Town Hall for Local Leaders Recap

Utah League of Cities and Towns sent this bulletin at 05/04/2020 08:27 PM MDT

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

Federal Relief Funds for Cities and Towns, Sales Tax Reports, National Resources and More

Senator Mitt Romney, National League of Cities, Commissioner John Valentine participate in ULCT's Town Hall for Local Leaders

Data, data, data! It's what ULCT is working to collect and what our federal delegation in Washington needs to hear more about as we work to secure relief funds in a 4th stimulus package. This email is a summary of today's ULCT Town Hall for Local Leaders, links to access and provide important COVID information, and a link to tomorrow's briefing with Lt. Governor Spencer Cox and special guest, State Epidemiologist Angela Dunn.

Senator Romney asks Utah's Local Leaders for Input

Debate is underway in our nation's capitol on what should be included in a 4th stimulus package and Senator Mitt Romney feels strongly that it should address relief funds for cities and towns. He says layoffs will likely affect the very services that our residents need such as public safety. However, he says there are mixed views on what a 4th stimulus should include. Therefore, he believes our mayors and council members should gather data on what is needed to recover from the pandemic then "call the office of your senator or congressman." He says, "There's nothing like hearing from your mayor." Unfortunately, he says, the voice of local government is not being heard strongly enough. Now is the time to make a difference! ULCT will be requesting the data about the fiscal impact of COVID-19 on your city in the days to come to support a push for a 4th stimulus package.

National League of Cities Advocacy

The National League of Cities is also asking local leaders to speak up to make our members of the House and Senate aware of our specific needs. They are asking leaders of all 19,000 cities, towns, and villages to speak up. They have provided a breakdown of how the CARES Act presently will impact cities across our nation. You can see that information here.

To speak directly with a member of NLC, contact member engagement manager for western states, Kirk Ross at ross@nlc.org.

As you can see, it's critically important for city leaders to gather data about your potential “necessary expenditures” so that ULCT has a sense of the aggregate impact. ULCT sent a survey previously about the CARES Act-- the "necessary expenditures" that you are facing as a result of COVID-19 AND we now have an updated version. If your financial situation has changed since the last time we sent the survey, then please submit your response by Tuesday. To take the survey CLICK HERE

John Valentine, Utah State Tax Commission Chair

Commissioner John Valentine readjusted resources in his office to help municipalities in the budgeting process. In today's webinar, he explained how he will provide a preliminary sales tax and gasoline tax report released on May 11th, a week and a half early, to help cities and towns get an idea what the numbers will be as they work on their budgets. His office will have the final reconciled amount available on May 20th for local governments. Thanks to Chair Valentine and his team at the Tax Commission for adjusting to help cities.

Team ULCT also referred in our Town Hall to sales tax projections and economic data provided through our partnership with Econowest Associates, which you can find here. Full data from Econowest is available here.

Tuesday-Briefing at 3:30 pm to feature Lt. Governor and State Epidemiologist

Our weekly briefing and Q&A this week with the Lt. Governor will feature a special guest, state epidemiologist Angela Dunn. They will give a brief overview of the status of the pandemic in our cities and towns and take your questions.

If you have not already submitted your questions via ULCT's coronavirus landing page, webinar attendees will be able to ask questions in the webinar chat box tomorrow.

Link to Tuesday's briefing

Today's entire webinar, and the others we've hosted in previous weeks are all available on our website, www.ulct.org.

You can also view today's complete ULCT Town Hall for Local Leaders by clicking here.