Localities win in Democratic bill that Republicans dismiss out of hand – Buffalo News

WASHINGTON The congressional Democrats' latest proposal for rescuing the nation from the coronavirus economic crash looks like a series of dreams come true for New York State and the Buffalo area.

The state would get $34.4 billion over two years, and more than $1 billion would flow into Buffalo's coffers. Congress would send $517 million to Erie County, and property owners across the state would get back the cherished SALT deduction that Congress trimmed three years ago.

"This is exactly what a disaster relief bill should look like," Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, said of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or Heroes Act.

But to Republicans, the Democrats' $3 trillion proposal is a disaster in itself.

"Obviously, it's a partisan exercise," said Rep. Tom Reed, a Corning Republican who criticized the measure for loosening the reins on the cannabis industry, releasing federal prisoners and aiding undocumented immigrants.

In other words, then, the Heroes Act is just the opening volley in what's likely to be a longer and more difficult tussle than Congress endured in passing its first four pieces of legislation aimed at responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Heroes Act would refill local government accounts that have been running low because sales tax revenues have disappeared amid the Covid-19 shutdown. In the Buffalo area alone, municipalities would get $2.2 billion over two years.

"This proposal would absolutely eliminate the city's fiscal problems," said Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown. "I think that this proposal is very forward-thinking in that municipalities won't just need federal aid for one year, but they will need it for multiple years."

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz was equally pleased.

The bill "provides the certainty we need so that we could continue providing the services as normal for a county government without having to do drastic layoffs," Poloncarz said.

The measure would also give $171.2 million to the City of Niagara Falls and $117.7 million to the Niagara County government. The largest towns in the region would each receive tens of millions of dollars, and even the smallest municipalities would get something.

Moreover, the bill would likely limit cuts in state funding to municipalities and school districts. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that the state now faces a $61 billion funding gap. The Heroes Act would cover $22.3 billion of this year's shortfall and give the state $12.1 billion in 2021.

Cuomo was particularly pleased with the bill's proposed return of the federal deduction for state and local taxes. Capped at $10,000 annually in the Republican Congress' 2017 tax overhaul, that deduction would go uncapped for the next two years a move that would help high-tax states such as New York to retain residents.

"It's the single best piece of action for the State of New York," Cuomo said.

The trouble with the Heroes Act, though, is that its an entirely Democratic bill and any successful measure will have to pass muster with the Republican-led Senate and the Republican president.

And while President Trump remained silent on the measure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had plenty to say.

"Even the media is describing it as a partisan wish list with no chance of becoming law," McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement. This is exactly the wrong approach."

Rather than starting work on a fourth major coronavirus funding bill, McConnell said he is putting together a bill aimed at protecting businesses from lawsuits if they reopen amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Meantime, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy took issue with provisions of the Heroes Act guaranteeing the right to vote by mail this fall, rescuing troubled pension funds and restoring the SALT deduction.

The problems with this 1815-page, multi-trillion dollar messaging bill are plain to see," said McCarthy, a California Republican. "Its central demands changing election laws, bailing out mismanaged pensions, and temporarily suspending the cap on SALT tax deductions for millionaires and billionaires were drafted behind closed doors, predate the crisis, and are not targeted to coronavirus."

Despite that partisan divide, Democrats and Republicans agreed there are areas where the two parties may eventually come to an agreement.

Reed has been working with Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, and Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, on a measure that would provide $500 billion to states and localities half of what the Heroes Act would deliver.

"A trillion dollars is not reasonable," Reed said.

There's also bipartisan interest in increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health. The Heroes Act would boost NIH funding by $4.75 billion just shy of the $5 billion that Higgins has been pushing for research into finding a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19.

"We have to deal with the problem at hand," Higgins said.

Congress may do that at a leisurely pace, though, partly because the Trump administration has said there's no need to pass another relief bill immediately.

"We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers money that we do it carefully," Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said on Fox News this week.

But Congress is already facing pressure from the nation's governors. Cuomo, the Democratic vice chair of the National Governors Association, and Gov. Larry Hogan, the group's Republican vice chair, delivered a joint statement Wednesday calling for fast action.

"With widespread bipartisan agreement on the need for this assistance, we cannot afford a partisan process that turns this urgent relief into another political football," they said.

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Localities win in Democratic bill that Republicans dismiss out of hand - Buffalo News