Pandemic relief isn’t so easy

Federal stimulus means a national makeover, and that means strife

Let’s sort out what it means for one federal bill to pour $1.9 trillion into the U.S. economy, including $5.8 billion sent direct- ly to Connecticut’s state, city and town coffers.

For the record, that’s $13,000 for each and every household in

It’s not just the cities pulling in the dough and it’s not just the moderate-income towns. All buckets included, we’re looking at $39 million for Hamden, $9 million for Ridgefield, $29 million for Fairfield and $47 million for Greenwich. Something tells me they’ll figure out how to unburden themselves of the largesse without much trouble.

America, which we’re giving ourselves.

That sounds great. And it is great in some ways as Democratic political leaders lined up Monday to marvel over the magnitude of it all, not exaggerating when they called the spending measure that has zero Republican supprt a true salvation for the nation’s health and its economy.

Maybe so. Now, even before the U.S. House passes the bill as scheduled Tuesday, even before President Joe Biden signs it, sealing the legacy of his first 100 days, the fighting has begun.

How are we supposed to spend all this money? Oh, we the people will figure out what to do with our $1,400 checks and child tax credits worth hundreds, or thousands, more for every household with kids. I’m talking about the vast sums pouring into city halls, first selectmen’s offices, schools and the state Capitol.

It’s not as easy as you might think. That’s especially true since we have two or three years to spend it, then — poof — it’s gone. Unless, that is, Uncle Joe, Auntie Rosa and the cousins Dick, Murph, Jim and the rest — come up with an equal sum for infrastructure once the pandemic ends.

That’s in the works too, actively. One key state senator, Cathy Osten, DSprague, sent a letter along with House colleagues two weeks ago outlining 24 projects — buildings, roads, sewer, bridges, water, electical systems and the like — costing $340 million, in just a few small eastern Connecticut towns.

The pandemic relief isn’t so easy. It’s about building up health, safety, education and economic development — in programs, not bricks and mortar, but not the sorts of programs that last forever. Among the rules: No paying down pension obligations, no socking it away in reserves.

You could feel the tension Monday amind all the exhilaration as the money totals came clear. Adding up all four buckets of money from this stimulus and the one congress passed in December, we’re looking at between $250 million and $300 million for the Big Three struggling cities, Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford.

Everyone has ideas about how to spend it. Money is funny that way. “The city is in a financial crisis and the funding will assist that,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said on a surprisingly cold morning on the steps of City Hall with Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy. “But it will not solve that problem.”

In Hartford, the General Assembly’s appropriations committee, which directs spending, unanimously supported a bill Monday that would put decisions on the money into the hands of the legislature. That’s pretty much the one thing everyone under the Gold Dome can agree on. They want to exert power alongside, or over, Gov. Ned Lamont, who has lived the life of a benevolent dictator these last 12 months since his executive orders began.

Not so fast.

“This appears to be in conflict with the regular appropriations process by which the General Assembly passes an appropriations act and the Governor has the power to consider approval,” Lamont’s budget chief, Melissa McCaw, told the panel. “I respectfully request that the committee refrain from approving this bill and immediately moving forward.”

It’s not just the cities pulling in the dough and it’s not just the moderate income towns. All buckets included, we’re looking at $39 million for Hamden, $9 million for Ridgefield, $29 million for Fairfield and $47 million for Greenwich. Something tells me they’ll figure out how to unburden themselves of the largesse without much trouble.

And it’s not just the cities and towns. The state stands to see a bonus of $2.8 billion, enough to wipe out two years of shortfalls without a tax increase or a single dime of cuts, and then some. Lamont, anticipating the cup of pudding, proposed a budget that uses $1.6 billion of the federal scratch over the next two years.

Part of the ensuing battle is about control. Lamont will not promise the state will not cut back on scheduled outlays to towns, now that the pandemic payoff has arrived. And with his on-again, off-again debt diet in effect, he’s in no mood for pork barrel favors to lawmakers — though he might have helped the state with his wise tolls plan in 2019 if he has been quicker with the buscuits back then.

“This isn’t meant to be a slush fund,” Lamont spokesman Max Reiss said Monday.

Lamont,. McCaw and Reiss talked over and over about “nimbleness” and “flexibility” — code for “thanks, lawmakers, we got this.”

For now, the standoff remains subtle. We have to wait for the formal federal rules. There are rules, you know. Soon enough the real haggling will start.

To understnd the task, imagine if a billionaire handed you a blank check and told you to head into a city, say, New Haven, and round up 300 people out of work, down on their luck, and another 300 who were doing just fine.

You would be assigned to take all of them — however you found them — to the Union League Cafe for an amazing lunch. You would buy each of them a new wardrobe. And you would see to their immediate health needs, whatever those may be.

From there, your job would be to help them help themselves whatever that means. But then, after a month, they’d be back on their own. They could not pay down debt and they could not pocket the money.

It’s all doable, but inevitably the cries of “unfair” and “improper” would fly, just lke in any family that wins the lottery.

Ah, but Monday was a time to celebrate, before the battles, before the national debt comes due. Blumethal called it “truly a monumental step forward” and he’s right, it is enormous.

“This major life-saving measure will out shots in the arms of people, it will put children back to school safely and it will put money in people’s pockets. It will create a roaring economy with consumer spending being the engine that powers our economic recovery.”

And for Murphy, no less grand a statement. “What this bill does is not only inject money directly into the recovery but try to make up for what has been over the last 20 years a growing inequality of the haves and have nots,” he said.

And there you have it. We’re not just talking about money at this level. We’re not just talking about ushering out the scourge of COVID. We’re talking about a national makeover. And that doesn’t happen easily.