Onondaga County has $18.7 million in ARPA funds, faces 2026 deadline

Nearly $19 million in federal recovery money still sat unspent in Onondaga County at the end of 2024, leaving local projects on a hard clock: use it by December 31, 2026 or send it back to the U.S. Treasury. For residents expecting that money to show up in neighborhoods, shelters, classrooms and public health programs, the balance means the payoff from the county’s biggest pandemic aid package is still unfinished.

Onondaga County received $89,452,165 in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act, and county officials said the money would support poverty reduction, infrastructure and economic development. The county comptroller’s 2024 audit said all of the funds had been obligated by the federal deadline of December 31, 2024, but $19,035,690.26 remained unspent as of that date. The comptroller’s office recommended county administration take steps to make sure the obligated dollars are spent before the 2026 deadline.

The county’s recovery plan tied the money to a broad set of local needs, including school-based mental health, a new homeless shelter, neighborhood revitalization, early intervention and public health fellows. In public materials, the county described the ARPA dollars as part of a comprehensive plan to make historic investments in infrastructure, the economy and residents. That promise has been important in a county where the ARPA program was also linked to bigger regional changes, including the Micron Technology project and the workforce demands it is expected to bring to Syracuse and surrounding communities.

A July 31, 2024 recovery performance report said the county had completed 8 of its 17 projects, with several others nearly complete. That progress matters because the federal rules are not flexible: local governments nationwide had to obligate ARPA funds by the end of 2024 and spend them by the end of 2026. Onondaga County’s latest balance shows the difference between money on paper and money felt on the street, where the question is no longer how much was promised but how much can still be turned into visible results before the deadline closes.