Following the official signing of the American Rescue Plan Act by President Joe Biden, more than $10 million in COVID-19 relief money will soon reach Moffat County residents, local government agencies, and more.

According to Sen.John Hickenlooper’s office, D Colo., 82% of Coloradans are expected to receive checks, or 4.7 million people, for a total of more than $6 billion in the state.

In Moffat County, roughly 5,000 residents will receive stimulus checks in the coming days, totaling nearly $7 million in funding.

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The nearly 5,000 residents receiving $1,400 stimulus checks comes from a 2019 estimate from the American Community Survey.

The American Rescue Plan will send $1,400 checks directly to people making less than $75,000 a year and married couples making under $150,000 a year. People with dependents would also receive $1,400 per dependent. People making between $75,000 and $80,000 will receive smaller checks, along with married couples making between $150,000 and $160,000.

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On top of residents’ wallets receiving funds, the city of Craig and Moffat County will receive roughly $4.52 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act.

The city of Craig is set to receive $1.94 million, while the county will receive $2.58 million, according to an official spreadsheet from the federal government, breaking down the funding for each metro city, municipality, and county across the country.

Hickenlooper’s office says roughly $4 billion would go toward the state government, while another $2 billion would be distributed to local governments, such as Moffat County and the city of Craig.

According to the act’s language, there aren’t many restrictions regarding how the dollars are to be spent.

However, City Manager Peter Brixius stated that the city is currently working through the language, gathering as much information as they can get prior to receiving the funds.

“What we’re doing at this point in time is gathering more information to see what we can apply it to at this point,” Brixius said. “Our departments all have their Christmas lists out at this point, so we’l see what we can do there, but we’re looking at infrastructure projects, studies that need to be completed, and more. But, we just haven’t sorted through all of that yet.”

Brixius added that the city has not heard from the state regarding a possible distribution date for the ARPA funds.

In addition to the stimulus checks for residents and funding for local government agencies, the relief bill also increases the child tax credit for one year, thanks to the push from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who has been pushing for the increase long before the pandemic started. The credit will rise from $2,000 to $3,000 per child between the ages of 6 and 17 and to $3,600 for children younger than 6.

Bennet, along with other supporters, recently said the expansion will cut child poverty in half. According to Hickenlooper’s office, more than 57,000 children in Colorado will be lifted out of poverty because of this expansion.

The childhood poverty level in Moffat County currently sits at roughly 20%, according to the American Community Survey.

jcarney@craigdailypress.com