LMR September 2020

Louisiana Mayors Urge Congress to Take Action on Direct
Federal Aid to Municipalities Impacted by COVID-19
On August 19, the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA)
hosted a press conference with mayors from across the
state to discuss the economic effects of the COVID-19
crisis on Louisiana’s municipalities and the need for
urgent action at the federal level to ensure cities, towns
and villages can continue to provide essential services
to keep their communities safe and support the
national economic recovery. Mayors Ronny Walker of
Ruston, David Butler of Woodworth, Nic Hunter of Lake
Charles and Ben Zahn of Kenner discussed employment,
small business, and infrastructure challenges their
municipalities are facing due to the ongoing pandemic
and why stalled negotiations in Congress must resume in
order to help communities in Louisiana recover from the
economic downturn caused by COVID-19.
To watch the full press conference,
visit the LMA website at www.lma.org.
“For our small businesses to come back fully within the
City of Ruston, they’ve got to have essential infrastructure
and services in place. We cut our budget this year
by $3.5 million dollars, most of that was for infrastructure
projects that we could have done, so I would say to
Congress: please help us,” Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker
said. “We wouldn’t have had to cut a single person from
our payroll if Congress had done for cities what they did
for businesses. If we could get the same payroll protection
plan that small and large businesses got, that would
be a great help to us in Northeast Louisiana.”
“We certainly hope that Washington would take a look
at us – we’re small, we’re rural, but we’d a whole lot
rather the money come directly to us than go through
the bureaucracy. We need every penny of that to work
with to go back to some normality of business,” Woodworth
Mayor David Butler said. “A number of our members
of Congress live in small municipalities, and it’s
their municipalities also that are asking for help. Without
the infrastructure – the water, sewer and gas – the
economic effects of maintaining that begin to get larger
and larger.”
“We need to provide police, fire, water, sewage, and garbage
collection just like everybody else, and right now
we need the federal government’s help – we don’t need
it forever, we just need it now. I’m a lifelong Republican,
I’ve always felt that the federal government should let
us manage our own affairs right here in our own cities
and parishes, but I speak to them now saying we need
your help now,” Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn said. “We’re
asking for as much as we can get right now because
we’re all feeling that. We need small businesses, big
businesses and government working together to continue
our services.”
“The fiscal impacts of the pandemic have certainly been
a punch in the gut – we expect our sales tax revenue to
be down anywhere from 6 to 10 percent once it’s already
said and done. We are happy to know we do expect
some relief from the CARES Act, but certainly nothing
to the extent that would allow us to continue on with
the growth and progressive nature that we want to as
a city,” Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. “We need a
hand up, not a handout. I do not believe this is a Kenner
problem, a Lake Charles problem, a Woodworth problem
or a Ruston problem – this is an American problem, and
this is a municipal problem for every municipality in this
country. If Congress really wants to get serious about
putting people back to work, they need to be thinking
long-term, not just putting a band-aid on the situation.”
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LMR | SEPTEMBER 2020