Special Briefing on COVID-19, the American Rescue Plan, and 2022 State and Local Budgets

The Volcker Alliance and Penn Institute for Urban Research hosted an online Special Briefing on how state and local governments are planning to use the $350 billion in direct aid contained in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act as they finish fiscal 2021 and ready budgets for FY 2022. Our expert panel discussed the impact on budgets of the act’s assistance to individuals and families, educational institutions, and health care and mass-transportation systems. Panelists included National Association of State Budget Officers executive director Shelby Kerns; Wayne County (Michigan) chief financial officer Hughey Newsome; Rochester (Minnesota) mayor Kim Norton; and Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.

The program was cohosted by William Glasgall, Volcker Alliance senior vice president and director of state and local initiatives, and Susan Wachter, co-director of Penn IUR. This briefing was the twenty-first in a series of sixty-minute online conversations featuring experts from the Volcker Alliance’s national research network and Penn IUR, along with other leading academics, economists, and federal, state, and local leaders.