Toward Equitable Public Budgets: Lessons from the ARPA Experience in Washington
What does Washington State’s ARPA experience teach us about building more just, equitable, and accountable public budgeting? We found that when community leads, local governments are more likely to direct resources toward the services and infrastructure that communities need. This report, produced in partnership with the Inatai Foundation, offers practical strategies for governments, philanthropy, and organizers to embed equity in public investments beyond the ARPA moment.
Executive Summary
On January 20, 2020, a man checked into an urgent care clinic in Snohomish, Washington, and was diagnosed with the first case of COVID-19 in the United States. Washington quickly became ground zero for the public health crisis and the stark racial inequities it exposed, with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native communities suffering the highest rates of illness and death. Grassroots organizations rooted in these communities were the first responders, leveraging their networks to deliver critical care, support, and resources.
Fourteen months later, amid the reignited racial justice movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 directed billions in flexible relief dollars to states and localities to provide urgent relief and rebuild stronger, more equitable communities. Undergirded by the Biden administration’s groundbreaking equity policy, which built upon decades of local organizing and innovation, ARPA created an unprecedented opportunity to deliver tangible, potentially transformative change to communities long neglected by public investment.
These ARPA advocacy experiences illustrate important catalysts and constraints to equitable public investment. Organized communities advanced equity when supportive institutions, equity infrastructure, and accountable government leaders backed their efforts. Under-resourced governments, inconsistent standards, symbolic or underdeveloped equity efforts, and reactive governance slowed progress or limited impact.
While ARPA funds have been spent, the experience offers critical lessons for advancing equity in the evergreen public budgeting process. The work ahead is to implement enduring practices that ensure historically underrepresented and underserved communities have the power, resources, and representation to shape public investments for collective prosperity. Resourcing community organizations to engage in budget advocacy, establishing accountability mechanisms throughout the budget cycle, and increasing representation in local government stand out as crucial levers for transforming public budget processes. Organizers, government actors, and funders each have vital roles to play in making equitable and community-driven investments the norm.
In a time of economic and social uncertainty and federal retrenchment, local public budgets matter now more than ever. Across Washington and beyond, community advocates are fighting for budgets to become instruments of justice. This is a pivotal moment to reimagine and reshape how public dollars can work to ensure that everyone can thrive, especially those who have been historically excluded from public investment.