For Immediate Release
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
McEntee on Stimulus Proposal: “State and Local Governments Need Fiscal Relief”
Without assistance, state and local governments will be forced to make budget cuts that will deepen and lengthen the economic downturn.
WASHINGTON, D.C. —Gerald W. McEntee, President of the 1.4 million member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, issued the following statement on the economic stimulus package under consideration in Congress:
“After months of denial, delays and inaction from President Bush, we don’t need presidential lectures about what the economic stimulus package should and should not include. Without assistance, state and local governments will be forced to make budget cuts that will deepen and lengthen the economic downturn. That’s why Senator Rockefeller’s amendment is smart economics. Fifteen billion dollars in additional resources for states will provide a real stimulus to the failing Bush economy. State budgets have been hit hard by the economic downturn and more than half are facing serious budget shortfalls. State and local governments need a bold injection of fiscal relief. Without it they will be forced to cut services that working families need to survive. That may be acceptable to George W. Bush, but it won’t get the economy out of the ditch it is headed toward.”
