In the News

With mushrooming needs for basic services and revenue dried up by the COVID-19 pandemic, five mayors from across the country told U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., on Wednesday that their cities need federal dollars — and soon.

At stake, they told Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a former Springfield mayor, are basic services like police, fire, parks and recreation and sanitation.

In addition, said Mayor Bill Peduto of Pittsburgh, are the investments that have helped his city and others blossom into a new high-tech and healthcare driven economy .

"There will not be an economic recovery if our states and our cities are bankrupt," Peduto said.

Pittsburgh has seen economic collapse before and has learned the lesson that disinvestment and austerity stifle the kind of growth cities could experience in the coming years, he said.

"We didn’t have a program, so it took 30 years for us to dig out of that hole," Peduto said. "We were bankrupt. We had state oversight. We pay the price in crumbling infrastructure and disinvestment ."

Earlier on Wednesday, the federal government announced that the U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate last quarter. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that GDP will plunge this quarter at a 40% annual rate.

Neal spent an hour Wednesday meeting via the online program Zoom with Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley; Columbia, South Carolina, Mayor Steve Benjamin; Santa Fe Mayor, New Mexico, Mayor Alan Webber, Arlington, Texas, Mayor Jeff Williams and Peduto in a video conference set up by the United States Conference of Mayors.

“We are not talking about fancy things,” Whaley said. “We are talking about direct services to our residents.”

The Conference of Mayors posted the video of the meeting on its Facebook page.

Neal briefed the mayors on efforts to craft the next round of stimulus, one that he hopes will include another individual payment, help covering unemployment insurance costs and aid to cities, towns and states and county governments

"We are going to insist on our side that this package include direct assistance to all of you," Neal said, echoing sentiments he expressed Saturday at a press conference with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.

The first CARES Act, a coronavirus bailout bill, provided money only to cites of 500,000 or more residents and only for specific uses, not to make up for lost tax revenue in general

And some Republicans in Washington have decried aid to cites and states as a "blue state bailout".

The revenue loss is a direct result of coronavirus, "said Arlington, Texas, Mayor Jeff Williams. "This revenue loss is easy to document."

In Springfield, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Timothy J. Plante told councilors earlier this month that the city’s financial outlook is “very bleak." He’s been told to prepare for a 14% reduction in unrestricted general government aid from the state — a loss of $5.6 million.

Williams said that the issue is not "red" or "blue", that is a difference in philosophy between Republicans, like himself, and Democrats. It's the impact of the virus and the efforts to control that virus and the impact is felt across political divides.

Williams and Santa Fe Mayor Webber spoke about the devastating impact of lost tourism. Santa Fe depends on people drawn for its Southwestern and Native American art and culture.

But no fiestas and festivals and no lively street markets mean no spending and no spending means no sales tax. He's got a $46-million budget deficit to plug in two months before the fiscal year ends and then a difficult 2021 budget year to follow.

"We don’t really know how far down this hole will be or do we know when the recovery might start," he said. "I want to be able to tell the people of Santa Fe that help is on the way."

Williams said he doesn't want to lay off employees at a time when everyone should be preserving jobs.

"It's very difficult to be talking about layoffs and furloughs at a time when we should be rewarding people," he said. "We don’t want to be putting municipal employees on the street adding to that job loss."

Neal spoke about his desire, and his assurances from Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, that an infrastructure plan for roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports and broadband internet will be part of a coronavirus recovery.