Wisconsin and local governments would receive $5.5 billion in COVID-19 aid under House bill

MADISON - Wisconsin and its local governments would receive $5.5 billion in federal help to fight COVID-19 and its economic toll — far more than what they got last year — under legislation recently approved by the U.S. House.

The state would receive $3.2 billion and Wisconsin local governments would receive $2.3 billion in help, according to estimates from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 

Virtually every local government in Wisconsin would receive aid under the proposal approved Saturday, with Milwaukee receiving $406 million and Waukesha County receiving $78 million. 

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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett backs the proposal and said he believed it could win public support because it will help communities around the state.

“Our priorities are housing, health, infrastructure, public safety,” Barrett said. “We certainly have a lot of needs and a lot of pressure that were created both during the pandemic and before then.”

How much states and local governments receive could change because the Senate is likely to alter the bill — perhaps substantially. Both houses are controlled by Democrats but they have differed on the details of the stimulus package championed by President Joe Biden. 

An influx of federal aid to Wisconsin could shake up deliberations over the state budget that are just getting underway. 

Last year the state received about $2 billion in federal help to deal with the effects of COVID-19, and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had broad leeway on how to spend it. Republicans who control the Legislature expressed frustration that they didn't have a say in how he spent it. 

Now, Evers would have responsibility for even more money. But the funds would arrive just as Republican lawmakers carve up the two-year budget Evers proposed last month.

Republicans have said they believe his $91 billion plan spends too much money and have promised to pare back a number of his proposals, including $1 billion in tax increases. 

The $1.9 trillion stimulus package approved by the House would give states and local governments $350 billion that they could allocate as they saw fit. Hundreds of billions of dollars in additional aid would flow into specific programs that the states help run, such as unemployment aid and food assistance. 

Wisconsin communities of all sizes would get help under the House bill, with the most populous ones receiving the most. Milwaukee would receive $406 million, Milwaukee County $183 million, Dane County $106 million, Waukesha County $78 million, Brown County $51 million, Madison $49 million and Racine $47 million.

Midsize and small municipalities would receive help, too. For instance, Brookfield would receive $3.9 million, Oconomowoc $1.7 million, West Milwaukee $405,000 and tiny Butternut in northern Wisconsin would receive $35,000. 

Democrats have praised the proposal while Republicans have bashed it.

"The House of Representatives has passed the #AmericanRescuePlan — a new #COVID19 package that has broad support across our state and is desperately needed as we continue to fight this pandemic," Evers tweeted this week. "I hope the Senate acts quickly to pass this bill and send it to the president's desk."

All House Republicans voted against the package.

U.S Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Green Bay, called the bill a bailout for Democratic states and referred to it as a "liberal wish list poorly disguised as coronavirus relief." Likewise, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Republican from Janesville, raised concerns about how much money would go to the states.

"The Biden Bailout Bill includes $350 billion to bail out fiscally irresponsible states like Illinois and only a fraction of the total funding will go towards coronavirus relief," he said in a statement. 

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U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Madison Democrat, took a shot at Republicans like Steil for making such arguments.

“The fact that Wisconsin Republicans in the House oppose this support for a ‘blue state’ like Wisconsin shows that they are more interested in playing partisan politics when we should be doing everything we can to deliver help for our state and local communities,” she said in a statement.

And during a virtual news conference with other Democratic senators, Baldwin stressed that all states would get help. 

"We're doing that universally throughout the country — doesn't matter if the state (is) red, purple or blue," she said. 

Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.