How should cities prioritize and layer federal funding?

A municipality can engage in some general best practices to assist with the prioritization of funds. The following process is just one example of a way a municipality can approach this issue:

• Assess relative need.
• Determine the total assistance available for each need. Some funding sources can address a broad variety of needs, while others have a narrower field of allowable activities.  Aligning the funding with more specific use restrictions to projects addressing those eligible uses will allow the funding with a wider range of allowable uses to address other needs.    
• Compare expenditure deadlines with project timing requirements. If a project will run 18 months and requires 3 funding sources (all with different expenditure deadlines), the municipality may need to coordinate the use of each funding source (utilizing the sources with most restrictive timelines first) to maximize the funding and not put the project at risk.  
• Understand that Non-duplicative assistance is excluded from final benefit calculation. Examples of non-duplicative assistance include:funds used for a different purpose;
  • funds used for the same purpose, but a different eligible use;
  • funds not available to the applicant;
  • private loans; or
  • other assets or lines of credit.  
• Match unmet needs with allowable uses to secure funding.

Last Revised: April 14, 2021