Baker feels pretty positive about relief package
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Gov. Charlie Baker
Uncertainty around whether the federal government will provide additional assistance to states and municipalities dealing with pandemic-related budget stress has been holding up progress on Beacon Hill, but Gov. Charlie Baker is optimistic that a relief package will emerge this month.
"There's been a fair amount of bipartisan activity both among the governors and among folks in the Senate and in Congress about trying to put together a deal recognizing and understanding that states and municipalities face corona-driven and economic-driven issues as a result of the virus," the governor said during a Sunday interview with Jon Keller on WBZ-TV.
With the new fiscal year already underway, state budget managers still do not have a grasp on how much tax revenue the state will collect in fiscal 2021 or how much aid might be coming from Washington, and the uncertainty is contributing to an unusually delayed budget and a hesitation to take up state-level relief proposals on Beacon Hill.
U.S. House Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief bill in May that included nearly $1 trillion in aid for state and local governments, but the Republicans who control the U.S. Senate have made clear that bill is a non-starter.
The White House has since resumed negotiations with Capitol Hill on a more narrow relief package that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently told CNBC could be done by the end of July.
Baker said the conversations he's had with people in Washington, D.C., make him optimistic that the next round of coronavirus relief will be on its way in the next three weeks.
"I've talked to a lot of folks in Washington on both sides of the aisle and in both sides of the Legislature who have all said to me that they get the fact that something needs to happen here and they've heard from a lot of the governors and others about why," he said. "So I'm actually feeling pretty positive about something happening here before the end of July."
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