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As the virus devastates tax revenues, states must follow balanced budget laws.
In February Ohio had a budget surplus of $ 200 million. Then the coronavirus pandemic occurred, and two months later, as tax revenue plummeted and public health spending skyrocketed, the state was facing a $ 777 million hole.
Gov. Mike DeWine, Republican, ordered immediate cuts to close the gap. I had no choice. The pandemic, DeWine said, “does not exempt us from balancing our budget, which we are legally required to do.”
Ohio is hardly alone. Every state is dealing with a version of the same problem, and all but one, Vermont, have balanced budget laws in force. And for most, the new fiscal year begins July 1, leaving them desperate for help with just a few weeks to come up with a plan.
A coalition of five Democratic governors said Monday that state and local governments needed $ 1 trillion in federal aid or would be forced to decide between funding public health programs or laying off teachers, police and other workers.
Democrats in Washington have supported those requests, but Some Republicans, including President Trump, have suggested that Democratic-controlled states are seeking a bailout for pre-pandemic bad decisions.
The problem is that balanced budget laws have left states with few options. And the coronavirus adds to the stress every day: Home stay orders and frozen economic activity have dramatically reduced state sales and income tax revenue, and largely unused services, like airports and public transport, they still need to be maintained.
Georgia has ordered all state agencies to cut spending by 14 percent by May 20. California has already borrowed $ 348 million, and Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday proposed abrupt cuts to public schools and universities and health care as part of a revised budget.
California’s new budget would cut spending by 9 percent overall, but like Mr. DeWine, Mr. Newsom said he had few options.
“Our state is in an unprecedented emergency, facing massive job losses and deficits in record time,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “This budget reflects that emergency.”
In Wisconsin, residents woke up Thursday in a state of confusion after the conservative majority in the State Supreme Court sided with the Republican majority in the Legislature on Wednesday night. overturn a state order to stay home by Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
In Michigan, hundreds of protesters, many of them armed, flocked to the State Capitol in the pouring rain. The state closed the building beforehand and canceled the legislative session, rather than risk repeating an April protest in which Angry protesters with long weapons huddled inside.
In Pennsylvania, some Republican lawmakers urged to challenge the Democratic governor’s orders to keep non-essential businesses closed, and President Trump flew to Allentown for a politically charged visit to a medical supply center.
The response to the coronavirus in those three states, which shaped the 2016 presidential election and could strongly influence the November one, is turning into a confused and hectic mix of health care, protest and partisan politics, leaving residents to fend for themselves. for themselves.
“My anxiety about this pandemic is that we don’t have a unified plan, that we are all on the same page and that we listen to the science and the same rules,” said Jamie O’Brien, 40, who owns a salon in Madison, Wisconsin. ., which remains closed due to a local order to stay home.
Across Wisconsin, the court ruling left some residents in a festive mood, heading directly to one of the state’s many taverns to celebrate. Others were determined to stay home, worried that it was too soon to return to crowded restaurants and shops.
“You have the only group that says ‘Yay!'” Said Patty Schachtner, a Democratic state senator from western Wisconsin. “And the other group is like, ‘Man, life got complicated.'”
It was a haunting microcosm of a country increasingly unable to separate bitter political divisions from plans to combat a deadly disease. Democratic governors in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, backed by public health experts, have called for caution before reopening. Republican legislatures in the states have pushed in the opposite direction, citing economic need and personal freedom.
The White House threatens to veto a $ 3 billion relief bill.
The White House threatened to veto a $ 3 trillion pandemic relief bill that Democrats planned to push through the House on Friday, as Republicans urged its members to reject a measure they said was not an initiative. .
On a day when the two-month count of Unemployment claims reached 36.5 million, the statement hinted at what Republican leaders and White House officials have suggested in recent days: that they are unsure that additional financial aid measures will be needed, and that any Such a measure should focus on tax cuts and business liability protections.
Republican House of Representatives leaders urged members to vote against the legislation, saying, “Neither this bill nor any of it will become law.”
Even as they prepared to move into the House, Democrats were making last-minute reviews of the bill, including a provision to prohibit nonprofits that had participated in electoral activities, such as contributing to a political campaign, from receiving loans. They also added language that ordered a study to examine the role of virus-related disinformation in the public response to the pandemic.
The weekly count of new claims has decreased since the end of March, but that hopeful blink barely stands out in a bleak economic picture.
