COVID-19 has devastated Durham. Congress must act on relief funds.
As the mayor of Durham, I’m really proud of how our community has pulled together to keep our city safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have kept the growth rate of our cases low, our hospitals free of a rush of COVID patients, and our ICUs unburdened. We are working together to feed our young people and elders, provide face coverings and quarantine facilities to our vulnerable friends and neighbors, make digital learning available to all of our students, support our small businesses and provide rental assistance to people facing eviction.
At the same time, the effects of the virus have been devastating. Durham has registered more than 8,000 cases. We have tragically lost nearly 100 of our neighbors to the pandemic. Hundreds of our small businesses are struggling just to survive. Fully 35 percent of Durham’s low-wage workers are now unemployed. And we face a looming eviction crisis of unimaginable proportions.
Meanwhile, I and other city and county officials are responsible for overseeing our vital services—public education, public health and safety, infrastructure for safe drinking water, trash collection, parks and recreation, our transit system, the administration of free and fair elections, and so much more.
These services, too, are threatened by the pandemic, which has significantly diminished the tax revenues that keep local government running. Current estimates are that the budget shortfall in North Carolina for 2021 will be $2.6 billion, and the city of Durham has already had to fill a $12 million budget hole this year.
Without help from Washington, we will be struggling to provide our basic services, and we certainly won’t be able to meet the needs of our small businesses hanging on by a thread and the thousands of Durham residents who simply can’t pay their rent.
This fiscal crisis is already upon us, and in response, the United States House of Representatives has passed the HEROES Act. It includes almost $1 trillion for state and local governments, including $13.4 billion to our state government and $9 billion to North Carolina’s cities and counties. This money could save tens of thousands of jobs, support our small businesses, and maintain uninterrupted delivery of vital public services.
Just this past week, the House passed a $2.2 trillion version of the HEROES Act, less than their original bill in order to reach a compromise with the Republican-led Senate. To my surprise and alarm, the Senate is still showing little interest in stepping up for state and local governments in spite of our tremendous needs.
And now, worst of all, President Trump has cut off all negotiations with Congress on potential relief for states and localities.
This is an urgent matter for all North Carolinians. During the time that the Senate has failed to act on this next recovery package, 2,000 additional North Carolinians have died from COVID-19, and 300,000 more people have lost their jobs. At least 200,000 North Carolinians also have lost their employer-sponsored healthcare, and estimates are that almost 550,000 are struggling to find their next meal.
This cannot be a partisan issue. If Congress doesn’t pass significant relief and recovery, state and local governments will founder and our most vulnerable residents will suffer the most.
Our eyes are on the president and on the U.S. Senate, and Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr. State and local governments don’t have the money to fix this. Only Congress can take the kind of action necessary to meet the scale of the challenges we face. President Trump and the Senate need to act now to save people’s lives and livelihoods. Without that action, we face an economic catastrophe.