It depends on what they want the aid for...and what the targets of the aid will be.
I honestly have no problem with Covid aid being provided, to address Covid-specific issues.
However, when they were sniffing around for aid back in March & April, they were wanting a sizeable portion of it backfill poorly managed programs that have been in the gutter for over a decade.
Back in March, here's what they were requesting:
In a letter to Illinois members of Congress, Harmon requested:
- $15 billion from an unrestricted block grant
- A $10 billion pension bailout, structured either as a grant or a low-interest loan
- $6 billion to bolster the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund
- An increase in the portion of Medicaid paid for by the federal government to 65%, up from 50.96% in a typical year, worth an estimated $2.6 billion
- $1 billion in health care grants to poor and minority communities
- $9.6 billion in direct aid to municipalities
The first four requests worth $33.6 billion would go directly to the state budget and together exceed the more than $32.7 billion in revenues Illinois will raise from state sources for the upcoming budget year. The $10 billion request for pensions almost equals the $10.7 billion the state will spend in total on pensions next year, including debt service for pension bonds and pension costs for Chicago teachers. Of the aid requested specifically for the state budget, only the additional Medicaid funding can be linked to the public health threat of COVID-19.
It's the same way I felt back in the day when entities were trying to stuff a bunch of pork spending inside of a Hurricane Katrina relief bill.
Covid relief funds should be restricted to issues directly related to COVID-19, not to make up for general budget holes or lost revenues due to a decade of mismanagement. Unsustainable arrangements with public sector unions going back over a decade has nothing to do with Covid.
How were they planning on addressing it before there was a global pandemic?