Will States, Counties, and Cities Send Out Stimulus Checks?

So I’ve said this several times, but additional state and local government funding is really a top priority for House Democrats in the next relief bill, CARES 2, the two most prominent and powerful Democrats in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, have both put this at the top of their agenda.

Stimulus From States and Cities?

Now, I know that this issue of state and local funding is not as attention-grabbing and it’s not as sexy as talking about $2,000 a month.

But additional funding for state and local governments is what the heavy hitters are talking about, this is at the top of Pelosi’s list, and this is something that Mitch McConnell, who if anyone would really be the biggest roadblock to this, has hinted that he’s open to, as I’ve shared with you in a couple updates previously.

Now, Trump hasn’t spoken too kindly about state and local relief recently, either, but if a bill, the next relief package, gets through the Democrat-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate, I doubt Trump would veto a phase four relief package, less than six months before the election, not a good look to basically give the finger to both parties about a relief package in an election year during a crisis, right.

Now, what does this matter to you?

Well, it matters because you all lives in states and counties and cities or unincorporated areas of counties, and if your states and counties and cities aren’t doing well, it affects you, it affects the quality of your life, it affects funding for things like education, state colleges and universities to attract the best and the brightest, it affects things like police and and things like that to keep you safer.

But beyond that, and this is what I want to talk about today, is that it’s possible with an immense relief package for state and local governments, we could see perhaps direct cash payments, stimulus payments, from states and cities to their own residents and business owners.

This would not be new, and we’re seeing this play out right now in Duval County, Florida, where Jacksonville is, largest city in Florida, almost a million people in Jacksonville alone.

Duval County received $160 million in the CARES Act, and in late April, Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry said that the county would offer $1,000 payments to those who make less than $75,000 per year and who have lost at least 25% of their income due to COVID-19 and who were employed on February 29, so this is rather than what I would really call strictly a stimulus payment, it’s more like additional unemployment compensation in a way, but still it shows that here’s a local government who’s giving direct cash payments to its residents.

And people were happy, they said that unlike applying for unemployment in Florida, the process for receiving this $1,000 at the county level was smooth, quick, and clean.

And we’ve seen other local governments having a similar idea.

One of the precinct commissioners there, James Noack, put out a statement that said that he’s “proposing the use of a portion of local CARES Act funds go back to Montgomery County taxpayers in the form of a stimulus check.”

Chickasha, Oklahoma, this week the city voted to send $50 to each household to stimuluate spending.

Note that this wasn’t a result of CARES Act funding, in fact the CARES Act left out a lot of smaller localities, this was actually kind of just the city returning to the residents a sales tax they had previously paid, but my point is that it’s not unheard of for cities to send out stimulus payments of their own.

I told you before about California governor Gavin Newsom, whose aunt, by the way, was married to Pelosi’s brother-in-law, saying that he wants to give $500 to undocumented immigrants who were not eligible for the CARES Act stimulus.

Another example of that in Somerville, Massachusetts.

And in Sigeen, Texas, the city council has approved the Sigeen Strong Stimulus Program to set aside a quarter of a million dollars to make grants to qualified small businesses inside the Seguin city limits.

So, look, I’m not saying that your town or city or county or state is going to have its own stimulus program, but I think you should pay attention to this state and local stuff as well, in addition to your general well-being where you live, but also because it appears that with the right funding, at least some local governments, and who knows states may do the same thing, may contemplate “stimulus payments” for their own residents out of federal funds that they receive in a relief bill.

That is all for now, when CARES 2 comes out, I will tell you all about it.