Transcripts For CSPAN Mayors Other Local Officials Discuss

Im keeping this brief and to the point. Local leaders have been sounding at definite alarm for months about the need for direct fiscal assistance from washington as the virus rages in our city. Our budgets are under extreme stress. Arts fences are skyrocketing. Our essential lifesaving services are strained. The need for public assistance is through the roof. This has been going on since the beginning of the pandemic since march of last year. Today, only 38 cities have received direct relief yet mayors everywhere continue to do what we do everyday. We get it done. We run our cities with a balanced budget which we are required to do by law. So what does that mean . How do we possibly do that in the face of this tremendous crisis . It means the cut jobs. It means eliminating services and staff at the same time. Our First Responders have been on the job since day one of this pandemic transporting those with covid to hospitals with Public Health initiatives keeping social and family order as tensions rise from economic and Health Care Risk fighting crime and fighting increased drug abuse and death. While it looks like we may finally get a desperately needed National Strategy for Vaccine Distribution of the mentation we are being called upon again to help at the local level. We are the front lines, more so than any other group you hear from. Our nations leaders know we need the help. U. S. Conference of mayors is coming off of its Virtual Meeting where we heard from from President Biden majority leader leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker nancy pelosi. All of them talking about the need for direct relief for cities. President biden talk to us about his rescue plan that includes 3,050,000,000,000 for state and local governments specifically so we can quote keep educators, First Responders, firefighters on the job. We enthusiastically support the biden planet we know the president understands the role of our First Responders and the Critical Role our local governments have played and will continue to play in responding to the virus in leading the recovery. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the package will include quote direct aid to local and municipal governments who have had to make such difficult budgetary choices in the face of this unprecedented crisis. And House Speaker nancy pelosi said and i quote this package will provide strong direct local Government Support to ensure that local governments can keep workers on the job, Keep Services running and can equitably and immediately distribute the vaccine. President biden is put forth an aggressive plan to contain the virus and rebuild our economy. We are so looking forward to partnering with his administration to do just that but we cant do the Partnership Without help now. This is it, this is the moment. This is the back one of the american economy. If we want to be able to build back better we cant let whats left of the foundation crumble. Thank you again for your time and with that i will turn it over to to Union City Georgia mayor williams. Thank you mayor whaley i appreciate that and i concur with your passion. I need to share with all of you today americas communities are in the middle of a dark and difficult winter as covid19 cases at unprecedented highs under this is as remained shuttered. Congress is truly committed to rescuing communities and easing the heavy economic and Health Burden weighing on the American People the people that elected all of us to do the right thing, they need to demonstrate their commitment to lifting up local governments on the ground with absolutely no hesitation in no debate, and no paring down. It is totally outrageous once again that direct funding to local governments was left out of the bill passed by congress in december. Make no mistake, our nations hometowns were the first to respond to the bipartisan shutdown of our National Economy and we continue to do everything we can to save lives and protect jobs. This is why the American Rescue plan proposed by president wyden is so extremely critical to our communities. This support could not be more urgent or essential. We have heard some members of congress say this, its too soon, too soon to provide more aid for an additional stimulus package. We are here to collectively and respectively to emphasize the day to local government cannot come soon enough. It is clearer than ever that investing in local communities is one of the most important investments that we can make as a nation right now to save lives rebuild our economy and rescue struggling residents. We are urging congress, pleading to follow several key principles as aid for local government advances through the legislative process. First, emergency funding should be fair and appropriate for each and every local government with no minimum population threshold or eligibility. Second, aid should be directly allocated through familiar and proven government revenue sharing programs such as an allocation formula based on the Community Development Block Grant Program known to many of us as cdbg. It works. Third, entanglement of state and local funding should be minimized or even curtailed so that there clarity about allocations to state, municipal and county governments. Fourth, eligible expenditure should be targeted to widespread health and economic consequences of covid19 including revenue shortfalls resulting from measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Local governments do not expect the federal government to make up for every loss of local revenue. What we are seeking is critical federal assistance to save americas cities, towns and villages and to ensure local leaders are part of the solution to our economic recovery. That is all we are asking. We need the federal government to step up. It is time to do what we campaigned to do and that is to support the people who put you in office so certainly we need you and im going to turn it over to my good friend county commissioner marilyn kirkpatrick. So much. You have said a lot of what ive been thinking for 381 days. We have seen our first case so its been a longhaul and we are 1. 