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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Much at Stake in Tomorrow’s House Vote on State Aid

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The House of Representatives is expected to vote tomorrow on a measure the Senate approved last week to extend badly needed education and health care assistance for states from last year’s Recovery Act.  Here are the amounts each state would lose if the House fails to approve the funding.

Recovery Act funds have played a big role in the past year in avoiding even deeper spending cuts and larger tax increases to fill the gap between states’ growing needs and declining resources.  But the longest, deepest recession since the Great Depression has brought record drop-offs in state revenues, and the Recovery Act funds will run out before states are back on their feet.

The bottom line is that without this new round of assistance, states will lay off more workers and cut more essential services.  These steps would cause a ripple effect of job loss throughout an economy that already is growing too slowly.