States 'dependent' on Congress relief: Pritzker
Guv calls free aid to corporations ‘illogical,’ Durbin pledges Senate action
Gov. Pritzker says he’s “very hopeful” Congress will provides states and local governments with COVID-19 relief for lost funding. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
Saying states and local governments are “certainly dependent on Congress to step up to the plate,” Gov. Pritzker made a strong pitch Tuesday for additional COVID-19 relief from the federal government.
Pritzker cited states across the nation struggling with revenue reductions due to the economic collapse brought on by the pandemic, with California short as much as $20 billion. He estimated the Illinois losses in tax revenue at $5 billion in the current fiscal year that began July 1.
“I’m very hopeful that Congress will step up,” Pritzker said Tuesday at a news conference celebrating the last round of $7.5 million in grants distributed by the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund.
Pritzker warned that failure to fund states and local governments would risk more than just critical services like police, fire, and schools. “It will harm the economy of the country if there are massive layoffs that occur as a result of a failure of state and local funding,” he said.
Pritzker cited — as One Illinois has several times — that major corporations have received billions of dollars in free or low-interest loans through previous COVID-19 relief packages, as well as support in the form of the Federal Reserve buying corporate debt, “but now when it comes to the very social services, the very front-line responders — our police and our firefighters — now they’re going to fall short, tighten the belt, and not give anymore and help people? That seems illogical to me.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin was equally incredulous and just as adamant on the subject in remarks outside his Chicago office Tuesday as he prepared to return to Washington, D.C. “There’s been a dramatic loss of revenue, for obvious reasons,” he said. “So governors and mayors are facing some of the most difficult choices.
“If Congress does not act and act soon,” he added, “many of them will face cutbacks in critical employees” — police officers, firefighters, teachers, and health-care workers.
Durbin drew attention to how it’s not just states and big cities suffering, but that he’s heard from mayors across southern Illinois who are “facing the same 20 percent downturn in revenues” as all other forms of government. At the same time, in the pandemic, the government needs to fund additional testing to bring COVID-19 under control, and it needs to provide schools with more funding to address the pandemic — whether for protective equipment for classes in session or computer equipment and broadband access for remote instruction.
Durbin pointed out that the $3 trillion HEROES Act passed the House four months ago, and he called its provision for $1 trillion in COVID-19 relief funding for state and local governments “absolutely essential.” He pointedly added that, while the Senate was in recess, the $600 a week in extra COVID-19 unemployment benefits expired, as did a relief program for small businesses.
“We need to return today, as we will, roll up our sleeves, and stay in Washington until we get the job done,” Durbin said. “It’s time for the Senate to match the House in taking the initiative and passing a relief package.”
Pritzker made his remarks at the end of a news conference at the Chicago Community Trust lauding the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund, which he said is “winding down” after distributing a total of $31 million to 1,650 community organizations across the state in the pandemic.
Pritzker said the goal of the campaign — to quickly and efficiently provide emergency COVID funding to local organizations with boots on the ground in communities across the state — had largely been achieved. “It’s been smart, fair, and equitable,” he added.
He praised his sister Penny Pritzker, the former U.S. commerce secretary, for overseeing the fund.
“There’s no doubt, when we Illinoisans put our mind to it we can be many communities united together as one determined voice and one determined purpose,” Penny Pritzker said, “and that we care deeply about one another and we take care of one another.”
She said the first $10 million in funding was distributed through major umbrella organizations with a feel for their smaller agencies, such as the United Way, going to local groups such as the Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank in Galesburg, but that the fund came to target groups hit the hardest by the pandemic — African Americans, Hispanics, seniors, poor rural areas, and undocumented immigrants. The current fifth and last round of funding, $7.5 million, was targeting racial equity.
“Our very-low-income Latin community is struggling,” said Alexandra Sosa, executive director of the Farmworker & Landscaper Advocacy Project. She added that the grant received from the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund enabled her group to provide direct cash assistance to 800 very-low-income workers, to the benefit of 5,000 households.
Eleace Sawyers, chief executive officer of the Community Health Partnership of Illinois, said her agency’s grant was funding a mobile medical clinic serving migrant farm workers in Champaign, Kankakee, and Peoria.
“We are a safety net for the underserved and underinsured,” Sawyers said, “and our doors are open to all.”
Pritzker pointed out the program was intended to be nimble and provide immediate funding to local groups with a feel for the needs of their communities, and they were now tending to get the funding they need from other government sources. “That’s not to say there isn’t tremendous need out there,” he added. “We want to encourage people to continue to support these organizations,” through direct donations.
To that end, a list of the 1,650 groups that have received grants thus far can be found on the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund website.