Editorials
You say Tacoma’s too small to get coronavirus cash? Then fix the formula, Congress
Cities and counties around the US are seeing their people suffer and their budgets busted by the coronavirus pandemic. The last thing they need is to miss out on urgently needed federal relief.
They shouldn’t have to engage in a feeding frenzy that pits communities of different sizes against each other, creating winners and losers, haves and have nots.
In our state, we’d hate to see a reawakening of old Tacoma-Seattle rivalries at a time when, to quote the theme song of this public-health crisis, we’re all in this together.
But that’s how the situation is stacking up as Tacoma —and every other Washington city not named Seattle — is aced out of the most recent $2 trillion federal stimulus package.
The reason: Negotiators on Capitol Hill set a minimum population of 500,000. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for thousands of US cities, towns and counties, all hoping for a share of bailout funds designated for local governments.
Seattle, which boasts nearly 750,000 residents, hits the mark comfortably. Tacoma, with around 215,000 people, doesn’t come close.
Congress must fix this problem without delay when it starts debating another round of coronavirus aid.
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards has appropriately raised a red flag, along with hundreds of mayors around the country.
“It’s not equitable, and I think they could have gotten to a lower number,” Woodards told us Wednesday, noting that Tacoma is a major urban center just outside the ranks of the largest 100 cities in the country.
More relevant than size is that Tacoma has been devastated by COVID-19, along with many other communities in the Puget Sound region where the national outbreak originated. Tacoma is impacted not just by the number of confirmed cases (223 as of Friday) but by the drain on programs and services as sales-tax revenues tank during Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home order.
Population pales in comparison to other factors, such as geographic location and metropolitan area density. Consider that Tacoma is the third-largest city in Washington behind Spokane, and yet Tacoma, as of Friday, had more COVID-19 cases than all of Spokane County (194).
At least a few US cities have 500,000-plus residents but comparable (or fewer) coronavirus cases than Tacoma — Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Honolulu, Hawaii (city and county combined).
It’s telling that Inslee, in his initial orders to curb coronavirus spread in our state, didn’t single out Seattle; he imposed restrictions in all of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
Washington is expected to receive $2.9 billion from funds divvied up to states in the most recent federal coronavirus package; 45 percent of that must go out as direct aid to local governments. If Seattle is the only city that receives help, the disparity will extend well beyond Tacoma.
“It’s everybody in Washington state against Seattle,” Woodards said. “None of us qualifies, which is unfair. Seattle didn’t get to choose its size.
“There has to be something that looks at the dire need of cities,” she added, “and gets money to the ones that are bleeding most.”
Pressure is mounting for Congress to change the cockeyed formula when it reconvenes, likely after the Easter holiday.
More than 120 House members, including Washington Reps. Derek Kilmer, Kim Schrier, Pramila Jayapal and Susan Del Bene, sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday; they urged her to target stabilization relief to hard-hit small and mid-size municipalities in the next COVID-19 package, or to simply lower the 500,000 threshold.
On the Senate side, Washington Sen. Patty Murray says she’ll use her clout as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee to ensure state, local and tribal governments have more of what they need to recover.
“We know the coronavirus isn’t just a crisis in our population centers — it’s a crisis everywhere, including in smaller areas and rural communities,” Murray said in a statement Thursday. “I’m going to keep pushing to make sure workers, families, and businesses in places like Tacoma don’t fall through the cracks.”
The U.S. Conference of Mayors sent its own letter to Pelosi, calling the population cutoff number arbitrarily high and asking Congress to drop it to 50,000. In Pierce County, that would make a winner of Lakewood as well as Tacoma.
It’s important to note that there are other pots of money available to cities, regardless of size. Pierce County, with a population approaching 900,000, already meets the local-aid threshold and can’t neglect its largest city. Federal funds will also flow to hospitals and schools.
But competition for resources will be intense, and Congress must come back with a better distribution formula.
It will take months if not years for communities to tally the damages from the epidemic now smashing our region with a vengeance. Tacoma shouldn’t expect to be made whole by Uncle Sam.
But it has a right to demand fair treatment as it rebuilds from the wreckage.
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