Two Wild Ideas for Nashville’s ARP Money
Here are (2) ideas for how Nashville can spend the remaining $164 million in American Rescue Plan money. These both fall within the Federal AND Metro guidelines.
A- Give the money to people who need it in the simplest and most direct possible way. Any resident at all. No questions asked — no strings attached to how it’s used. Maybe something like $500 (up to $1000) until the money runs dry. **Remember, we did have a historic tax increase while COVID was causing economic hardships on many. Nashville’s gov’t does not need to use this to repay lost revenue because we all Very Much Supplied All The Revenue They Wanted.**
B- Freeze all ARP money until the next Mayoral elections. $164 million isn’t exactly going to change Nashville, but our present distribution of it is chaotic. Let someone run on how that $164 million can be used best with their vision.
— A QUICK CAVEAT: These ideas and the below are not to say that a huge majority of the people involved in the distribution of this money truly want what is best for people. I disagree with the current chaotic distribution, but, I do believe it is well intentioned. —
Now, here is a Q&A with myself over why I think either of these ideas could work:
1- “Well, what’s wrong with our current distribution? Aren’t we building affordable housing and helping people out with their rent?”
Sort of!
Our current distribution appears to be that a group puts their hands out and then — utilizing the vague language governing who gets what — just sorta make up a reason why this should count. That’s how we get SUVs being purchased. Or, we make getting a grant an impossibly bureaucratic web (in which winners and losers are chosen pretty arbitrarily)… thus…. trapping the money when it really just needs to get out to people.
Per, CM Sepulveda’s APR Committee meeting recaps — just look at what our ARP Committee had to table at their previous meeting and will be discussing again at another special committee meeting just to hash out the details of this:
Such over complication to the simple idea of “give small businesses money.”
(And hey the Fairgrounds just asked for $1,000,000 too. Round numbers makes this all feel kind of pretend.)
2- “OK I like the idea of giving people money… but who is to stop someone from getting money who doesn’t need it?!”
From the Tennessean today here are some ways we’ve spent these Federal dollars.
(And don’t get me started on the MNPS / Meharry Medical College Ventures LLC contract…)
We currently give money to groups that don’t need it!
3- “Hey now, there’s a HubNashville survey that asks us, the residents!, to weigh in on where to spend the money. Maybe we should see this through and let the residents help decide.”
That survey is a mess.. but… if the argument is that we should allow a survey to decide then why not freeze all spending and allow the entire electorate to decide at the next election?
I dislike this survey and NOT A SINGLE THING from it should be taken seriously or worse, considered some sort of “mandate!”. Here’s just a random screenshot from it:
Not only does it jump around from very specific ideas to more broad uses, but, it also uses the opposite numbers you would think where 1 is “very important” and 5 is “least important.” A key thing to note: they didn’t add in the “very important” or “least important” language after releasing the survey initially. So, when I took it, I assumed like a normal person that 5 means MORE. Meaning, my answers are the OPPOSITE of what I wanted.
Also, only 1000 people (out of ~700,000) people have taken the survey.
Also, we have like 3483249803289 CMs, why are they passing the buck on to us here?
Also, if they chose to follow the survey results of 0.1% of the population (which again, many of the early responses are the opposite of what people wanted), the results are essentially limited to the pre-selected ideas they put into the survey.
I told you I don’t like this survey!
4. “Ok even if I accept the point that our distribution is chaotic and lacking of any theme or vision, isn’t there an urgent need to get this out into the community right now?”
Of course people need help — and many need it urgently! — but where do SUVs fit into this urgency? Laptops in the Mayor’s office?
In other words, if there is an urgent need to get this money out into the community we sure are not acting like it!
Hey, that’s why one of my ideas is to just GIVE PEOPLE MONEY WHO WANT IT.
5- “Yea but how would giving money to everyone who wants it even work? It could take us years to spin up a submission process — plus — we have to determine the criteria for who is eligible.”
Well let’s make it easy then. Here’s the criteria: “If you are a Davidson County resident and COVID caused you financial hardship then your household is eligible.”
Yes, people will lie! When there’s a huge pot of money for the government to distribute, people lie to get some! Money will absolutely go to people who do not need it.
You know what though… that’s OK. That’s the cost of doing business in order to get cash to people who do need the money.
6- “How much money we talking here?”
Well, there’s 282,000 households in Nashville. If every household wanted a piece of the money that would be $580 per household.
I think it’s fair to assume that not every household will ask for it. Meaning, we may be able to get about $1000 to households that need it.
To be safe though, I’d start at $500 and then do this again with the remaining money in 6 months time.
7- “One of the uses of the ARP money is to reimburse the government for lost revenue — and since Nashville had a historic tax increase right when the economy was hurting the most — a $500 check from Nashville seems fair given that I helped keep them afloat while I was hurting financially.”
Yes and without this sort of direct payment you likely would’ve never seen a penny of this anyway.
8- “This got me excited but I gotta admit, I’m a cynic and I can’t see those in government giving up the opportunity to get appointed to non-profit boards in years to come or have VIPs coming up to them right now asking for hundreds of thousands or even millions. That feels pretty powerful!”
That’s too cynical even for me. Let’s believe in the best in people! That’s the entire premise for Just Giving Everyone Who Needs It Some Money. Let them use it how it best works for them.
But, if there is a level of control that needs to be maintained over the distribution then maybe that’s why the next best thing to do is….
9- “Are you going to suggest just NOT SPENDING the money until the next election in 2023”
Yes — let’s freeze the money until the next election in 2023. If we can’t just Get Money to People then we at least owe it to ourselves to get the money out in a cohesive way that serves as a downpayment towards improving the greatest number of people’s quality of life.
Let’s let some ideas and vision help drive the bus on this. If you believe in allowing a survey to help dictate the distribution of funds, then, why not allow all voters to back the candidate whose vision most aligns with theirs instead?
