At a recent budget meeting, Marion County Commission Chair Kathy Bryant proposed an innovative use for the county’s $7.5 million in interest earned from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds: returning the money directly to taxpayers.
Bryant, emphasizing that the interest is “essentially taxpayer dollars,” floated the idea of sending refund checks to residents.
“At the end of the day, this is taxpayer money. It came down from the federal government. We used it for what we were allowed to use it within the parameters we were allowed to use it, and now we have the $7.5 million in interest that is essentially taxpayer dollars. Personally, I would like to try to figure out a way to give it back to the taxpayers,” she said…