Pritzker Renews Calls for Congressional Bailout, says $30 Million Raised Privately for COVID-19 Relief
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Governor JB Pritzker created a COVID-19 Response Fund to aid nonprofits in the state to aid people negatively impacted by the disease and its economic repercussions. Pritzker tapped his sister, former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, to head up the effort. In a matter of days, the fund had distributed its first $5.5 million.
Governor Pritzker announced Tuesday the fund has distributed $30 million dollars and was beginning to wind down fundraising efforts, though he clarified the need isn’t over.
“We don’t celebrate this fund in a vacuum,” he said. This pandemic is not over and the need throughout the state is still great.”
“I was blown away by the generosity,” said Secretary Pritzker, the Governor’s sister.
She says the final round of grant funding was focused on “systemic inequities” that had been exacerbated during the pandemic. All funding was raised privately, and the Governor’s office says no public dollars were used in the effort.
Grants varied from $800,000 for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to $50,000 and groups varied from community-based to religious groups, to United Way chapters and YMCA programs. The amount of the highest donors to the fund hasn’t been provided, but a partial list of donors has been posted on the group’s website.
Governor Pritzker renewed a call on Congress to pass a bailout for state and local governments as part of a new round of COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus.
“We are certainly dependent on Congress to step up to the plate,” he said, asking for action in September to help close an estimated $5 billion hole in the state budget.
“Private companies have received billions in aid, but now when it comes to the public…they want to tighten the belt? It seems illogical to me.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) unveiled a slimmed-down relief package Tuesday which is unlikely to include bailouts for state and local governments.
Pritzker panned the latest proposal.
“It will harm the economy of this country, he said, claiming “services will be diminished” without federal dollars.