training opportunities, peer-to-peer networking, shared resources and robust representation before policymakers at various levels of government. ISACo creates and connects county officials to these opportunities and successfully equips them to make counties ideal places to live, work and play.
If your county is interested in discussing membership in ISACo, please contact Executive Director Joe McCoy at (217) 679-3368 or jmccoy@isacoil.org. ISACo member counties are listed here. Thank you for your consideration.