Let's Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

Update April 2024 - The Select Board did not give any premium pay to our essential workers in their dispersement of ARPA funds to date. There are still about $100,000 of funds remaining to be allocated. The deadline for spending these funds is looming. Let's consider thanking our essential works just as we thanked our teachers.

Original Blog Post - 2022

As we head into this Memorial Day weekend, it’s wonderful to see the flags going up along Concord Rd for the upcoming parade. And I was excited to see the announcement from the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce that the July 4th parade is also returning after a two year hiatus because of Covid. This year’s July 4th parade will be themed around “Heroes, Helpers, and Essential Workers” of the pandemic.

It’s been two years since we all added such words to our vocabulary as antigen test, positivity rate, N95, and more. There have been blue ribbons and yard signs and much lip service thanking our essential workers, but now perhaps would be a good time to also put our money (literally) where our mouth is.

A little over a year ago, in March of 2021, the American Rescue Plan was signed into law. The general idea of ARPA is to help us recover from the effects of Covid. The following are the high level ideas for use of ARPA funds:

• Revenue replacement for any reduction in revenue caused by the Covid pandemic,

• Expenditures related to Covid or negative impacts of Covid,

• Investments in infrastructure for water, sewer, and broadband,

• Premium pay for essential workers.

Let’s walk through these categories.

Revenue Replacement

Many municipalities around the country had reduced tax revenues because of Covid. Some people couldn’t pay their taxes because of unemployment; businesses brought in less revenue because of shut downs and therefore paid less tax. For these communities, ARPA funds are helpful to “replace” these uncollected tax revenues so that towns could continue to provide services (education, public safety, etc.).

Sudbury was not affected in this way. The majority of the tax revenue that funds our town services are from property taxes. And throughout the pandemic, our community has maintained its consistent high rate of property tax payment (~99%). We did not suffer from a lack of revenue like other communities. In fact, this past fiscal year, FY22, we had over $6 Million in free cash available. (Free cash is essentially the leftover money after all of our expenses are paid.)

Therefore, Sudbury doesn’t need ARPA funds to cover Revenue Replacement.

Expenditures related to Covid of the negative impacts of Covid

There were certainly a lot of expenses due to Covid, but there were also other grant monies available, like CARES grants. Masks, testing, and other Covid mitigation costs were covered by CARES and other funds. For details on these expenses for the last couple of years, you can refer to the Finance Committee documents collected from each cost center (Schools and Town) which document the expenses and the funding sources.

One area where the Select Board has already allocated ARPA funds is for the Sudbury Public Schools. The pandemic had an effect on kids and their learning, so the Sudbury Public Schools are increasing counseling and academic support to help our kids catch up academically and recover emotionally. There have also been some allocations for the Town Social worker and Health department.

Investments for infrastructure

With the switch to hybrid learning and increased virtual activities, investment in broadband infrastructure is something that will help many communities going forward. But, like the “Revenue Replacement” this is not really a big issue here.

Premium Pay for Essential Workers

Essential workers were the real heroes of the Covid pandemic. Despite the risk of illness, these dedicated people came to work and provided essential services so that our community was safe and could access medical or other services. Our dedicated Police and Fire Departments, Department of Public Works, Health Department, and Goodnow Library staff were reporting to work and putting the community before themselves. We have the opportunity with ARPA funds to reward these people and show them our gratitude.

For the teachers in the Sudbury Public Schools, the School Committee unanimously approved a 1.5% one-time payment for the 2021-2022 school year. Let’s consider a similar one-time payment out of ARPA funds for our essential town workers. With several Million dollars in ARPA funds to allocate, we can do this!

The Select Board will be discussing and voting on ARPA funds at their next meeting, Tuesday, May 31 at 7pm. If you believe that our essential workers deserve premium pay, please email them at selectboard@sudbury.ma.us and/or call into the meeting on Tuesday for public comment.