In March 2021, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, which designated billions in federal funding to municipalities across the country to support the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City of Buffalo received $331 million – the biggest one-time investment from the federal government the city has ever seen.
$11 million of that cash was earmarked for a water bill debt-forgiveness program and allocated to the Buffalo Water Board.
But the program never happened and the money was spent elsewhere, according to a letter penned by Buffalo’s Acting Mayor, Christopher Scanlon, to the Buffalo Common Council.
It was a discovery he was “incredibly disheartened” to make.
In a statement…
