BOSTON (WHDH) - The Massachusetts House of Representatives met to discuss some options Wednesday continue to work on a plan to provide financial aid to people hit hard during the pandemic
“The economic hit is massive. There’s no kind way to put it.” one lawmaker said.
It’s a bleak economic outlook for state lawmakers trying to plan a budget during the age of coronavirus.
“We really have no real good sense of how big the hole is that we are in and how we’re going to get out of it,” Representative Mark Cusak said.
Members of a special House COVID Economic Recovery Committee received some bad news from State Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder — 2020 tax revenues in the Commonwealth are down more than a billion dollars since the pandemic hit.
“As a result of the decline in economic activity, states are facing an unprecedented budgetary challenge in fiscal year 20, in fiscal year 21 and perhaps beyond,” Snyder said.
Despite Massachusetts’s progress in flattening the COVID curve, a lobbyist for the state’s employers said they are worried about the current surge going on in other states.
“When does that tidal wave come back to Massachusetts… and the fear is if we had a second shut down many of my members are worried they wouldn’t survive that second event because they’re hanging on by a thread right now,” John Regan of Associated Industries of Massachusetts said.
Another lobbyist called for lawmakers to provide emergency sick time benefits for workers.
“If we are going to tackle the issue of workers going to work when they’ve been exposed when they are showing symptoms when they’ve tested positive even and not wanting to tell a boss because they can’t afford to lose the shift, we are in the moment now,” SEIU 509 Political Director Chris Condon said.
At the virtual meeting, there was also talk of redefining who falls under the umbrella of “essential workers.”
“There’s no sense having a supermarket open if there’s no one there to work it and these people deserve an awful lot of credit,” Rep. Ronald Mariano said
Regardless of what happens in the coming months, one member of the panel said economic uncertainty will remain until an effective vaccine for COVID-19 is developed.
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