And despite states’ attempts to keep up with the onslaught of claims, many workers remain extremely frustrated, either because of their inability to file applications or late payments.
In places where the reopening process has begun, workers who have been called to their jobs often face fewer hours and wages, as well as an increased risk of infection. However, the decline in return, whether due to health problems or the need to care for children while schools are closed, is likely to end unemployment benefits.
“It is a very difficult choice for those in the service industry and those at the bottom end of the pay scale,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics. “Do you come back and risk getting sick or don’t you have money?”
As job losses increased, two ideologically opposed lawmakers came to the same conclusion: It’s time for the federal government to cover workers’ wages.
Representative Pramila Jayapal, a progressive Democrat from Washington, and Senator Josh Hawley, a Conservative Republican from Missouri, are presenting the case to their party leaders who Guaranteed income programs must be part of the federal aid effort.
Coughing or sneezing may not be the only way that people transmit infectious pathogens like coronavirus to each other. Talking can also According to a new study, propel thousands of drops so small that they can remain suspended in the air for eight to 14 minutes.
The experimental conditions of the study would have to replicate under real-world circumstances, and researchers still don’t know how much virus must be passed from one person to another to cause infection. But his findings strengthen the case for wearing masks and taking other precautions to reduce the spread of the virus.
Changes in New York: Five counties will open and Broadway’s “Frozen” will close.
In New York, a central five-county area has met the criteria to start reopening some businesses this weekend, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said. A further 157 deaths were reported, the fourth consecutive day the figure was less than 200.
State authorities are now investigating 110 cases of a life-threatening pediatric inflammatory syndrome that appears to be related to the virus and has so far been linked to the deaths of three children. Cases have been reported in other states, including California, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
“Frozen” had been the weakest of the three Disney musicals that had been running on Broadway, the others being “The Lion King” and “Aladdin”, but the The decision to close it came ahead of schedule. However, the decision is a reminder that the pandemic is likely to alter the theatrical landscape, forcing producers to reevaluate the financial viability of long-term planned projects due to the expected challenges that attract audiences and investors.
The whistleblower who was fired as head of a federal medical research agency charged Thursday that senior Trump administration officials ignored his early warnings to stock up on masks and other supplies to fight the coronavirus, and the Americans died as Outcome.
“Lives were in danger and I believe lives were lost,” said Dr. Rick Bright, who was removed in April as director of the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, he told a House subcommittee. “The window is closing to address this pandemic.”
Throughout nearly four hours of testimony, Dr. Bright told lawmakers about a House of Representatives health subcommittee said the outbreak “would worsen and last” if the United States did not rapidly develop a national testing strategy and predict vaccine shortages if the administration does not develop a distribution plan now.
After stopping for nearly a month, President Trump and his health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, responded to Dr. Bright, escalating the confrontation. Mr. Trump dismissed Dr. Bright as a “disgruntled employee“While Mr. Azar insisted that officials followed the scientist’s ideas.
“Everything he complained about was accomplished,” Azar told reporters as he and Trump prepared to board the presidential helicopter to depart for Allentown, Pennsylvania. “What he spoke was done.”
“This is like someone who was in the choir trying to say he was a soloist back then,” continued Mr. Azar, adding: “Their accusations don’t hold up. They don’t hold water.”
Dr. Bright’s testimony marked the first time that a federal scientist, or any federal official, came to Congress and openly accused the administration of endangering the lives of Americans by altering their response to the coronavirus. He said Americans would face “the darkest winter in modern history” if the administration moved quickly, as people “fret” to leave their homes.
North Carolina Senator Richard M. Burr temporarily stepped down Thursday as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a day after F.B.I. Agents seized his cell phone as part of an investigation into whether he sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares using non-public information on the coronavirus.
The seizure and search of his electronic storage accounts, confirmed by an investigator informed on the case, represented a significant escalation of the investigation by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The measures suggest that Burr, a Republican and one of the most influential members of Congress, could be in grave legal danger.
Given the sensitivity surrounding the decision to obtain a search warrant for a serving senator, the measure was approved at the highest levels of the department, a senior Justice Department official said, meaning that Attorney General William P Barr signed. The order to obtain Mr. Burr’s phone number was issued to his lawyer, and investigators took Mr. Burr’s phone from his home, according to the official, who, like the investigator, spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss the case.
Burr has denied that he did anything wrong. As the investigation progressed, he said Thursday that he wanted to limit distraction to the Senate and informed Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and majority leader, that he would step aside. However, Burr will remain a member of the committee and continue to serve in the Senate.
