Economy

50 Cities That Got Over $100 Million From the Government

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 18, 2021 9:30 am

The federal government launched a $350 billion program to help cities, counties, territories, tribal governments and states recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of the American Rescue Plan Act, the program is called the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Fifty cities got over $100 million. A total of over 4,000 places will receive some level of aid. The city that got the most money received almost $4.3 billion.
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As the program was released, the Treasury Department listed its purposes:

Support urgent COVID-19 response efforts to continue to decrease spread of the virus and bring the pandemic under control

Replace lost revenue for eligible state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments to strengthen support for vital public services and help retain jobs

Support immediate economic stabilization for households and businesses

Address systemic public health and economic challenges that have contributed to the inequal impact of the pandemic

Among those it is meant to help are essential workers, small businesses, industries particularly hard hit and upgrades in infrastructure, including water, sewer and broadband systems.

The largest sum of money was earmarked for states and the District of Columbia at $193.5 billion. That is followed by counties at $65.1 billion, metropolitan cities at $45.6 billion and tribal governments at $20 billion.

According to an analysis by Route Fifty, the county that got the most was Los Angeles County, the largest in the nation by a population, with over 10 million people. It received $1,949,978,847. The largest receiving city by far was New York City, with a figure of $4,259,566,740, according to the same analysis. It was followed by the third-largest American city, Chicago, which received $1,886,591,388. Los Angeles, the second-largest American city by population received $1,278,900,928.

Other relatively small cities got more money than large ones. Detroit ranked fifth among cities with federal aid of $826 million. It is no longer one of the top 20 cities in America based on population. Baltimore, also not in the top 20, ranked seventh in aid at $525 million. Cleveland ranked eighth with an aide level of over $511 million.

The 50 Cities That Got Over $100 Million in Aid

Click here to see which are America’s richest cities.