Flood of easy federal money coming to Pierce County maybe not so easy after all

Splitting $1.9 trillion of new money into many government streams, the American Recovery Act is about to sluice hundreds of millions of dollars into Pierce County.

Some will flood in directly as checks to individuals. Most will be channeled through the array of federal agencies that fund dozens of social services, education, health, and other programs in our county and cities.

Intended to help those most in need, we should expect to see over the next few months our unemployed and low-income neighbors up on their feet, back at work (in new jobs for many) with the health care, child care and transportation we all need to live, work and thrive here in our county.

That reduction in poverty and increased spending should also see our businesses – especially our local community businesses – pop back into life.

Easy, right? President Biden and the Congress rain down the money, we just sit back and watch everything grow.

Maybe not so easy. This historic deluge, the biggest federal spending bill in history, can easily turn into flash floods that water some gardens and wash others away.

If we are to ensure this once-in-a-lifetime downpour does lift all our communities and all our residents up to a higher, healthier level, we will want to be especially thoughtful about how we direct these funding streams.

That steering must be bottom up. This massive package of money and policies intends, first, to make a long-term difference in the lives of our poorest neighbors and with them, our general recovery from the pandemic-induced crash.

We must ensure from Day One that the new money reaches those communities. But that’s not as simple as it sounds. For all the political rhetoric, our past spending on safety-net programs, including that of last year’s CARES Act, has regularly left communities of color and our most needy even further behind.

This time must be different.

Here are three simple ground rules we might adopt as a county to ensure that this time no one is be left behind.

Set a big goal. We’re about to undertake an extraordinary experiment: the comprehensive self-repair of an entire, complex county of 23 cities and towns, 15 K-12 school districts and thousands of businesses.

To keep ourselves oriented and use the money wisely, we might set our compass on an all-American ambition: to ensure that everyone In Pierce County can live in dignity — healthy, housed, and equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in today’s economy and meaningfully participate in this state’s democracy.

Ask, don’t tell. We need to ask and keep asking our unemployed, homeless, families and small businesses what they need to reach that goal. We need to hear the differences from different communities, rural and urban.

Listening will be a challenge for agency staffs who live day to day in the torrent of federal and state rules and policies that come with the deluge of money.

To make sure we don’t end up dancing as puppets on federal strings, we must immediately set up local community forums in every County Council District.

To be sure they are meeting the varied needs of real people, top officials must do some careful listening – and keep listening as the situation evolves.

Measure results, not spending. The incoming tidal wave of money is huge. It will be tempting for officials to celebrate how much they are spending. What we really need to know is how the spending is reshaping lives and activity in our communities. We must constantly measure, report and measure again.

The test of our success will be equity and employment. We cannot waste this once-in-a-lifetime investment; we must not once again leave our neighbors of color behind, our workforce un- and underemployed.

There is no going back. The world before the pandemic is gone, many of those businesses and jobs gone for good.

Let’s do all we can to ensure that here in Pierce County, the American Recovery Act builds a permanently better America for us all.

Larry Seaquist of Gig Harbor is former state representative for the 26th Legislative District. He ran for Pierce County executive as a Democrat in 2020.