Legislature Delivers On Recovery Funds, Local Projects In University Place City

Press release from the City of University Place:

May 20, 2021

This year presented seemingly insurmountable challenges to local families and businesses. Frankly, a lot of folks in our community are hurting.

Due to the economic and health impacts of COVID-19, many families struggled with getting unemployment checks, paying rent, or keeping the lights on. Local businesses kept us safe by closing their doors, costing themselves and their employees.

We had to focus our efforts on key areas: businesses, schools, local projects, and communities here and across the state. We accomplished those goals through:

• Using federal funds to pay back rent to landlords struggling during the moratorium, more small business grants and unemployment insurance tax rate cuts, increased food assistance and support for food banks, cash assistance to families, and funding to keep school districts whole;
• Addressing individual constituent roadblocks at the Employment Security Department to resolve outstanding issues;
• Providing guidance to tenants and landlords to access resources;
• Helping small business owners with their Working Washington Small Business Grants;
• Investing in suicide prevention in support of our veterans and military families;
• Connecting families facing food insecurity with their school districts; and
• Aiding seniors who found the Department of Health COVID-19 vaccine locator challenging.

We are proud to support significant investments in our communities by partnering with the City of University Place to secure funding for two local projects in the Capital Budget. One will expand access to Pierce County’s sewer system and the second project is for our historic Curran House Museum, which receives hundreds of visitors annually while they also enjoy the apple orchard.

Our first priority this year was to pass legislation to boost our local economy and help families and frontline workers. We passed House Bill 1368 to appropriate $2.2 billion in federal funding for public schools, public health, healthcare, assistance to individuals and families, housing assistance, and business support. We approved the Working Families Tax Exemption, which puts money directly in the hands of those who need it most. Furthermore, we passed Senate Bill 5061, which cut taxes for businesses that had an increase in premiums and boosted worker’s benefits to help make ends meet.

This press release was produced by the City of University Place. The views expressed here are the author’s own.