Hi and welcome to the briefing. My name is Josie Duffy. The briefing is a project between the appeal and now this thank you so much for joining us today like I said. My name is Jessie Duffy. I'm the President of the appeal. We're a nonprofit news network that provides a local sorry original coverage of the criminal Justice system and I'm so excited to be joining our guest today. We'll be talking about the possibility of one trillion dollars in relief for state, local and tribal governments in the upcoming pandemic relief. Speaker Pelosi has pushed for the funding, But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he'd rather see States and cities declare bankruptcy during the pandemic, which would include cutting or caling critical everyday services like schools, first responders, funding or garbage collection. Charlene Kenyon loved her job for Tacoma City government for 35 years, and she was close to retiring before layoffs forced her out just shy of receiving her pension. She is one of what could be millions of impacted people and families across America to talk about what it will. To get that funding through and how it could help people across the country, we are joined by Representative Deb Holland from New Mexico's first district who has been talking about the pandemics impact on tribal communities and fighting for fundamental needs like broadband access for schools and telehealth and rural communities. We are also joined by Treasurer Tass Shara Jones of Saint Louis, who's been working alongside state and local leaders to help hard-hit communities and it has been pushing for direct aid from Congress to allow state and local budgets to meet the needs of the pandemic Hartford Council. Willis Bermudez is with us to talk about vulnerable communities in our city, including residents at increased risk of deportation as a result of the pandemic and we have Sarah Johnson, executive director of local progress and National network of local City and state elected officials working to help families through improving state and local policies. But before we start, let's start with some context so cities and States are facing a roughly trillion dollar budgetary shortfall trillion dollar. Over the next few years because of reduced revenue and increased expenses caused by this epidemic, according to recent reporting by the Washington Post, the National League of Cities joined with the US Conference of Mayors found that many local governments are bracing for sharp declines in tax revenue as businesses shutter workers lose their jobs and record numbers and tourism grinds to a halt without congressional help. cities and States will be forced to stop paying police firefighters. Garbage collectors and other employees, according to the same report by the Washington Post, nearly nine in 10 cities surveyed by the National League of Cities signal that they expect a revenue shortfall among them more than 1100 cities are preparing to scale back public services. Mitch Mcconnell is suggesting the bankruptcies that caused these problems are better than congressional health, even though he is happy to bail out dollar corporations including hedge funds, big health care. Pharmaceutical companies and real estate developers, so let's start with you. Representative Holland. I'm just making sure I can see you okay. I can see you great. you've been out front speaking about the kind of support that local and tribal communities need right now and you've talked about the importance of closing the digital divide and Native American communities and you introduce the Coen 19 disaster in Indian Country Act, which would Grant tribes temporary emergency access to broad broadband networks on tribal lands. What are you hearing from people in your district and from tribal communities across the country about what's needed in terms of support for state and local governments in order to get through this pandemic? Josie Thank you so much for having me today. I've it's great to be able to talk about these issues. so look what's happened is with this pandemic is it's magnified the disparities in Indian country in some communities, tribal communities lack of running water or the water's polluted no electricity. no access to fresh foods and broadband Internet service the lack of it, some Indian tribes have the darkest spots in their States but look all of those things have made this pandemic so much more challenging for Native communities. First, we're holding the Trump administration accountable for the blatant mismanagement of funding included for tribes. it was clear that they attempted to put corporations ahead of sovereign governments. And that delayed the funding and that's wrong. Absolutely. I'm so pleased to see my governor, Michelle Lujan, Grisham and tribes have been working together on running water and food access. so that's a load off of my mind. I'll be focusing my energy right now on the on broadband. it's crucial for telehealth remote education and tribal people being able to apply for unemployment benefits unemployment business loans a benefits for. I talked to someone and Hames Pueblo, which is North of my district not to long before we you know we're working remotely and he mentioned to me that the Internet line the fiber that was running through tribal their tribal land was not more than 40 feet away from their the community buildings that need it most but they couldn't access it because they didn't have the license. To access it so my bill to give emergency access to spectrum licenses to tribes. we'll be life saving to them. they'll be able to connect their communities and right now. I'm feeling like Internet service. that's a that's a human right in a way we all have to be connected in this during this terrible pandemic. So what are I mean you mentioned some of them talk to me about what are some of the obstacles in Congress to get the needed state and local relief and what effect that can have on people living in places with major budget shortfalls, particularly the places you're mentioning. I really like what you said about focusing on corporations instead of sovereign governments and I'd love to hear more about that So two weeks ago, Congress passed a bill to increase funding to assist small businesses, but we all know that the