In Reply to Rathod et al

From the Document: In times of economic crisis, states and their localities are uniquely vulnerable As a result of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] outbreak, many state and local governments are in desperate financial straits With sales, restaurant, and hotel tax revenues collapsing, some localities have already started to cut essential services and furlough frontline workers like police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers, and medical personnel In the ten weeks since the beginning of the economic downturn sparked by COVID-19, 40 8 million people have filed for unemployment, which amounts to about one in four people who were previously employed as recently as February This is nearly four times higher than the number of unemployment filings during the Great Recession between December 2007 and December 2009, and it has created a vicious cycle: People have less money to spend, so state and local governments collect less tax revenue At the same time, demand soars for government safety net programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance (UI) Both of these programs are jointly funded by the federal government and the states, with cost-sharing breakdowns that vary from state to state Economic assistance, Domestic;COVID-19 (Disease);U S states--Appropriations and expenditures;Government aid