NWA EDITORIAL: Open the tap

Everyone appreciates a successful rescue.

Thanks to YouTube and other digital services, we've all been able to witness some. A firefighter emerges from a burning home carrying a child. Neighbors use ropes to pull a stranded motorist through raging floodwaters to the safety of higher ground. Passersby stop and provide CPR to a woman who collapsed.

Simple. Direct. Action.

The U.S. government response to covid-19 has been some of that, but simple isn't a description most would use. Payouts to Americans so they could spend in the name of economic recovery were the most direct action. Then there were loans to help businesses and organizations keep people on their payrolls.

And governments at every level got millions to deal with the effects of the pandemic. Given discretion on how to allocate the funding, some have spent all or some money as reimbursements for money spent on covid-related expenditures. Others, such as both Benton and Washington counties, have hoarded it, with some leaders questioning county government's capacity to deliver direct aid to residents even if it is shown to be needed. Other officials simply say it's better to keep the money in reserve out of an abundance of caution, even as Northwest Arkansas' tax revenue collections don't show much in the way of taking a hard hit from the pandemic.

Critics have suggested some of our government leaders in Northwest Arkansas have fiddled as the Ozarks burn, at least relative to the plight of the people most vulnerable to disruptions in their income. The counties have delivered some rental assistance by way of federal funding made available for that purpose.

All of the aforementioned fiscal debate came as a result of what was, comparatively, tiny sums when set against the 2021 American Rescue Plan. That piece of legislation in the U.S. Congress, signed into law by President Joe Biden in March, totals $1.9 trillion dollars, including $350 billion to be doled out to local and state governments, many of which simply haven't shown a serious need to be rescued.

"I can't tell you how opposed I am to spending all this money we don't have," Benton County Quorum Court member Mike McKenzie of Rogers said at a recent meeting, citing the federal deficit. "I'm very, very conflicted."

"We're not going to stop it from being spent," fellow Quorum Court member Susan Anglin of Bentonville responded, noting its allocation was by an act of Congress.

So, yes, the money is coming, courtesy of future generations. And it's likely nobody is going to reject spending it over the next 3 1/2 years in which it can be spent.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, not exactly a fiscal wildling, is getting ready for the $1.57 billion state government will be handed. He announced last week appointment of a 15-member steering committee within state government to recommend best uses. For his part, he suggests using the money on capital projects, such as expansion of broadband internet and cybersecurity protection within government.

Such recommendations point out what we all know: The American Rescue Plan isn't about rescue so much as it is about spending. For state and local governments, covid-19 may prove the catalyst for unprecedented windfalls for which shopping lists are already being drawn up.

Hutchinson says he wants the panel to coordinate with cities, counties and education agencies so that Arkansas can be "methodical about this and not rush" to spend the waves of cash coming from Santa Congress. Hutchinson at least urged decision-makers to treat the money as a one-time windfall and not be foolish enough (our term) to use it for ongoing expenses.

Local governments in Northwest Arkansas, as we noted, have wrestled with spending of relatively small amounts that came from last year's CARES Act. Under the American Rescue Plan, the numbers just grow bigger: Fayetteville, $17 million; Washington County, $46 million; Rogers, $11.7 million; Benton County, $54 million; Springdale, $21.4 million; Fort Smith, $21.2 million; and Bentonville, $6.9 million.

We can understand and appreciate the argument that Congress' spending isn't doing future generations any favors. So, if state and local governments choose to spend the money, leaders ought to make sure it's used for lasting effect. The relationship to covid-19 will, in many cases, be entirely imaginary except for the economic stimulus it may help provide.

Where there are large sums of money, one can expect a healthy dose of politics to be injected in spending decisions, at the local and state levels. It's our hope, and what's best for our communities and state, that such partisan games be kept in check. Better would be attempts to find common ground.

As for the people of each community and the state of Arkansas, it will become quite important and relevant to watch closely how the money is spent and whose advocacy is focused on real community and state needs verses political posturing.