Agoura Hills May Receive $3.8M In Stimulus Grant Money.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act provides $360 billion to municipalities across the country, and California cities will be splitting up $16 billion of that based on population, according to the Los Angeles Times. The city of Los Angeles is expected to receive a $1.35 billion windfall, which would more than close the $750 million budget gap it's incurred since the pandemic began a year ago.

The roughly $3,806,409 in grants will be provided in two increments: half will be awarded in roughly two months, and the second half will come a year after that, according to Calabasas Mayor James Bozajian. Agoura Hills City Manager Nathan Hamburger told Patch that the City Council will decide how to allocate that money at its annual budget review and goals workshop.

"We are extremely thankful for the passage of this bill as the effects of this pandemic have been devastating to our local economy," Hamburger wrote in an email. "Due to the foresight of the City Council, who saved for an emergency, we have weathered the storm and with the assistance of this bill, we will be able to get back to the full compliment of services we provide."

The city currently has about $14,355,430 in its coffers as of June 30, 2020, and estimates that it will have $14,852,487 by June 30, 2021, factoring in the city's total revenues and expenses. $3.8 million will go a long way.

The CARES Act signed by former President Donald Trump a year ago included $150 billion in state and local aid, but that money could only be used for pandemic response, and was only awarded to cities with at least 500,000 residents. The current bill, meanwhile, gives cities wide latitude in how they choose to spend that money.

Around the Conejo Valley, Calabasas is expecting $4,489,805; Westlake Village is expecting $1,546,670, Thousand Oaks is expecting $14,408,461, and Malibu is expecting $2,224,856. Across the state, major cities like San Diego are expecting $306,114,516, while San Francisco may receive $464,980,918.

For a full list of preliminary estimates, see this list created by the League of California Cities, an organization that lobbied hard for direct money for municipalities.