Republicans across the board stop us from including provisions that put people first like funding for local state and tribal. If we don't provide funding for state, local and tribal governments like you, said Josie firefighters and police officers don't get paid doctors and nurses don't have the resources to keep people healthy and small businesses, which are the backbone of my district and many people's districts will absolutely suffer. So what we're saying is that state local and tribal governance. they need the flexibility. they need to be able to spend the money where it's needed most and we need to. It easier for them to access the money the city of Santa Fe, for example, that is our state capital right here in New Mexico. It didn't qualify for that funding because they didn't reach an arbitrary population threshold and even cities who did meet the threshold, said they couldn't use the funding to cover cover revenue shortfalls so our local governments are doing everything they can, but they're stretched thin. and that's why I'm so glad to work on getting the resources to our state. Local and tribal governments in the next package and hopefully make it easier for them to access these funds. So let's talk about the next package. can you tell us a little bit about what's in the bill? the version that kind of came out and just the past few hours and will there be a trillion dollar relief program? I'm sorry. It's really not a relief package for city state and local governments budget shortfalls in particular in the next stimulus package look the trillion dollars that's the number that Speaker Pelosi mentioned to us a few weeks ago, and I think it's on par with the support that. Workers and small businesses need all this is an historic Bill and I'm grateful that Speaker Pelosi and leadership the chairs of all the committees have taken my ideas and issues seriously. The bill represents hundreds of hours of conference calls online meetings text messages between the chairs and all of us, so all of us have been working very hard to make sure that we're getting in the bill. what we know our community need Now we're going through this 1800 page bill, but I can say that it includes 500 billion for States 375 billion for local governments, 20 billion for Indian tribes. Those are tribal governments. there's also a three point six billion- dollar funding for safe and secure elections. that can't be the importance of safe and secure elections can't be overlooked five point five billion for broadband, including hot spots and at home connectivity two point one. The Indian Health service, which is absolutely needed because of it's been underfunded for decades and decades, and of course funding to fight this virus in many ways. So for more on this I think we should bring in Charger, Tora Jones of Saint Louis Treasurer Jones. You recently suspended the collection of parking revenues in Saint Louis to prioritize the health and safety of city employees and the economic well-being of community members. Can you talk a little bit about some other examples of the economic struggles that people in Missouri in Saint Louis, in particular, are going through and other ways that we can be relieving this pressure on both the community and local government, here's a great. thank you for having me I could I echo what Congresswoman Holland said that this disease just magnified the disparities in black communities too and it's no different in Saint Louis and it isn't any or any other urban city. you know they are our our communities are suffering so you know they're struggling to pay their rent or their mortgage. So if there was a a a moratorium on paying rent or mortgage that. we could do a candidate did and did universal basic income $2000 per family for the length of the pandemic would definitely help people out rather than the you know, $1200 minimum check that was sent out as a stimulus payment that a lot of people still haven't received. you know there's a food shortage. There's a lot of people are food insecure and we see the the the lines are miles long when food pantries are starting to give away boxes of food, Our urbana. Has stepped up to the plate and has been a tremendous community partner in giving out food and supplies, but every time they do the lines are miles long and then also the Congresswoman talked about the digital divide. That's a real issue in black communities as well are a lot of our school children. you know our our public schools are 88 and a half percent of our children qualify for free or reduced lunch and a lot of them didn't have Internet at home or the or devices to be able to continue their school work, so we saw a huge divide there as well. so you know the and that's just the tip of the iceberg. We don't know you know the other problems and when we talk about violence and domestic violence in the home, you know that goes into a whole another category, But those are the things that I think that are that are on top of mind of what we are of the things that that disparities that we've been seeing since it started. Hey. Thank you to both highlighting something that you know has obviously been more and more clear it goes on the people who are already suffering in this country, poor people of color people in rural communities. People in tribal communities are the ones who are suffering even more in light of the virus, and it's not even just that they're more likely to get sick, which is also true but they're more likely to suffer from a societal effects of what we're seeing. So we're so grateful for the work that you are doing what kind of. With Saint Louis be forced to cut if Congress doesn't come through with more funding well, we're already looking at our budget and there's a 40 million dollar home with fiscal year 21 and some of the things that are already on the table. are are violence prevention programs. We put seven million dollars in a violence prevention program because you know as as a lot of people know Saint Louis is one of the most violent cities in the country, and there were seven million dollars in that program and they're looking at taking that money back. Street sweeping building inspectors infrastructure projects also you know, paving our streets repaving our streets. A lot of those will get delayed