2 billion short in her current budget. We have spent all of our reserves of three to 74 million just to provide social services we needed on day one and for us even waiting for the first package that came through, we couldnt wait. Do before ag jobs and i didnt food and they didnt have gas. They had no daycare so it really has taken a toll on the local government side and now we fight for more vaccines. So we can get back to work. Being a county you can imagine we rely and 52 million visitors to come to our community and its the bulk of power budget is set up yet we are headed into a legislative session now and we know when the state cuts that is going to make is that more cuts on the social service side. To give an example today we spent 130 million just on rental assistance and we still have 19,000 people that face eviction on march 1. We have spent 20 million on Food Assistance getting food to our communities and valleys. 31 unemployment and i cant stress enough that im very fortunate that my congressional delegation hears from me every single day and i encourage you to reach out to your congressional delegation every single day so they have to keep boots on the ground in what we are facing. Children who dont have shoes and cant go back to school and parents who have not worked for over a year. We have to retrain them just to get started to go back to businesses that have been out business for over a year that we need to get back and we have a couple hundred thousand just going out the doors and thats Economic Hardship for the longterm. I cant stress enough how important it is and how local government plays a significant role. Ive been on the phone with teachers all morning and its only 8 00 where i live. You can imagine my phone started at 5 30 on what they need to get back into the classrooms so i am for all this to work Work Together to Push Congress to truly make decisions tomorrow because the longer we kick the can down the road the hard it is for us to recover. So thank you for the opportunity to speak and im always excited to be around all of my colleagues because you know what it takes to get back on track so thank you. Next we are going to have my friend and colleague, the mayor from Arlington Texas Jeff Williams who has been imploring congress to do this for months and months. Mayor williams. I must address congress because citizens across america need your help. Please dont leave cities behind again. The devastating consequences will last for years. We all know there is good reason for optimism out there. We are all hopeful that we can snuff out this pandemic this year but we are a long way from being out of the woods. The economy last month should jobs instead of creating them and 140,000 jobs were lost in december and 51,000 of those lost jobs, more than a third were in state and local government. This crisis is not over and whenever it is over we are going to be digging out of it for some time. Since the pandemic began nearly 1. 4 Million People who work in state and local government have lost their job. We are not seeing a v shaped shifter cover it all. U. S. Conference of mayors does up dated its report on metro economies and we forecast without help it will be mid2023 before even half of American Cities regain the jobs they lost last year. We need Strong Cities to have a strong recovery and its just that simple. In d. C. , state and local seems to have become an abstract category on a list somewhere but in reality state and local represents peoples livelihoods, Public Safety and Critical Services that people rely on every day. Its real people who live in cities than theyve been left behind in previous legislation but please not again. We must not end up on the cutting room floor. We have been waiting and now is our time. Then i must say it is not true that this is a big city or a blue state rovlin. Thats nonsense. There are republican mayors just like me who are in dire need of fiscal relief. I can tell you to that cities all across texas and our nation both big and small are all facing the same crunch and this crisis is a direct result of the pandemic and nothing more. Cities like ours have been running a tight ship and have seen everything changed and upended because of this pandemic. No Small Business could have foreseen what could have happened. No city could land for crisis of the scale, churn natural disaster. Cities cant oro the way that federal government can and enter cities are required by law to balance the budget each and every year. As mayor whaley pointed out the house the senate and the white house have all committed to getting this done. What we cant have happen now is politics getting in the way of doing what is truly a bipartisan need and doing the right thing in providing direct fiscal assistance. We have been told by congress that they will worry about cities the next time