August might bring the dog days of summer, but it is also brings primary election season. The August 4 primary shed light on what’s in store for the legislative session come January. There weren’t many surprises, though it seems there are a few tight general election races shaping up. Final vote tallies are still pending. You can check out the legislative election results on the Secretary of State’s website.
Federal CARES Act funds
AWC continues to reach out to our members and the Department of Commerce to help cities maximize their use of CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF). In May, the Governor allocated $297 million for cities and counties. Each city is eligible to receive up to $30 per person for eligible expenses. The Department of Commerce is currently working to set up contracts with each city and start the reimbursement process. There are still about 60 of our smaller cities that have not applied for reimbursement yet. If this is true for your city, please apply immediately. In a few short weeks, AWC will be hosting a webinar designed to help small cities walk through the process.
For cities that have contracted for the funds and are submitting reimbursement requests, Commerce has some suggestions regarding the filing process that can help your city receive funds more quickly. For more on this, check out this article.
Another federal relief package?
House Democrats, Senate Republicans, and the White House continue to negotiate towards the next federal relief package ahead of the traditional August recess. AWC has engaged in an ongoing partnership with National League of Cities on the #CitiesAreEssential campaign to let members of Congress know that cities in Washington and across the nation need more direct federal funding assistance, particularly to help with lost revenue from the economic crisis. For more on those efforts and the proposals being considered, check out this article.
2021 City Legislative Priorities
AWC’s Legislative Priorities Committee has been meeting to develop our 2021 legislative priorities. The committee has convened three times and will meet again in early September to make final recommendations on which issues should qualify as city priorities for the upcoming legislative session. AWC’s Board of Directors will formally consider the committee’s recommendations for adoption in October.
The committee is considering many important city issues as potential priorities in 2021. Some issues under consideration include fiscal flexibility, broadband, infrastructure funding, housing assistance, police reforms, and transportation funding, to name a few.
However, the upcoming session is likely to be different from any prior session due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is possible that much of the session will be conducted remotely. The technological challenges of remote access could limit the Legislature’s bandwidth (literally and figuratively) for addressing complicated policy issues in addition to taking on the onerous challenge of crafting the state budget.
In the next issue of Legislative Bulletin, AWC will update you on the committee’s work and its city legislative priority recommendations.
What should city officials be doing to prepare for 2021?
Meet with your legislators and talk to them about:
- What your city is doing to respond to COVID-19 and how it is impacting your budget;
- How your city is spending CARES Act CRF money;
- Your city’s budget challenges and examples of how they impact residents;
- The importance of state-shared revenues and infrastructure funding and ask them not to cut those programs in the state budget; and
- How and why cities are economic drivers for the state and that strong cities will mean a faster recovery.
Safe Start – Washington’s coronavirus response
We know many of you are doing your best to keep up with the latest changes to the state’s Safe Start requirements. Visit the state’s webpage for the latest information. You can also find the Safe Start Phased Reopening Plan with an overview of what is allowed in each phase.
City residents see their local city officials as some of the most reliable sources of information about COVID-19. We encourage you to share this information with your communities. Additional resources are available on the AWC website.