because they also took the automatic budget and and slash that as well but there's a silver lining in one of the one of the things that could be cut. we've been trying to We meaning activists and myself have been trying to close an outdated jail that we call the work House that budget was slashed. I have and this pandemic could likely make them close the House and combine all of the prisoners or people that are in jail into one jail. So that's the silver lining there, but still will be slashing services public safety health services more than they already are because, as also as a congressman, Congresswoman said. Our budgets are already stretched to the limits anyway. Mm hmm It's interesting. To hear what you're saying, which is that they've already cut violence prevention and while it looks like they might cut funding, it would be nice to see that happen first before cutting prevention instead of happening last, but I guess we'll take what we can get on that so I I wanna turn to Council member of Bermudez can can we talk about what's happening in Hartford So Hartford has recently proposed cutting critical services and Puding a $30000 fund for residents who are facing deportation proceedings from the Trump administration. Can you talk about who is relying on that fund? What that fund did and how these cuts are going to impact vulnerable communities in your district. Yeah so in Hartford, Connecticut, so we in Connecticut, a lot of our city's predominantly are black and Brown cities, black and Brown communities and last year I introduced legislation to it and it's a fund called the family facing deportation fund where we took funds from our health Department, the city of Hartford Health Department for normally placed towards relocation services and because we have undocumented families who would otherwise not receive any kind of assistance, we allocated those funds. Help them when the family members are going through deportation and so with our undocumented community, you know and this is true whether you're looking at it at the local level or at you know at the state level very big need from these communities to have some kind of assistance and with the lack of assistance from the lack of response for any funds to be allocated at the federal level, we knew that we had to. Up right now during this pandemic, you know people are still being there. There's unfortunately still facing deportations and with having no funds available to them and having in many cases going from a two parent household to them, A- one parent household and on top of that suffering all of the ramifications of what the pandemic has caused, job loss, economic loss and and so on and so forth, it's it's really. In terms of what families have to face and so we you know our our city Council, we were able to approve those funds the families facing deportation funds last year, we are trying to approve them again trying to push to prove them again at the local level because if we don't do it, the local level then what kind of assistance will be made available to them and the answer is none and so we really have to push the envelope on this because if we don't advocate them who will and the the. Is there greater than before? so that's kind of what we've been working on. Yeah. I mean you you described as a double whammy. It's really like a quadruple quintuple, Lamy right and what we're seeing here is that the people who you know should be helping and looking out for these communities aren't always focused on them, making not just bad situations just as bad, but even worse than they were exactly they were before. What other cuts are likely to happen in the next few months so right now in our cities in the city of Hartford, you know we've in the last 10 years, just to put things in perspective our city budget half of it goes towards education so our public school system and then the other half goes for all the regular stuff that we need Road maintenance Police Department fire ET cetera, and so for the last 10 years, our public schools have been flat funded so there have been no new funds available to our. Public school system and so you can only imagine what's gonna happen now and earlier, you know others were mentioning the ramifications of a pandemic and how it's felt by our communities and in our most vulnerable populations, those who don't have access to example for to Internet and other items that are critically needed compared to more affluent communities. And that is the case also a Hartford in our city. So when we're talking about budget cuts and slashes the direct impact of that, we'll have is if our if. Public school budget was already short funded flat funded for the last 10 years. Imagine now we're gonna probably seeing less money than before and so already operating with less. But now it's it's gonna have even broader impacts because now you're talking about you know students not being able to get back to school who knows when in person and what will what impacts us that have on a child's education not being able to be there in person, but on top of that having access to being able to log in. And on top of that already being possibly being fun, having lesser and lesser funds to work with per pupil in terms of the funding and so that's an immediate impact that's gonna have at the local level with serious serious impacts in the longer term consequences in terms of just our communities. so that's a direct way. so I wanna turn to you quickly. so Sarah's the executive director of local progress. my first my. Out of College, My favorite place can you talk just a little bit about what local elected officials across the country are seeing in budget shortfalls. Thanks Josie and it's so great to be here with you and we talk to shara and willis's to incredible progress. leaders feels very full circle. so you know let me just start by saying that in the midst of the crisis around us found consistent inspiration and what's happening in the local level. so. Earliest days of this crisis in every corner of the country in cities, large and small local elected officials springing into action displaying the type of leadership we need as unemployment and food insecurity has risen to unprecedented levels in our lifetime. It's local governments who led the charge to