WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2013\u00a0As the coronavirus pandemic continues, state and local governments and residents are feeling the devastating health and economic impacts. With negotiations on the next federal coronavirus relief package nearing an end, counties continue to call for responsible federal relief, ensuring existing and any new federal resources reach county governments on the front lines of the public health pandemic and related economic fallout.<\/p>\n
National Association of Counties (NACo) Executive Director Matthew Chase released the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs White House officials and leaders of both parties in the House and Senate continue negotiations on a bipartisan coronavirus relief package agreement, America\u2019s counties have a simple message: a deal without aid for state and local governments is a bad deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor county leaders, our ultimate goal is to reopen and rebuild our economies in a safe, sustainable way. This will take more resources at the county level as we tackle the public health pandemic in a smart, balanced manner.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCounty leaders are also working overtime with local chambers of commerce, nonprofit service providers and countless other partners to address the economic and emotional toll from this crisis.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAmerica\u2019s 3.6 million county employees \u2013 hospital workers, first responders, public health and human services officials, law enforcement personnel, coroners and medical examiners, and other county employees \u2013 are delivering vital services to our residents.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAs we fulfill our vast frontline responsibilities, our public finances \u2013 which provide the needed resources to keep our communities safe \u2013 are taking a major hit.\u00a0The vast majority of counties have received inadequate or no federal aid, and our budget impacts grow deeper every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic could lead to\u00a0massive budgetary effects<\/a>\u00a0for county governments and local taxpayers, with as much as $202 billion in\u00a0lost revenue and increased expenditures through FY2021.<\/p>\n \u201cInvesting in counties and other local governments means investing in every square inch of America. Counties are leading on-the-ground public health efforts, and our local economies are the building blocks of a strong national economy.<\/p>\n \u201cAs our federal partners negotiate, we urge them to\u00a0ensure that counties of all sizes have access to additional direct, flexible funding to fight this pandemic, rebuild the economy and strengthen our communities. We urge members of the House and Senate to oppose any agreement that does not invest in counties.\u201d<\/p>\n NACo\u2019s coronavirus online hub includes county level examples of response efforts, interactive maps and analyses of federal actions. View this resource-rich webpage at<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>www.naco.org\/coronavirus<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2013\u00a0As the coronavirus pandemic continues, state...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27346,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27345\/revisions\/27346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}