a couple of times now. Well we are here. It is time and every day that its delayed more consequences are being realized and very Much Negative consequences. Next time needs to be now. We need our federal partners to get the job done. We are all looking for better days ahead and those better days will be much quicker by providing fiscal assistance to our counties and cities. Thank you and i will now turn it over to my good friend to, mayor victoria wirtz. Mayor worters you are muted i believe. Thank you mayor. Its an honor to be here with all of my colleagues and talking about an issue thats incredibly serious to all of us. Our cities need to be rescued from the financial cliff there are. Yesterday the Federal Reserve warned that the u. S. Economy recovering is weakening. Municipal job cuts have real world consequences for residents households and Small Businesses. When residents lose jobs demand for state and local government is increased underscoring the urgency for congress to step in and provide the support we need to help our committees through these very difficult times. Over the past several months we have continued to communicate what we are seeing in our hometowns with regard to revenue loss layoff numbers and every piece of local data that we have a nurse disposal. Its estimated municipal governments are facing 90 billion to their current revenue. According to labor statistics december 2020 jobs reports local governments shed 32,000 jobs. State and local Government Employment is down by 1. 8 million jobs compared to february of 2020 just before major actions took a toll. This figure is 25 higher than what we saw during the 2008 financial crisis. Our latest nl c. Survey of municipal 90 of municipal governments have experienced the revenue decrease of the least 21 and 76 have experienced the next adventure average increase of 17 . For our residents their households, our local businesses , read directions and Waste Collection and recycling problems reduce services for households that rely on Public Transit and pausing plans for utilities upgrade such as water and broadband infrastructure which is so needed at this time. We are asking for Additional Support for local government to be put off and avoid the options of last resort such as permit custom Municipal Services at a time when her communities need local service is the most. Laying off furloughed municipal employees who are large share of americas middle class and the deathly canceling infrastructure programs that will further impact impact local employment Business Contracts and Overall Investment in the economy. We cannot leave, i repeat we cannot leave americas hometowns of kind and witty congress to act not yesterday and not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow but we need them to act now. I would now like to turn it over to county commissioner larry duff. Thank you mayor. Appreciate this opportunity. I want to give you a story of a hot day in september in georgia in cat county george on january january 5. I got called to come to an extended stay hotel. I have 11 families that were kicked out on the streets are they came over and the families were helpful if helpless. It was very hot in georgia was burning up and those families were in need of a lot of help are these were essential workers who son said been cut off. I had to call the church just across the street who had gotten covertly funds to help they provided houses for these families. Those families have been looking for a place to live from september and we have 911 families that found the place to live. Part of our covid relief funds we want to make sure those families had legal help. I use some of my funds to make sure that happen. Just yesterday we found out that those 11 families have won their lawsuit. As we talk about the Eviction Moratorium being extended and as we talk about food relief and Food Insecurity eviction help, this rescue package will help us to help those families and many more because the counties are where the rubber meets the road. I want to share a quick story with you as i get into my points of what i want to talk about to america, to our congress. Please, please, please continue to come to our counties and walk in our shoes and i will take you to see those families and visit them. America weekend that or to leave anybody behind. We have to make a difference. Our counties are making it happen that we need this relief package and plan to do more for us in our committees. My name is Larry Johnson and im the cat county commissioner first Vice President of the National Association of counties. Counties are or where residents are feeling devastated from it impacts the pandemic both in Public Health and economic development. American governments support of her 1900 local Public Health departments. Nearly 1000 high schools in critical access clinics more than 800 longterm critical facilities and 750 Behavior Health centers traditionally county government are responsible for murder separations 911, courts jail management of Public Safety Emergency Response protective services for children and where the last of the First Responders are also there to make a difference in our communities, our coroner sent medical and Public Health services. We are urging congress to pass Bidens America rescue plan which includes state and local funding now. We need help right now. We arent going to sugarcoat it. We are hurting. Counties across the country for digging into reserves and borrowing against their future. We need help. We h