Burr sold the shares on February 12 before the market collapsed and while President Trump and some supporters downplayed the threat of the virus. At the time, Burr was receiving reports and engaging in senator-only talks that suggested the country was facing a growing health crisis that could harm the economy.
Neurologists in New York City, Michigan, New Jersey, and other parts of the country have reported a number of cases in which otherwise healthy young adults have suffered strokes. Many are now convinced that the unexplained incidents are another insidious manifestation of Covid-19.
Although strokes can be rare, they can have catastrophic consequences, such as cognitive decline, physical disability, and even death.
“We are seeing a surprising number of young people who had a mild cough or did not remember viral symptoms, and are self-isolating at home as they are supposed to be, and have a sudden stroke,” said Dr. Adam Dmytriw, a radiologist at the University of Toronto, one of the authors of An article describing a series of patients who had Covid-19-related strokes.
For some of these patients, a stroke was the first symptom of a viral infection. They put off going to the emergency room because they didn’t want to expose themselves to the virus.
“If you don’t get help, you risk permanent disability and need long-term care,” said Dr. Johanna Fifi, a neurologist at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York. “It won’t go away on its own.”
Leaders of the nation’s largest teacher union and parent volunteer organization rejected Mr. Trump’s efforts to reopen schools, saying that only one official could assure them that it was safe to receive millions of students back.
“I am waiting for Dr. Fauci,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Association for Education, said in a call with journalists on Thursday. “I am not waiting for a politician; I am waiting for an infectious disease medical professional to say, ‘Now we can do it, in these circumstances.’
Ms. Eskelsen García joined educators and members of the National PTA a day after Trump rebuked Dr. Fauci for expressing caution about the reopening of schools. Dr. Fauci He told a Senate panel Tuesday that a vaccine against the virus would surely not be ready in time for the new school year. “It is better to be careful, if we are not gentlemen, when thinking that children are completely immune to the harmful effects,” he said.
Dr. Fauci’s testimony irritated Mr. Trump, who believes that reopening schools is critical to restarting the economy and to his re-election campaign. “I totally disagree with him in schools,” Trump said in an interview on Fox Business on Thursday morning.
School leaders prepare for severe budget cuts as they anticipate large new expenses for additional staff members and protective gear to help mitigate the spread of the virus.
A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday against the state’s attorney general and allowed voters who feared being infected with the virus to cast ballots by mail instead of going to the polls.
At stake are the rules for issuing mail ballots and whether healthy voters who fear catching the virus at the polls qualify for such ballots as disabled voters. The Texas Democratic Party, voting rights groups, and others who sued the state say yes. But Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has said the electoral code “does not allow a healthy person to vote by mail simply because going to the polls carries some risk to public health.”
In a separate legal motion on Wednesday, Mr. Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to Direct officials in five counties to stop encouraging voters to apply for a vote by mail if they feared they would get the virus.
In Thursday’s latest ruling, the state’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals upheld a lower court order issued last month. In that order, a judge found that voting in person during the pandemic presented a probability of damaging a voter’s health and that “any voter without established immunity meets the definition of disability in plain language” and was entitled to send their ballots by mail.
When is it safe to return to the gym?
After a forced period of inactivity, many wonder if it is wise to go back to shared exercise bikes, weights, and treadmills. By their very nature, public sports facilities tend to be breeding grounds for germs. But there are things you can do to mitigate the risk of infection if you want to exercise.
Stay up-to-date with Times correspondents around the world.
A commercial that praised Chinese youth, which appeared online and on state television, sparked an immediate backlash across the country.
The reports were contributed by Mike Baker, Kim Barker, Karen Barrow, Pam Belluck, Katie Benner, Alan Blinder, Julie Bosman, Emily Cochrane, Patricia Cohen, Michael Cooper, Catie Edmondson, Nicholas Fandos, Manny Fernandez, Thomas Fuller, Trip Gabriel, Michael Gold, Kathleen Gray, Erica L. Green, Amy Julia Harris, Rachel L. Harris, Tiffany Hsu, Shawn Hubler, Patricia Mazzei, Jesse McKinley, David Montgomery, Kay Nolan, Azi Paybarah, Roni Caryn Rabin, Katie Rogers, Marc Santora , Knvul Sheikh, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Eileen Sullivan, Lisa Tarchak and Neil Vigdor.
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