What did Cincinnati do with its COVID money?
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The city council covered a lot of ground about the city’s current and future finances during their two December meetings. The narrative about the projected $30 million budget deficit and the open talk about an earnings tax increase signal where the city government is headed – an earnings tax increase.
The narrative incudes repeated references to how the city no longer has COVID money. “Oh no! What are we going to do without COVID money?” “I guess we just have to raise taxes. Isn’t it obvious?” At least that is what the politicians will likely be saying.
Keep in mind that, according to the mayor, the city has recovered from COVID. It is one of his major accomplishments. Presumably, that means that all the lost revenues experienced during COVID, are once again filling the city’s coffers. Since the primary purpose of ARPA funds was “revenue replacement,” that must mean that the problem is solved. COVID money is no loger needed anyway, right?
Also, most people are under the impression that the city received ARPA money based on how much revenue the city was projected to lose as a result of COVID. But that is not how it worked. The ARPA funding was formula based. I haven’t looked at the formula itself, but formula funding is much easier to distribute and less strict about its use. Chances are that the ARPA funding was greater than needed to cover eligible costs and as a result, there was new or extra spending that occurred with COVID money.
So, we need to examine exactly what the city did with our COVID money. How much of the COVID spending was “a must have” and how much was “nice to have.” The city was required to file annual reports with the federal government about its use of ARPA money. The 2024 and 2025 reports are posted above.
We will be examining the COVID funding issue and reporting back soon. My sense is that our examination will provide greater clarity, at least for this part of the politicians’ (and the Cincinnati Futures Commission) “tax increase narrative.”
On December 28, 2025, I posted the following update about the city’s 2025 Covid report:
