Georgia helps – and wishes – the American rescue plan

Georgia’s economy is still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic recession. It has been more than a year since the first coronavirus case was discovered in the United States and thousands of Americans are still dying from the virus every week. Small businesses are closing permanently and workers are enrolling in unemployment insurance (UI) or leaving the workforce altogether. Congress and President Joe Biden must act bravely – or it will get worse. The country must defeat the virus and help fighting Georgian families.

As of December 2020:

• Compared to February 2020, around 93,000 Georgians were employed less – an employment deficit of 2 percent.1 Employment among low-wage earners is falling even more sharply; Employment fell 18 percent for Georgians earning less than $ 27,000
• The number of state and local government employees in Georgia has decreased by 27,300 from February 2020.3 To survive the pandemic, Georgia needs state and local employees for contact tracing, vaccination, recruiting for unemployment insurance, support for children who are in the personal Returning to school and other pandemic-related needs. Laying off these workers will only prolong both the pandemic and the recession.

In late 2020, the provisions on emergency paid sick leave expired, meaning Georgians must make the choice of staying home to protect their families or co-workers and keeping their wages.

Economic conditions in Georgia are starting to decline

• Traditional UI applications showed that 27,200 Georgians filed new applications in the week ending Jan. 23 – 400 percent more than the state’s average number of weekly applications in 2019.4
• At the end of January, the total number of Georgians receiving traditional UI payments was 150,000, which has increased over the course of the fall.5 The number of enrollments from week to week was due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Georgia and the challenges the UI system faced in resuming benefits following the delays in Congress in signing unemployment benefit extensions in December.
• 250,000 Georgians have still signed up for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Compensation (PEUC) – two programs that provide self-employed, independent contractors and part-time workers with UI and extend the duration of unemployment insurance – are threatened with financial ruin, if the benefits expire. 6

An overwhelming percentage of Georgians support the adoption of bold incentives

Recent polls show that residents of the state are 20 points ahead of President Biden’s aid package

Without further federal aid to bridge working-class families until widespread vaccination enables more normal economic activity, it is almost certain that Georgia’s economy will contract again, causing unnecessary suffering and hardship for hundreds of thousands of Georgians. To ensure minimal disruption to the Georgian economy, Congress and President Biden should immediately adopt the following reasonable guidelines.

• To assign $ 4.7 billion in the state of Georgia and $ 3.6 billion to the local government offices located therein.8th Previous proposals for assistance would have provided funds to cover the revenue shortfalls that Georgia and many cities and counties are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State aid was exempted from the aid bill passed by Congress in December, and further inaction will force state and local governments to cut services and lay off public health and education workers.
• Provide $ 4.4 billion for schools in Georgia safe to open again.9 Additional support is needed to fix ventilation systems, reduce class size, buy personal protective equipment, hire support staff, and ensure that the most vulnerable children do not lag behind their peers. The safe reopening of schools also enables those who have left working life due to a need for care to return to work.
• Extension of federal unemployment benefit until 2021. 250,000 Georgians are at risk of losing unemployment benefits if PUA and PEUC phase out economy.
• Increase the child tax credit to $ 3,000 per child, provide an additional $ 600 per child under 6 years of age, make them fully refundable, and extend the qualifying age limit to 17 to support caregivers 1 million eligible children in Georgia.An expansion of this magnitude would generate an additional $ 2.9 billion for the poorest 60 percent of Georgians. 12
• Improving financial support for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Even before the pandemic-induced recession, the uninsured rate in the United States had risen. Therefore, increasing market premium subsidies to the 410,000 Georgians already receiving financial aid – and expanding support to thousands more low-income and middle-class families – would help Georgians access health care and improve their financial security. 13th
• The federal minimum wage increased from $ 7.25 to $ 15 over five years. A minimum wage of $ 15 would not only get 1.6 million Georgians – 35 percent of the state’s workforce – a raise, it would add an additional $ 5.8 billion in total state wages and more to economic activity.14 One Increasing the minimum wage would also decrease the amount of federal, state, and local money spent on support programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
• Extend state moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures. 2.9 million Georgians – 38 percent of the state’s adults – have defaulted on basic household expenses, and protection from evictions and foreclosures would prevent a widespread financial crisis Georgians at risk of homelessness. 16
• Offer another round of direct reviews. The first round of direct checks reached 5 million Georgians in June 2020, adding $ 8.4 billion in purchasing power to the state

With the labor market shrinking in December 2020 and a grim job report in January, it is clear that more help is needed through 2021 in the face of the recession.19 Congress and President Biden need to work fast to ensure working-class families across the country can make ends meet as the vaccination process progresses. Otherwise it would be catastrophic for working-class families in Georgia.

Ryan Zamarripa is the Assistant Director of Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. Lily Roberts is the Centre’s Executive Director, Economic Policy.