create some of the quickest and first funds to provide needed physical assistance to those impacted by Covid- 19, and to ensure that financial and security does not become housing insecure. Local governments for some of the first to put moratoriums on evictions and utility shut offs and to launch housing relief fund, so while the federal government has so far prioritize bailing out corporations in cities and counties across the country, local governments have move quickly and responded directly to this crisis demonstrating compassion match with resourcefulness and creativity, and that is just the type of leadership we need in government at all levels. so what are the challenges are? Now, as demonstrated by what Takara and shared local governments are seeing their coffers emptied as they faced declining revenues while also trying to respond urgently and compassionately to a crisis with no end insight faced with few choices, they're being forced to make drastic budget cuts. They put essential public services at risk, and of course, these are the very same services that are needed now more than ever to safeguard public health. so Josie reference this in your opening. National League of Cities and US Conference of Mayors published a survey of 2463 Cities, towns and villages, which showed that nearly every local government regardless of population size is expecting revenue shortfalls due to covid- 19 and 88 percent of local leaders anticipate that this pandemic will lead to painful reductions in revenue this year and beyond and unlike the federal government, local governments have extremely limited tools to raise additional revenue. and cannot. Deficits so they need help or they'll be forced to cut vital services. so the solution here is very clear cities and counties and local governments need more direct funding from the federal government. there have been four recovery bills to date, and only one of them has provided direct funding to local governments and the amount of funding in the Care Act was woefully insufficient and has several other folks on this call have already pointed out. It excluded direct direct to municipalities with populations less than 500000. So we're glad to see that the Democratic leadership is listening to state and local leaders and we think that some of the provisions of the bill announced today is a good first step. our local governments are demonstrating the creativity and resourcefulness that we need and advocating at the federal level for additional funding and looking to States. To past Progressive revenue measures to ensure that the wealthy are paying their fair share in this crisis, and the bottom line is that we're leading at the local level, but we need bold action across all levels of local government, and it starts with federal funding to localities. Yeah. So just I am So on last week we we talked about federal funding. we talked about the deficit we had on Stephanie Kelton and other sort of experts on. Issue and I think it's really important to to re emphasize what you're saying right the federal Government's operating in a deficit is very different than the state and local governments operating in a deficit. it can't it doesn't function the same way any confusion we have about that. I think needs to be kind of immediately cleared up and we're literally talking about state and local governments having to file for bankruptcy. Can you talk a little bit about what that means first state in local government that files actually has to file for bankruptcy? Yeah. So I. Let's be clear, forcing or leaving cities and States to file for bankruptcy is not an option. I'm despite what Mitch McConnell says and you know, I just have to say again this crisis has made so clear the crucial role that local government plays in safeguarding our health and well-being, and if localities are forced to file for bankruptcy, it will be devastating to our community. So, for example, let's look at the city of Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy in two in 2013. Is one example after the bankruptcy filing Detroit was forced to gut and basically privatize their public health Department and shut off water to tens of thousands of residents now, imagine hundreds or thousands of local governments across the country having to do that right now, it's never been more clear than it is right now, public health housing food and water. These are all essential services that we need our governments to step up and provide for us so. We can survive through this crisis and beyond it. So again, I wanna thank you guys so much for joining us and kind of have a panel quick panel discussion with all of you The first question is how did we get here? I mean that sounds we we could. We could write a couple of books on this and do a whole 10 -year show on this, but are these shorts because of budget mishandling of the state and local level as Senator McConnell has accused is just because of the federal government. What where how do we get to a point? I mean, obviously the pendant has exacerbated this, but this is a sign that we haven't had for the stability. On the state and local level in terms of funding even before that. This could go to any of you, but I'll I'll share with you. Sarah. Yeah, I mean, I think that what we're seeing right now is a need to really reject austerity and reject the sorts of measures that have overtime left arm municipalities left our school systems underfunded with increased needs for service and you know there's been a significant trend over time of limiting the ability of localities to raise additional revenue through state level prohibitions out of you know, fear of raising taxes. an. The wealthy and well-off among us in corporations to pay their fair share. so I think what we're seeing now is you know a crisis put upon what was already a crisis? I mean when we would gather local progress members together two or three or four years ago, revenue was always a significant topic right and how can local governments that are really working to Center get the support they need. The state and federal governments pursue Progressive revenue measures that ensure corporations and the wealthy are paying their fair share and that local services are not decimated. So I think this is just a continuing