The state of New Jersey is using $10 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan’s State Fiscal Recovery Fund to invest in automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology, Gov. Phil Murphy announced.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a lot of changes – from public health to remote work – but investing in technology upgrades to improve citizen services and cybersecurity could lead to the most lasting impact on state and local governments (SLGs), according to several state IT officials who spoke at MeriTalk’s State Tech Vision virtual event on March 29.

The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) has selected 14 projects to receive funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to develop government-wide citizen-facing services to help recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted the final rules to implement the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which will help schools and libraries purchase the technology needed to close the homework gap.