![Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson hasn't announced whether or not he plans to run for another term. If not, a new mayor will likely choose how much of the stimulus money is spent. [Matthew Richmond / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/945682e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2394x1347+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F3%2F24%2Fjackson_web2.jpg)
During a Wednesday night virtual town hall, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson shared the first indications of how the city plans to spend money from the most recent federal COVID-19 stimulus bill.
City officials expect to receive about $541 million over two or three years.
“It’s like hitting the lottery or something,” Jackson said, describing having all that money coming to the city as a good and a bad thing. “All of a sudden you’ve got relatives and family members and friends that you never knew you had before. There are a lot of people inquiring as to how they can help us spend money.”
Jackson, who called in to the town hall from his home and left a few minutes early because of an unspecified family medical emergency, said so far, Cleveland plans to spend the money on assistance for people who lost their jobs during the pandemic and covering costs to the city.
“Then how do we recover, once things start to get back to normal, how do we recover in an economic way, in a jobs way?” Jackson said.
Cleveland will focus on bolstering hard-hit business sectors, including the airport, the entertainment industry and hospitality.
In addition to spending money on coronavirus-related losses, the city will focus on the region’s economic future, the mayor said.
“And that means we have to address those issues such as equity and disparity and racism and classism,” Jackson said.
