Discussion over what to do about America’s depleted cities reaches a climax of sorts this week as congressional leaders say they’ll hammer out an aid package, Bloomberg reported. In May, a $3.5 trillion round of stimulus that includes roughly $1 trillion for state and local governments passed the U.S. House, only to stall in the Republican-controlled Senate. Already this year, Congress has approved $150 billion in aid for state and local governments, but the money comes with a condition: It can’t be used to replace lost revenue. In a presidential election year, Ohio’s pleas for help stand out. Polls in the state, with its 18 electoral votes, show a dead heat between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden after Trump won the state by 8 percentage points in 2016. Failing to provide more aid, or not enough, leaves the U.S. at risk of repeating a key mistake of the last recession, said Nick Johnson, a senior vice president at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Federal stimulus prevents job and service cuts at the local level, which can stifle recovery and snowball into lower revenues and more cuts. States are hurting, too.
