$800,000 in federal ARPA funds are being moved into the city of Benton Harbor’s general fund to help with monthly expenses as the city waits for residents to start paying their water bills again.
At a Monday meeting, commissioners were told regular payments of water bills are expected to resume in about a month as the city’s lead crisis has now been resolved. However, the utilities fund remains well below what it needs to be as a result of the non-payment. Commissioner Edward Isom checked the numbers.
“The utility funds are still very low,” Isom said. “Past due accounts are 30 plus days past due, totaling over $600,000 of the $1 million utility accounts receivable balance. Just to give you a little sense of how low they are, in two weeks in April of 2024, only $80,000 has been collected. If you look back in April of 2019, $175,000 used to get collected.”
The city has $900,000 in ARPA funds left, meaning after this, only $75,000 will be left after another allocation made Monday by commissioners. Mayor Marcus Muhammad said this is an approved use of ARPA dollars as they were intended to help communities respond to revenue losses.
Commissioners then moved the $800,000 into the general fund with Ethel Clark Griffin, Emma Kinnard, and Juanita Henry voting no. Clark Griffin expressed doubt this is an approved use of ARPA money.
