Nevada still has big chunk of pandemic funds before ‘use it or lose it’ deadline

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Nevada agencies have yet to spend about a quarter of the $2.7 billion it received in flexible pandemic relief dollars, and with about one year to go before all of the money must be used, projects to expand rural broadband and relocate residents of a sinking neighborhood are far from getting all their funding out the door.

The state received a windfall in 2021 through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a federal law that allowed it to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars toward everything from mental health programs to broadband infrastructure.

As of last month, the state has not spent more than $700 million of those dollars, according to information presented at a Nevada legislative meeting, but officials have expressed optimism that all of the money would be spent on time.

If money is not spent by the end of 2026, it will revert back to the federal government. The dollars can be used elsewhere — and the state has identified more than $3 million in savings — but must go to existing or open projects, not completed ones.

The information provided at last month’s meeting of the Interim Finance Committee — a panel of state lawmakers that makes spending decisions when the Legislature is not in session — provided the most complete picture to date of the state’s progress in spending the pandemic-era cash. It also revealed a slowdown in pandemic relief fund spending from fiscal year 2025 compared with the year before. There was minimal discussion from lawmakers about the spending state of play.

In total, the state has set aside the $2.7 billion for nearly 400 projects, and about two-thirds of those initiatives have been completed. These add up to about $1 billion spent.

For the first time, the state identified 20 projects with “spending concerns,” meaning they have not spent more than 40 percent of their allocated dollars. The agencies working on these projects said the money will be used on time, but only eight of the 20 projects have spending completion estimates before December.

These projects make up $300 million of the unspent dollars and include one of the largest uses of the pandemic relief dollars: a massive project to expand broadband capacity throughout rural Nevada.

The state approved using $203 million for broadband infrastructure, but only 20 percent has been spent as of December. However, the state remains optimistic that the project’s dollars will be spent on time.

The most time-intensive part of the project is permitting. Construction cannot begin until permitting on an entire route is completed, and with the federal government owning the vast majority of land in Nevada, the permitting process can take even longer.

Additionally, the federal agencies involved in permitting — namely the Bureau of Land Management — have long been understaffed, and buyout offers from the Trump administration last year that reduced the federal workforce exacerbated the issue.

Still, the permitting process is nearing completion, and the construction element of the project — which makes up almost all of the costs — takes much less time than permitting. For example, it took the state 18 months to receive a permit for a 2-mile project route in Humboldt County, but construction took just over one month last fall.

In October, Brian Mitchell, then-director of the Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology, told lawmakers that the project was “ahead of schedule,” The Nevada Current reported.

“Are we going to be able to get these projects done by Dec. 31, 2026? The answer is yes,” Mitchell said.

Another project to have used less than 40 percent of its funds is the effort to relocate residents of North Las Vegas’ sinking Windsor Park neighborhood, which is being funded through $25 million in pandemic relief funds alongside state dollars.

In 2024, officials from the Nevada Housing Division, which is overseeing the Windsor Park relocation project, asked to no longer fund the effort using pandemic relief funds amid concerns that the project could not meet spending deadlines. However, that plan was scrapped amid opposition from community members and lawmakers who feared that the state would not live up to its pledge to fund the project another way.

As of early December, only about $616,000 in the pandemic relief dollars had been used for the project, making up about 2 percent. By the end of the year, that more than doubled to $1.53 million spent, according to Teri Williams, a spokesperson for the Department of Business and Industry.

But the agency said the project is on track to be completed by the end of the year, according to meeting materials.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in October that construction had recently begun on the new development, but that no homes have started taking shape yet. The project received a grading permit in September.

Frank Hawkins, the developer of the project, did not respond to a request for more information.

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This story was originally published by The Nevada Independent and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.