We need this American Rescue Plan
It’s been just over a year since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was discovered in Massachusetts. Since then, more than 580,000 Bay Staters have contracted the virus and tragically, over 16,000 have lost their lives.
The past 12 months have posed unprecedented challenges to each of us and has upended every aspect of our lives. Through all of the turmoil and anguish we have encountered during this devastating public health crisis, we have been able to derive a sense of assurance from the selflessness of the countless essential workers who have stepped up in remarkable ways since its onset.
We have frequently offered well-deserved recognition to the individuals courageously combatting the pandemic on the frontlines and in hospitals and community health centers across the nation. While often receiving even less notoriety but also doing incredibly important work, public servants employed by state and municipal governments have also continued to report to duty in order to maintain the essential services that our communities depend on.
From delivering clean drinking water, responding to emergencies, filling potholes, and clearing our streets after snow storms, the services provided by municipal governments and their hardworking employees have proven to be as vital as ever. While adapting to perform these critical operations under difficult circumstances, municipal governments have also been relied upon to lead the public health functions such as contact tracing.
All the while, cities and towns have faced grave fiscal peril as key revenue streams diminish with the pandemic.
Cities like Lowell have succeeded in implementing fiscal controls to mitigate the impact of lost revenues, but other communities are at risk of becoming stretched even thinner after months of austerity. Yet, they haven’t received a dime in federal assistance since March of last year.
That’s one of the many reasons why passing President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan is so important.
Not only does this package include much needed direct payments and unemployment benefits to keep working families afloat and additional aid for small businesses and restaurants in need, but it also provides a long overdue investment in keeping these essential workers paid and on the job. Getting this package across the finish line will deliver more than $51 million to the City of Lowell alone, and billions more will go to com
munities across the commonwealth to do just that.
This isn’t about “bailing out” red states or blue cities. This is about saving lives in communities across our nation and doing so regardless of political party. There’s a reason that this package has overwhelming public support and has been endorsed by republican, democratic, and independent local elected officials far and wide.
Much like the hardworking folks they represent, local officials understand that when someone gets sick or injured and needs to get to the hospital, it isn’t the federal government or even the state that picks up that 9-1-1 call. And it isn’t the feds or state that dispatch an ambulance with trained emts. When it comes to continuing critical services on the front lines of this pandemic, the buck starts and stops with local governments.
It’s time for the federal government to do what our essential workers have been doing for the past year – step up. That starts with making the american rescue plan law.