trend, but then obviously like a you know an Axe on what was already a quite vulnerable situation. And Tora jones's What what what's your as the treasurer of a of a you know the local government? What? what are your thoughts on this before I became a treasurer. I was also I have a master's in health administration and one of the things I learned during my master's program was that the United States is one of the only developed countries without universal health insurance or universal health coverage, and we've seen in other countries where there's a universal health system that they're outbreak in their response to this pandemic has been swifter and hasn't had the. Of life that we've seen in the United States, you know, I think that the how we got here goes all the way back to the founding of this country and how Native Americans were pushed onto reservations and their land was stolen from them and how I sort of racist capitalist system as this is sort of that all of that coming to fruition and and chickens coming home to roost. So I mean we can go back, you know hundreds and hundreds of years to to answer the question. How we got here so yeah, I just wanted to chime in and it's really been a nutshell about prioritization where where are we prioritizing our funds? We're prioritizing the country as prioritizing it on military and corporations for such a long time, And now the veil has been lifted and we're only seeing amplified what we've been seeing on the ground in our communities for a very long time so. Representative Holland that the trillion dollar package and the package that was just released is aimed at addressing current projected pandemic shortfalls. Of course, we don't know what's coming right. We're not sure what the next few months look like we are all kind of flying blind in the situation. What more would you say is needed to not just help cities meet the needs of the pender, but actually evolved to be able to better cope with situations like this in the future right so. I'm so honored to be on this panel with such amazing women who are doing everything they know what's happening right. We are. We all just need to get on board and move our country forward. you know, I wanna respond a little bit to the question of how did we get here? Yes? please yes. I mean I wanna remind everyone not that we could ever forget this how the President downplayed this virus and called it a Democratic hoax and didn't take it seriously and it is so. Much worse, we're the highest rate of infections of any country in the entire world, and that's because we don't have the leadership we need our President did not take this seriously. We're in this position because of him and but you know breaking that all up in a part. you know the Republicans gave the biggest tax break in history to their friends to the richest people who don't need it. our workers are working families they I mean this pandemic has laid bare the disparity in our societies for the people who I mean people who can't afford I mean they're they're they need the breaks and yet the Republicans insisted on giving tax breaks to the richest people in our country. so now so now we're left to pick up the pieces and what. Things I just wanted to highlight real quick is our essential worker Bill of rights. We're working hard to make sure that essential workers are protected with PE with Hazard pay with childcare benefits. these are grocery store workers trash collectors, posta workers you know, of course our front line medical workers. These are the folks who are suffering the most and they are keeping our country moving why. you know we're trying to pick up the pieces of failed presidency so moving forward. I I'm sorry I I kind of lost track of what your original question was, but but these we need to take care of these folks so they can keep our country moving until we can find a place where we know it's it's safe to resume but decades and decades of disparities in Indian country, thank you treasure for mentioning Indians. That's the honest to God truth people haven't been paid fairly at some point in our country. you know the Republicans decided that we didn't. We shouldn't value the work that people do in this country and I think that's a shame. and now we're seeing the results of that because this pandemic has laid bare those disparities in our country. So we need to think about right now who do we value you-know-who? Do we value? In our country, the people who grow and harvest our food, the people who collect our trash, Yes, like has been mentioned before and absolutely the people who are taking care of our loved ones who are in the hospital and in our elderly care centers and so yes we need We is like a a reawakening for many people and we need to do so much better. Thank you know that that totally answered the question that was that that's exactly you know what we've been trying to talk about on the show. What how are we sort of rethinking the future? you know and rebuilding a structure and a in a in a government that serves the people. I wanna before we go, I wanna make sure that anybody else who might have thoughts and input about what more is needed to not just help cities and meet the needs of this but actually evolves to better cope with situations like this gets to gets to. Speak up, does anybody else have thoughts? I'm like putting off I wanted to I wanted to just mention along with front line workers are childcare providers who are essential workers and who have been underpaid for such a long time and the list goes on right. It's just one example but really are working-class families are working class individuals who've been working without getting the adequate pay that they deserve and now it's time to also fight for that and to amplify that. Absolutely Well, I wanna thank you all so much for joining us on the briefing. This is my first all-female briefing panel and I love it. This is wonderful. this is just been so great and and so informative and I can't tell you enough how grateful we are for the hard work that all of you are doing every day to make sure that people are getting through this pandemic that we are gonna survive and come out on the other side so it does not go unnoticed. We're very grateful. Thank you so much for joining us on the briefing.