As New York State hospitals began to fear the worst last spring that the pace of the coronavirus would overtake their ability to discharge patients and clear beds they had to decide what to do with people being admitted for acute psychiatric care.
In the second week of March 2020, only 325 New Yorkers had tested positive for COVID-19 but images from abroad and the pace of infection outlined a worrying forecast. By the end of the week, New York would confirm its first casualty from a virus that has deeply strained the health-care system and claimed more than 51,000 lives statewide.
States Eye Federal Cash, Go Slow on Road Taxes
Illinois road construction. (Seth Perlman/Associated Press)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Raising state taxes to improve roads and bridges is one of the few things many Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed on in recent years.
Those efforts have slowed this year, even as lawmakers acknowledge a widening gap between needed work and the money to pay for it. One reason: The federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some states are “waiting to see what direction the federal government is going to be taking,” said Carolyn Kramer, an advocacy director with the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
States see potential federal windfall, go slow on road taxes By Associated Press
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5 Photos The Deception Pass Bridge, nearly 1,000-feet long and about 180-feet above the waters below, is covered in scaffolding as work to replace corroded steel and paint the structure continues Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Deception Pass, Wash. Raising state taxes to improve roads and bridges is one of the few things many Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed on in recent years. Those efforts have slowed to a crawl this year, even as lawmakers acknowledge a widening gap between needed work and the money to pay for it. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Raising state taxes to improve roads and bridges is one of the few things many Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed on in recent years.
Those efforts have slowed this year, even as lawmakers acknowledge a widening gap between needed work and the money to pay for it. One reason: the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some states are “waiting to see what direction the federal government is going to be taking,” said Carolyn Kramer, an advocacy director with the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
State lawmakers across the country have proposed fewer than 170 transportation funding bills this year barely half the amount proposed during the last post-election year of 2019, according to the association. So far, not a single transportation tax increase has passed, though several are pending.
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