With federal Covid-19 relief funds available and revenues exceeding expectations in the previous fiscal year, several states and towns are considering extra cash payouts to citizens.
IMPORTANT FACTS
- California legislators announced earlier this week a budget plan that will spend $8.1 billion for $500 or $600 stimulus checks to qualified people, with an extra $500 for families with children (this follows a previous round of payments of $600 by the state).
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new budget into law on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. The budget includes funding for $1,000 direct payouts to teachers and first responders.
- The Treasury Department released rules last month allowing states and local governments to use their share of $350 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to provide direct assistance to individuals harmed economically by the pandemic, though it cautioned states against payments exceeding the ARP’s authorised $1,400 checks.
- As per the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader, the Cherokee Nation Council also passed a budget this week that would utilize part of the funds acquired from the ARP to deliver $2,000 Covid-19 relief payments to all Cherokee Nation people.
75.7 billion dollars. That is the primary surplus California revealed the previous month, Politico confirmed, attributing the unexpected windfall to a surging stock market and Silicon Valley professionals who retained high-paying jobs due to the ability to work-from-home during the pandemic, among many other factors.
After 24 Republican states announced the early termination of the federal unemployment supplement of $300 per week, several are considering legislation that would provide one-time cash payments to jobless individuals who take a job. At least six states have previously granted the return-to-work incentives, including Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and Montana. A plan has also been suggested in St. Louis to compensate 10,000 city residents for Missouri’s early discontinuation of the supplement, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
BACKGROUND
This is not the first round of stimulus checks. Maryland’s governor signed a rescue package into law in February, authorising $300 stimulus checks to qualified citizens (and $500 for joint filers). Colorado said in December that it will pay $375 to people harmed by Covid-19. New Mexico started paying eligible people $600 in March, and California followed suit in February.
