The Park County government, the cities of Powell and Cody and the Town of Meeteetse appear set to receive more than $8.15 million from Congress’ recent $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. Half of those dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act will arrive within a matter of weeks, though it’s unclear how the local governments will be able to use the dollars.

“It comes with a lot of strings [and] we haven’t even started unraveling those strings,” Park County Commission Chairman Lee Livingston said Tuesday of the $5.66 million the county is expected to receive.

“There’s a bunch of questions out there of what it can be spent on and how it’s going to be spent,” Livingston said.

The City of Powell — which is expected to receive around $943,000 — is in a similar position.

“We are still trying to wrap our heads around this and find out what the exact rules are, as this feels different than the past stimulus money that the city and other municipalities had to apply for …,” City Administrator Zack Thorington said in a Tuesday email.

The funding will come through a $362 billion pot of money within the stimulus package that’s known as the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. That fund is expected to provide around $1.07 billion to the State of Wyoming, plus $175 million for Wyoming cities, towns and counties.

According to estimates calculated by the Government Finance Officers Association, the City of Cody will receive upwards of $1.49 million, with Meeteetse collecting $49,300.

Half of the funding is due within 60 days of the Rescue Plan’s enactment, with the other half expected to come a year later, in 2022. State and local governments will have more time to spend the funds than they did with last year’s original pandemic-related stimulus bill, the CARES Act. In this case, governments will have until Dec. 31, 2024 to use the money.

Specific rules for the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund have yet to be developed, but the legislation laid out a broad overview of the fund.

For example, according to a summary prepared by the National Association of Counties, governments can use the funds to respond to or mitigate the pandemic and its negative economic impacts; make investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure; or to provide “premium pay” to personnel who performed “essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency.”

The rough information available so far suggests that governments will have significant discretion over the funds. For instance, as part of their efforts to respond to the pandemic, states, counties, cities and tribal governments can use the money to provide “assistance to households, small businesses and nonprofits or nonprofits or aid to impacted industries, such as tourism, travel and hospitality,” among other uses.

Additionally, local governments that lost tax revenue due to the pandemic can use the Rescue Plan funding to erase those losses, indicating they’re free to just add those dollars to their regular budgets.

The legislation does prohibit states from using the relief funds on pensions or to “directly or indirectly offset a reduction in … net tax revenue.” The latter provision has drawn the concern of attorneys general in 21 states, including Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill, who believe the provision could be read as prohibiting states from cutting taxes in any way. On Tuesday, Hill joined the other attorneys general in asking Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to clarify that’s not the meaning of the text.

“If this expansive view of this provision were adopted, it would represent an unprecedented and unconstitutional infringement on the separate sovereignty of the states,” said a portion of the letter from the Republican attorneys general.

Democrats got the American Rescue Plan through the House and Senate despite “no” votes from every single Republican in Congress. It was panned by Republicans — including Wyoming’s congressional delegation — for including numerous items that they did not see as being directly related to the pandemic.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., called the bill “bloated and unfocused,” framing it as a part of a “radical” Democratic agenda. She predicted it “will ultimately lead to tax increases.”

“Eventually, we are going to have to answer for the money we are borrowing to pay for bills like this,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. “I fear that day is coming soon.”

The Wyoming Democratic Party, meanwhile, has been promoting the American Rescue Plan as a good thing for workers, families and Wyoming. On a webpage devoted to the plan, taglined “Help is here,” the party highlights several provisions of the bill, including the funding for local governments.

“Our local communities have been hit hard by the pandemic, as sales tax revenues plummet and families struggle to make ends meet,” the party page says, adding, “Democrats’ American Rescue Plan is providing a much-needed investment of $177 million to keep our cities and counties safe and solvent.”

However, despite standing to be a significant recipient of those funds, Park County’s all-Republican commission unanimously expressed dismay on Tuesday with Congressional Democrats’ $1.9 trillion package.

“Because as we’re speaking, they’re raising our taxes to cover the son of a gun,” said Commissioner Lloyd Thiel. Meanwhile, Commissioner Scott Mangold predicted that “money isn’t going to be worth a lot,” adding that the cost of everything “is going up.”

Commissioners said they plan to make careful plans for spending the millions of dollars the county receives from the American Rescue Plan.

“If we’re going to get the money,” chairman Livingston said, “we’re going to spend it as judiciously as possible.”

He said the county intends to meet with leaders from Powell, Cody and Meeteetse soon to explore ways to maximize the use of the funds. Park County may receive additional funding from other parts of the Rescue Plan, including for public health efforts related to the pandemic.

The county received roughly $1.63 million in funding under last year’s CARES Act, and used most of that to pay the regular salaries of workers who were impacted by the pandemic. However, commissioners left another $1.5 million on the table.

(Kevin Killough contributed reporting.)