The Town Crier - Legislative Backgrounder

Funding Guidance for Municipalities

On Monday night, the U.S. Treasury released guidance for Non-Entitlement Units of government (NEUs) generally categorized as municipalities with populations of less than 50,000 residents.

U.S Treasury has directed the State to make funding calculations based on specific instructions they provided. We have reached out to the State to ascertain how they plan to execute this program and will share more information when it is provided.

There are steps a NEU municipality must take to prepare funding requests, including:

-        Ensure your municipality has a valid DUNS number.

-        Gather your payment information:

• Municipality name, entity’s Taxpayer Identification Number, DUNS number, and address.
• Authorized representative name, title, and email.
• Contact person name, title, phone, and email of Financial institution information (e.g., routing and account number, financial institution name and contact information).

-        Confirm the top-line budget total (defined as municipalities’ total annual operating budget, including the general fund and other funds, in effect as of January 27, 2020).

-        Review award terms and conditions agreement (as provided by Treasury to be signed).

-        Review assurances of compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as provided by Treasury to be signed).

After submitting the request for funding to the State, please retain the documents and information for the first report to be submitted to the U.S. Treasury. Additional reporting instructions should be forthcoming but please note that there will be required reporting to the US Treasury and possibly the State including the Office of State Comptroller. If your municipality is not registered in SAM.gov, we suggest you do so as soon as possible after receiving the award.

NEU municipalities will be asked for the following information in their first report to the U.S. Treasury, among others:

• NEU Recipient Number (a unique identification code for each NEU assigned by the State to the NEU as part of the request for funding).
• Copy of signed award terms and conditions agreement.
• Copy of signed assurances of compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Copy of actual budget documents validating the top-line budget total provided to the State as part of the request for funding.

Available School Funding from the Federal Government

Congress appropriated $54 billion for K-12 school districts last December in the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. To date, many districts eligible for this funding have not yet applied to the NJ Department of Education (NJ DOE).

This funding is determined by a formula but each district must apply for these funds through NJ Department of Education (DOE).  

There are separate grants available to help address Learning Loss and Mental Health concerns amongst your students. Visit the NJDOE’s website for additional information and the application portal. The deadline to apply has been extended and is now June 1, 2021.

The American Rescue Plan also included an additional $122 billion in assistance for in K-12 schools. The NJ DOE released the allocations and application portal for this funding this week.

This set of funds will be released in 2 segments. School districts will initially receive 2/3 of their allocation, while the remaining 1/3 will be released once the NJ DOE receives approval from their federal counterpart.

For each of these three funding programs, we urge municipal officials to check with their local education administrators to ensure they have applied for this funding.