Florida is among the states that used portions of American Rescue Plan Act funding aimed at COVID recovery to shore up police and other law enforcement.
Through ARPA, President Biden gave cities and counties $350 billion to recover from COVID-19 — the largest infusion of federal funding in local governmentsSome $52.6 billion of that $350 billion was categorized as “Revenue Replacement,” a vague catch-all category. And more than half of that money went to projects that mentioned police, law enforcement, courts, jails and prisons, The Marshall Project found.
The state budgeted $20 million of the money to build a new Florida National Guard armory in Zephyrhills, "to address capacity impacts related to COVID." The state claimed the new space will allow the guard to recruit and train 450 new service members. Only $1.8 million has been spent on the project so far.$43,000 of its money on ballistic rifle plates, a type of body armor, for fire and EMS workers.last year — spent $15.