Stimulus Checks: Who Gets What?

by Daveda Gruber:

On Thursday afternoon President Biden signed a $1.9 Trillion coronavirus relief bill into law but all the money doesn’t go to the states equally.

Hundreds of billions will go to states and local governments. The states receiving more than one quarter of the aid are New York, Texas and California.

The bill in question is called “The American Rescue Plan” includes:

$195.3 billion to state governments and Washington

$130.2 billion for local governments

$20 billion would be given to federally recognized tribal governments

$4.5 billion to U.S. territories

The money is distributed this way. States with high number of unemployment will be given more funding rather than states with a higher population.

States with Republican governors are not happy because they have better jobless rates. Many of these states did not go or stay in lock-down.

Democrat run states implemented strict lockdown measures to curb the spread of the virus.  

California, which is the state with the highest population, will receive the most money, $42.3 billion that includes $26.2 billion for its state government and $14.6 billion across local governments.

The second most populated state, Texas, will receive the second-highest amount of money. It will get $27.3 billion in funding.

New York would receive the third-highest amount of money which comes in at $23.5 billion.

Florida is the third-largest state by population but would receive $17.3 billion, which is the fourth highest amount of money among states.

The argument between the GOP and Democrats is calculating the aid using unemployment levels rather than population.

Georgia, a GOP-led state, would collect $1.3 billion less under this formula. But it’s not just Republican states that would receive less money. Virginia would also receive about 14% less aid under the current formula.

Needless to say, Republican led states are calling the bill a win for blue states.

Federal stimulus money, which includes the $600 a week unemployment supplement, played a crucial role in keeping states’ revenues intact.

Here is what each state gets: 

Alabama: $4.04 billion

Alaska: $1.36 billion

Arizona: $7.63 billion

Arkansas: $2.81 billion

California: $42.63 billion

Colorado: $6.07 billion

Connecticut: $4.35 billion

Delaware: $1.36 billion

District of Columbia: $1.62 billion

Florida: $17.62 billion

Georgia: $8.40 billion

Hawaii: $2.27 billion

Idaho: $1.89 billion

Illinois: $13.71 billion

Indiana: $5.86 billion

Iowa: $2.69 billion

Kansas: $2.72 billion

Kentucky: $4.24 billion

Louisiana: $5.19 billion

Maine: $1.65 billion

Maryland: $6.36 billion

Massachusetts: $8.10 billion

Michigan: $10.31 billion

Minnesota: $4.88 billion

Mississippi: $2.90 billion

Missouri: $5.48 billion

Montana: $1.37 billion

Nebraska: $1.77 billion

Nevada: $4.12 billion

New Hampshire: $1.54 billion

New Jersey: $10.19 billion

New Mexico: $2.46 billion

New York: $23.80 billion

North Carolina: $8.94 billion

North Dakota: $1.36 billion

Ohio: $11.24 billion

Oklahoma: $3.65 billion

Oregon: $4.26 billion

Pennsylvania: $13.72 billion

Rhode Island: $1.78 billion

South Carolina: $3.87 billion

South Dakota: $1.37 billion

Tennessee: $6.31 billion

Texas: $27.62 billion

Utah: $2.74 billion

Vermont: $1.36 billion

Virginia: $6.88 billion

Washington: $7.10 billion

West Virginia: $2.06 billion

Wisconsin: $5.71 billion

Wyoming: $1.36 billion

According to a JPMorgan survey that was published at the end of January, the majority of states actually ended up collecting nearly as much revenue in 2020 as they did the previous year.

The analysis shows that twenty-one states saw positive revenue growth compared with last year.

Personally, I’d give full credit to President Trump for the country not going into a complete recession in 2020 but somehow Biden will take credit for a lot of things that only happened or didn’t happen because of Trump.