Padilla on State and Local Funding in COVID Bill: Don’t ‘Penalize’ CA ‘for Doing the Right Thing Early in the Pandemic’

On Monday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) defended the state and local government funding provisions in the coronavirus relief bill by stating that we shouldn’t punish states “for doing the right thing early in the pandemic” like California.

Padilla said, “This supposed surplus in California that some of my Republican colleagues are pointing to is a false surplus. You don’t want to penalize states like California for doing the right thing early in the pandemic, looking at taking deep cuts, not just in the social service safety net, but even into state employee contracts, etc., that make it appear like there’s a surplus on paper. But the funding that this package is going to restore to states across the country will replenish those social service programs when they are needed the most.”

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