In the News

SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal compared Thursday the relief money the city expects from the recently passed American Rescue Plan to the $90 million in disaster recovery funds the city received in the wake of a June 2011 tornado.

At a news conference in City Hall, Sarno said the goal is the same now as it was a decade ago, to — in the words of President Joe Biden — “build back better.”

The city of Springfield is in line for between $97.5 million and $127.3 million from the American Rescue Plan passed last month. The number will vary according to how the state divides up money earmarked for county government. County government in Massachusetts is extinct.

The Springfield school system is in line for $189 million.

“Mayors have an interesting perspective. Because many times you have the ear, the pulse of the neighborhoods and what the needs are,” Sarno said to Neal, once also a mayor of Springfield. “Anytime I called, or we met or spoke on the phone, he was always there for my cabinet heads.”

Declining to give specifics, Sano gave a broad outline of how the money will be used. The only federal rules the city knows of now are that it cannot be used to lower taxes and cannot be put towards pension liability.

“This will allow mayors, department heads , select board members, town managers to fulfil long-dreamed of opportunities,” Neal said.

The tornado relief money went to parks, streets, intersections, the South End Community Center, the Clifford Phaneuf environmental center at Forest Park and for major renovations to the former Army Reserve Center for the police and other projects.

Chief administrative and financial officer Timothy J. Plante outlined the financial impact of the pandemic. The city has spent $35.4 million and has lost $9 million to $10 million in revenues, a number that keeps growing.

So the city will spend on capital construction projects, will continue to aid businesses and nonprofits, support housing programs that help residents impacted by the pandemic, pay rent, mortgage and utilities. The city will use the money for job creation, economic development, Sarno said.

“We will use it wisely,” Sarno said.

Schools Superintendent Daniel Warwick said the $189 million — which will be available over a few years — will enhance technology opportunities for Springfield students.

“Urban schools have been underfunded for as long as I can remember,” Warwick said. “We need to take our students into the future. A lot of our students in the urban center don’t have access to broadband.”

Expanded broadband internet service is one facet of the new $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan introduced by Biden after the passage of the American Rescue plan.

Neal said he’s in daily contact with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on what he says will be a successful effort to pass that plan.

Neal’s Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction tax policy, that means he’ll write the bill to get the money. Biden has proposed raising corporate tax rates from 21% to 28%.

“The president has indicated there is some room to negotiate,” Neal said. “The other side has to negotiate.”