Congress: Local Governments Need Help Too
Matt Shorraw, Mayor, City of Monessen
Local governments are in the weeds, making day-to-day decisions that directly impact the lives of everyday Americans. That is why, now more than ever, we need the Federal Government to step up and help local governments. This is especially true, due to the effects caused by COVID-19 and the extra burden that has been placed on local governments in terms of a significant decrease of revenue, an increase in services needed to keep constituents safe and healthy, and big hits to local businesses, development opportunities, and everything in between.
Cities handle everything from libraries to trash collection, snow removal, demolitions, potholes, general complaints and concerns, police protection, fire protection, and many other services. These local governments represent communities small and large; urban and rural; democrat and republican.
I am appalled that just this week, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, whose net worth in 2017 was estimated at $17 million, would have the audacity to tell local governments to “use the bankruptcy route”. The small City of Monessen, Pennsylvania, of which I represent, has a budget of roughly $4 million a year. McConnell’s net worth is over four times that.
Monessen, Pennsylvania is not new to financial difficulties. We’ve been trying to keep the city out of bankruptcy for nearly a decade now. We have been successful thus far. We are finally at a better footing, but we still have a long way to go. Monessen’s problems stem from bad local, state, and federal decisions over the years. These issues consist of aging infrastructure, drug trafficking, population decline, decades of disinvestment, and a loss of jobs coupled with the collapse of the manufacturing sector in the 1980s, due to technological advancements and a move to a more globalized economy. These issues — especially the financial issues that were caused by these decades of troubles — are only exacerbated and laid bare in many local governments, due to the impacts of COVID-19. McConnell’s argument that he does not want the federal government helping local governments who may have made bad financial decisions in the past is valid; however, what if some of those decisions are the cause of bad choices made by the Federal Government itself, over the past several decades? Some of those bad choices led to the difficult positions many local governments are in now.
If we can bail out banks, large industries, and major companies that consider themselves “small businesses”, we can provide aid to our local governments, who are still keeping services going, despite all of the closures. These large bailouts happened during the 2009 financial crisis, and it appears they are happening again.
In Pennsylvania, many municipalities who go into Bankruptcy have a hard time getting out of it. When that happens, residents tend to have to pay more for fewer services, and it puts an extra burden on the state government to manage the situation. That is not a viable solution that we should be touting. We should be working to build up our local governments — not continuing their hollowing out, which has occurred since the Urban Renewal era of the mid-twentieth century.
Cities large and small could once again be the economic engines of the country. Refusal to help them with much-needed aid and refusal to help them address lost revenue due to the effects of this pandemic is taking away the opportunity for local governments to grow and to improve the lives of their constituents’ wellbeing, attract jobs that provide a livable wage, and help to keep them safe and healthy. We can and must do better.
I know many Mayors and local government leaders are sharing many of the same concerns and frustrations I have laid out here. I am urging Congress and the Trump Administration to find a bipartisan solution to curb the monetary effects of COVID-19, and give cities large and small the tools they need to not only survive but to thrive. Our local governments need help. They do not need bankruptcy. Let’s lift up our communities from the bottom up, so we can help as many Americans as possible.
MS
