By Mike Finney

DOVER — Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen and City Council President William “Bill” Hare sent a letter to Delaware’s congressional delegation, saying the city was placed into the wrong category for funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and would like for it to be changed.

The request was delivered to the offices of Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, all D-Del.

“We respectfully request that Dover be removed from the Community Building Development Grant (CBDG)-based Metro Cities allocation and included in the more appropriate funding computations for municipalities of less than 50,000 where we will be considered for funding based on population as will the other Delaware local governments,” Mayor Christiansen and Councilman Hare’s letter stated.

The letter also said that Congress, in developing the allocations of the American Rescue Plan funding, used the CBDG designation and a modified CBDG formula as a determinant for whether a municipality was placed in the Metro Cities category (communities of over 50,000 people) or in the non-metro municipalities group.

Funding to the former is based on the CBDG formula, while funding for the latter is strictly population-based. They pointed out that Dover is Delaware’s second-largest municipality, with an estimated 2020 population of 38,412, well below the 50,000-population threshold of a Metro City.

“While we appreciate the difficulty in allocating funds equitably, the use of the CBDG formula adversely impacts on the funding Dover should receive if the strict population-based approach were used,” the letter said. “Dover would receive a disproportionately smaller amount of funding than communities such as Newark and Middletown, for example, whose respective populations (34,035 and 23,166) are less than that of Delaware’s capital.

“We believe there is urgency in fixing this listing. Your assistance and support are most sincerely appreciated.”

The state of Delaware announced late last month that a projected $85.6 million will go to 55 local governments throughout Delaware as part of the $1.9 trillion ARPA economic-stimulus package that was signed by President Joe Biden on March 11.

Wilmington and Dover, which are both considered metropolitan municipalities, are miles apart in ARPA funding. Wilmington will likely receive more than $55 million, while Dover is expected to get just under $7 million.

Yet Newark topped the list of smaller cities and towns in Delaware when it came to receiving ARPA funding at just more than $17 million. Middletown, also designated nonmetropolitan, is expecting to receive just more than $11.5 million, while Dover, Smyrna and Milford will get around $6 million each in economic-stimulus funds.

“There’s no way this side of hell that the city of Newark should get $17.1 million, and we get $6.9 (million), as projected. So we’re going to (try to find) several, several, several ways to rectify this,” said Mayor Christiansen.

“Here’s the rub. We are the first-largest city in Delaware land-area wise and the second-most populated next to Wilmington. … Where is the equity?” he added. “Subsequently, we have been in touch with the National League of Cities and our congressional delegation, Sens. Carper and Coons and Rep. Blunt Rochester, to remedy this inequality. Hopefully, we can resolve this matter with their help.”

In the mid-1990s, the city of Dover requested and was granted authority to receive direct allocations from the CBDG program, as opposed to being a subgrantee through the Delaware State Housing Authority.

The request was to allow the city greater flexibility and wider opportunities to use CBDG funds to assist lower-income residents of Dover than were provided under the more-limited state program.

Since then, Dover’s CBDG funds have been used for housing vouchers to help those who are homeless or at risk, assistance to first-time homebuyers acquiring affordable housing, funding for shelters and housing rehabilitation.