Wisconsin Families and Communities Need Additional Stimulus

The newest federal proposal to fight the economic effects of the pandemic is the kind of comprehensive action we need in this moment. The Heroes Act, proposed by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, protects people’s livelihoods and health, and delivers urgently needed money to communities to keep crucial services such as education and health care intact. Read about the package here.

The bill contains several measures that will help struggling people—including communities of color, which have been hit the hardest by the pandemic and recession—make ends meet. Two key provisions include:

• Support for states to help prevent cuts to education, health care, and other public services. The pandemic required urgent additional spending to keep residents safe, at the same time that it forced the closure of economic activity, resulting in less revenue to pay for pressing needs. Wisconsin is grappling with what is sure to be an enormous hit to state tax collections in the wake of the economic devastation inflicted by the pandemic, and needs additional assistance from the federal government to replace the lost revenue needed to perform public services critical to keeping people healthy.
• A second round of stimulus checks for everyone, this time including immigrants who can't get Social Security numbers, and who were left out of the first round of payments. It's especially important to include these immigrants because they are barred from receiving unemployment benefits, even though their work supports the Unemployment Insurance trust fund.

The House package isn’t perfect — for example, it temporarily restores a tax loophole that benefits the richest households — but it is strong overall, and matches the scale of the need generated by the pandemic. Wisconsin’s delegation should embrace the policies in Speaker Pelosi’s plan that would help struggling families and communities.  

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