ARPA stands for the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was signed into law on March 11, 2021. It provides $350 billion in additional funding for state and local governments to help them respond to the public health and negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding provided under ARPA provides a unique opportunity for state and local governments to make strategic investments in long-lived assets. Municipalities are granted flexibility in choosing how they will spend their ARPA funds, but the funding must fit into one of the following categories: responding to the public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic, providing premium pay to essential workers, providing government services to the extent of revenue loss due to the pandemic, and making necessary investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure. ARPA funds are non-recurring, so their use should be applied primarily to non-recurring expenditures.