Senator Antonio Shares American Rescue Plan Details

Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, lives have become upended as businesses, schools, and state and local governments have lost revenue for vital programs in our community. However, I am pleased to announce that as of March 11th, help is on the way thanks to the American Rescue Plan. I wanted to share the details of this legislation and what it means for Senate District 23.

First, the American rescue plan allocates over $5.6 billion to the state of Ohio. These necessary funds will assist in vaccinations, Covid-19 testing, education funding for schools to re-open, and the ability for the state to make up for lost revenue. The rescue plan will also provide over $200 million in essential capital improvement projects throughout the state. Additionally, the plan prevents more than 300,000 workers from losing benefits like unemployment compensation and pandemic unemployment compensation (PUA). This protection of worker benefits helps weather the economic storm.

I am also very proud to announce over $87 million in direct aid to cities/ municipalities in our district. The relief for our local governments will help with infrastructure, city services, revenue offsetting and more. The breakdowns of these funds from the federal government are as follows.

• Brook Park: $3.6 million
• Brooklyn Heights: $290,000
• Brooklyn: Over $2 million
• Cuyahoga Heights: $120,000
• Lakewood: Over $50 million
• Linndale: $30,000
• Middleburg Heights: Over $3 million
• Parma: $24.25 million
• Parma Heights: $3.88 million

This funding does not include the $239 million in direct assistance to the Cuyahoga County government in which will aid multiple housing and infrastructure projects. This federal funding is an important first step in Ohio’s post-Covid road to recovery.