Whether San Antonio gets more federal cash to spend on coronavirus-related expenses as its leaders see fit may depend on what happens Tuesday in Georgia.
The city already is assured of additional funding to help residents stay in their homes and keep the lights on at small businesses after President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion federal stimulus package last week — though it’s not clear how much or what kind of authority the city will have over that money.
What’s absent from the latest round of federal stimulus is direct financial aid to cities and counties whose coffers were hit by the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic.
Democratic lawmakers had wanted $61 billion for that, which would have allowed leaders at the local level to determine spending to address needs in their respective communities.
That proposal faced heavy opposition from Republicans who labeled the measure a “bailout” for municipalities that haven’t properly managed their finances.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ultimately sank the effort in the last round of stimulus negotiations by tying it to rules that would have shielded businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits — an idea unpopular with Democrats.
Democrats hope a package of direct financial aid to cities and counties will pass once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, but the measure would continue to face a difficult path in the Senate if Republicans win a pair of runoffs in Georgia, which would keep the chamber under Republican control.
Veteran Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo who represents a large swath of San Antonio, said he expects McConnell to repeat his previous tactics in any further negotiations over aid to cities and counties.
“He does that every single time when we present something as a single shot to him,” Cuellar said.
On ExpressNews.com: University Health appeals for ‘patience’ as it awaits more doses of COVID vaccine
For their part, San Antonio leaders are quick to say they don’t need federal dollars to balance their budgets in the way other cities might.
Officials already had to trim the city’s budget by nearly $200 million when the pandemic hit in the spring — wiping out revenue from retail and restaurant sales as well as hotel room bookings, conventions and flights in and out of San Antonio International Airport.
City Council members agreed to $87 million in cuts to the city’s general fund over the next two years when they adopted San Antonio’s current budget in September — including to street maintenance and police overtime.
City employees likely will have to take unpaid furlough days in late 2022 or 2023 under the budget as approved.
City Manager Erik Walsh is wary of using iffy stimulus dollars to reverse those cuts — preferring instead to rely on increased revenue from sales and hotel occupancy taxes, if those turn out to be better than projected.
The city hasn’t waited on the federal government to balance its books and it doesn’t plan to start now, Walsh said.
“It’s just like our own personal checkbooks: the longer you don’t deal with a financial situation, the exponentially worse it gets,” Walsh said.
If the city receives additional stimulus funds intended for cash-strapped municipalities, that money likely would go toward existing relief programs such as the city’s emergency housing assistance program or small business grants — or paying for pandemic-response costs incurred by Metro Health and the Fire Department.
That potentially could free up some dollars to put back into costs like street improvements and spending on the local arts, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.
“The lack of direct aid to local communities, San Antonio being one of them, has a real impact on the quality of life and essential recovery that’s able to happen in communities,” Nirenberg said.
Stimulus on way
In the first round of funding, the CARES Act provided San Antonio with money it chose to spend on rental assistance and grants to small businesses.
There’s money for that in the stimulus package approved last week, as well as more.
City officials expect to receive funds from a $13.5 billion pot intended for vaccine distribution, testing and contact tracing.
It’s likely that VIA and International Airport will receive funds from $24 billion set aside for transportation agencies and emergency relief for transit agencies.
The stimulus package pumped $325 billion into small business assistance — including $20 billion for businesses in low-income communities and $15 billion for live music venues and movie theaters.
Congress also pumped $284 billion into the Paycheck Protection Program — through which businesses receive forgivable loans for paying employees and utility bills — with the intent of targeting restaurants and bars.
During the last round of the program, businesses and nonprofits in San Antonio got more than $2.2 billion in those PPP loans.
However, more than three-quarters of that money — $1.7 billion — went to firms on the North Side.
On ExpressNews.com: ‘Nothing smooth about this’: Texas' coronavirus vaccine rollout is confusing almost everyone
That was due in large part to a requirement that a business have a relationship with a bank to apply for the loan, and there are many mom-and-pop shops on the East, West and South sides that run on a shoestring and don’t have that kind of connection.
That fact irked Nirenberg, who suggested the city turn to outside business organizations such as the Westside Development Corporation and Launch SA to help firms across town apply for the loans.
Those outside groups, Nirenberg said, “will be critical in helping us to ensure an equitable distribution of PPP in the San Antonio community.”
San Antonio will receive funds out of a $25 billion pot intended for emergency rental assistance.
The city’s existing $76.6 million housing assistance program — which helps needy households pay for rent, mortgages, utilities and internet as well as emergency cash assistance — has been in high demand throughout the pandemic. The program’s current funds are expected to last until March.
Exactly how much money each city and county will receive and how the funding can be used will depend on the rules put in place by various federal agencies overseeing each program. Those details haven’t been fully hashed out.
Though additional money for keeping people in their homes comes as some relief, District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño warned the city against relying too heavily on federal dollars to administer housing assistance.
Federal money comes with too many restrictions that prevent the city from doling out that assistance to groups such as undocumented people, he has said.
Therefore, Treviño argues, the city should free up its own dollars from other programs — like the city’s current workforce development program — to gain more say in how to distribute that aid.
“Why would we purposely tie our own hands knowing that there’s people out there that are not getting the help?” Treviño said. “We should not be ignoring them.”
"may" - Google News
January 03, 2021 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/3on645T
Further coronavirus relief for San Antonio may hinge on outcome in Georgia Senate runoffs - San Antonio Express-News
"may" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3foH8qu
https://ift.tt/2zNW3tO
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Further coronavirus relief for San Antonio may hinge on outcome in Georgia Senate runoffs - San Antonio Express-News"
Post a Comment