WASHINGTON – The vast sums of stimulus money that the House promised to New York State and its municipalities last month survived in the Senate version of the bill that's likely to become law this week, meaning Buffalo is on target to get $350 million – way more than it needs to patch the pandemic-related hole in its budget.
Erie County is set to get $178 million, and municipalities throughout the region will each get several million dollars. New York State, struggling under what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo says is a $15 billion budget shortfall, will receive $12.5 billion to help patch that hole.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Sunday that the money is part of a whopping $100 billion that will come to New York State in one form or another under the American Rescue Plan, President Biden's $1.9 trillion effort to boost the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to state and local aid, the package includes money for schools, $1,400 stimulus payments to most Americans, unemployment benefits with an extra $300 weekly boost through the summer, funding to expand Covid-19 vaccinations and much more.
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"What I have to say to Western New York is that help is on the way," Schumer said in an interview. "Real help is on the way. We have passed a robust package of Covid rescue that will give help to just about every person and group that is suffering under Covid and our slow-moving economy."
The final figures for state and local aid differ slightly from earlier numbers released by the House, but only because of technical corrections, a Schumer aide said.
Those corrections worked in Buffalo's favor. On target to get $324 million under the original House figures, the city will end up getting $26 million more than that.
In either case, it is a huge windfall for the city, which passed a budget last year that counted on getting only $60 million in federal aid.
Not surprisingly, Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown praised the aid package in an interview last month.
"We think that this federal stimulus package will certainly help us to be able to return to fiscal health and move members of our community forward as quickly as possible," Brown said.
Cuomo – who had said that earlier federal relief efforts shortchanged New York – praised the Senate-passed bill Sunday, calling it "a major, major boost for the state."
However, Cuomo said that the bill leaves the state with $2.5 billion less than needed to cover its deficit, meaning increased taxes on the wealthy are possible in pending budget negotiations as a method of covering that gap.
Nationwide, the bill includes $350 billion for state and local aid. That figure had been expected to fall in Senate negotiations because Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, whose vote was needed for passage of the bill, had said the state and local aid figure was "extremely high." But Manchin chose to use his political capital not to shrink the bill's state and local aid, but tweak its weekly unemployment supplement from the original $400 to $300.
In addition to the state and local aid, school districts in New York will get a total of $9 billion under the Senate bill.
"That will allow our schools in Western New York to open safely," Schumer said.
District-level figures – not yet available Sunday – will be different than those in the House-passed measure, which called for Buffalo city schools to get $245 million. That is because the Senate bill changed the way those benefits will be calculated.
Many of Schumer's other top priorities also made their way into the bill.
He insisted that restaurants, which have been especially hard-hit by the pandemic, get help – and so the bill would set aside $26.8 billion for a new grant program aimed solely at eateries.
Similarly, Schumer has been pushing for months for "Save Our Stages" legislation aimed at helping performing arts venues. The stimulus bill now includes $1.25 billion for that.
Several of Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand's priorities were included in the bill, as well. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, has pushed for creation of a public "Health Force" to help with vaccine distribution and other public health needs – and the Senate bill includes $7.7 billion for that purpose.
Gillibrand also pushed for expanded emergency paid leave, food stamp funding and child care aid to combat the economic downturn, all of which made it into the bill, too.
"While there’s more work to be done to help America fully recover, this bill is a huge step to further address this crisis," Gillibrand said.
Schumer agreed. He highlighted the creation of a new child tax allowance and expansion of the earned income tax credit – moves that, according to a Columbia University study, could cut child poverty nationwide in half. Schumer said that is especially important in Buffalo, which had the nation's second-highest childhood poverty rate in 2019.
The bill, which passed the Senate along party lines Saturday, was Schumer's first major test as majority leader. And said he was happy with how it turned out.
"I think this is the biggest package of relief since the New Deal," Schumer said.
Biden was happy, too – both with the bill and with Schumer.
"I've never seen anyone work as skillfully, as ably, as patiently, with determination to deliver such a consequential piece of legislation that was so urgently needed as the American Rescue Plan," Biden said. "Senator Chuck Schumer, when the country needed you most, you led, Chuck, and you delivered. Neither I nor the country will ever forget that."
