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   From: felcher.adam.schiff@sacbee.com   
      
   Good!  Keep draining the swamp.   
      
   WASHINGTON — State and local governments are warning of a wave   
   of layoffs and pay cuts after getting left out of the federal   
   coronavirus relief package expected to pass Congress this week.   
      
   In many places, those painful reductions are already taking   
   shape:   
      
   Los Angeles plans to force city workers to spend 26 days on   
   unpaid leave as revenues are forecast to drop as much as $600   
   million next fiscal year.   
   Detroit has proposed laying off 200 workers and furloughing   
   thousands more.   
   In Ohio’s Hamilton County, Commissioner Denise Driehaus is   
   taking a 10% pay cut alongside county workers.   
   “We are really struggling,” Driehaus said.   
      
   The $2.2 trillion emergency legislation known as the CARES Act,   
   which President Donald Trump signed late last month, included   
   $150 billion in direct help for state and local governments   
   grappling with the impact of the deadly outbreak. Democrats   
   pushed to include another $150 billion in the next tranche of   
   aid, but Republicans sought to keep the bill narrowly focused on   
   support for small business.   
      
   By Tuesday night, Democrats yielded on their demand. The Senate   
   passed the legislation by unanimous consent — without additional   
   help for state and local governments. The House is slated to   
   vote Thursday, and Trump is expected to sign it.   
      
   Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to revisit the issue   
   in the coming round of negotiations over what could be an even   
   bigger package of relief.   
      
   “The people who are on the front lines, they should get extra   
   money, and at the top of the list is a robust state and local   
   plan,” Schumer said. “We’re going to fight for that and many   
   more things” in the next aid bill. It “will soon be upon us   
   because the nation will demand it.”   
      
   But local jurisdictions may not be able to wait that long.   
   They’re facing higher expenditures on health care and other   
   services to combat the disease at the same time that revenues   
   are plunging as Americans stay home and businesses remain   
   shuttered. According to the Center on Budget and Policy   
   Priorities, states could be $500 billion in the hole over the   
   next two years.   
      
   “The approaching state budget cuts … will cause the U.S. economy   
   to contract further — making the economic downturn deeper and   
   more protracted, causing many more people to lose their jobs,   
   and magnifying the serious hardship we already see,” said Robert   
   Greenstein, the think tank’s president.   
      
   Roughly 20 million people work in the public sector at the state   
   and local level, which is more than the number employed in the   
   hard-hit retail industry. The last time the public sector faced   
   such steep budget cuts was during the Great Recession a decade   
   ago. State and local governments shed 627,000 jobs in the three   
   years following the downturn, according to the Economic Policy   
   Institute.   
      
   Experts are worried this time could be even worse, but plugging   
   the hole could require a staggering infusion of cash, which the   
   union representing public sector workers readily acknowledges.   
   The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees   
   is pushing for at least $700 billion in the next relief package.   
      
   https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/coronavirus-relief-bill-layoffs-   
   coming-to-state-local-governments.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)