Pappas Continues to Advocate for State and Local COVID-19 Relief At Roundtable with Granite State Leaders

Statement

Today, Representative Chris Pappas (NH-01) held a bipartisan virtual roundtable with local leaders to discuss the importance of COVID-19 relief funds for local governments across New Hampshire. Pappas was joined by New Hampshire Senate President Donna Soucy, Hillsborough County Commissioner Toni Pappas, Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard, and Conway Town Manager Tom Holmes.

During the discussion the participants discussed New Hampshire's projected multi-million statewide budget shortfall, the lost revenue and budget shortfalls affecting cities and towns across the state, and the importance of Congress' next COVID-19 relief package providing flexible relief funding directly to local governments.

"We have got to get this work done as soon as possible to provide some stability to state, county, and local governments, and support for our workers and small businesses that continue to feel the economic pain as a result of this pandemic," said Congressman Pappas. "We've got to find a bipartisan solution, but unless we have significant assistance for state and local government it's going to be a missed opportunity and we could potentially see widespread layoffs, cuts to critical services, or even increased taxes to make up the difference."

The House passed the Heroes Act on May 15, which would provide $1.5 billion in direct assistance to New Hampshire communities and counties. This week Senate Republicans announced their proposal, which does not include significant support for local government and many of the other resources we need to fight COVID-19.

"Here in New Hampshire we have been able to provide some support to communities during this time, but with a predicted budget shortfall of about $400 million it's clear that we are going to need more support, and it will be critical for us to be able to maintain state services," said New Hampshire State Senate President Donna Soucy. "The CARES Act did send some funds to the state so we have been able to send money to cities and towns, but one of the things that was really lacking, I think, was flexibility to provide more direct aid to those communities, and those counties that had very specific needs… I think the flexibility is really going to be key because no one knows New Hampshire like we do."

"We are really the frontlines during this pandemic. We have nursing homes and county jails and assisted living facilities that we have to support, and nursing homes in particular have been hit hard by the pandemic," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Toni Pappas. "So as we look at the Senate package we in county government are particularly hopeful that the aid formula that is in the House package, which gives direct funding directly to the counties rather than passing it through the state, we hope that that will work out… I urge that we provide the funding directly to the counties."

"It is so critical right now that the conversations that are occurring and what you are advocating for come to fruition," said Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard. "Because the shortfalls are going to equal very, very tough decisions that are going to affect all citizens… direct services are going to be cut because we have no other decisions to make. That means it's going to affect the students that are already affected by a brand new approach to education....That means the frontline workers who have been battling this, the first responders. We'll have to start looking at whether or not we can afford our members of our police departments, our members of our fire departments, our EMT services - all of these critical services which have kept us safe could suddenly be eliminated. And that's why funding to local town and municipal governments is going to be so critical."

"Thank you for allowing me to speak for New Hampshire towns, smaller towns and tourist towns and so forth, which are vital to New Hampshire and part of its character… right now what's occurring in Conway, we are a tourist area as you know, we're being overrun," said Conway Town Manager Tom Holmes. "It has created costs to my community, in regards to sanitation facilities we had to double them, over trash pickup we had to double that, cleaning of those facilities we had to double that, we've had to hire people for our summer rec program that are medical technicians to take temperatures and so on and so forth. We've had to authorize overtime for everything from Parks and Rec to the Town Clerk's office… and we just had a lot of unanticipated expenses, and I would reiterate my colleagues saying that if we are allowed the direct funding, then we will have the flexibility, us in the trenches, to be able to put those resources when they are most needed quicker than a state level or a federal level."

A provision of the CARES Act has barred communities with populations below 500,000 from accessing direct federal aid up to this point. Because no unit of local government in New Hampshire state currently exceeds this threshold, all of New Hampshire has effectively been cut off from direct federal support for local communities due to this unnecessary and unfair limitation.

Congressman Pappas led the call for House leadership to include robust funding for local governments in the next COVID-19 response package, and thanks to his advocacy the Heroes Act includes more than $1.5 billion in direct assistance to New Hampshire localities and $3.5 billion to the state government. Manchester is estimated to receive $127,617,663; Londonderry would receive $12,985,284; Conway would receive $5,068,319, Rochester would receive $18,256,663; and Laconia would receive $8,142,092.

These funds are not currently included in the proposal introduced by Senate Republicans.

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