Communities of color have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, heightening the importance of unemployment insurance and other supports provided by the federal government to help families in this time.
Californians recently learned of alarming estimates of the state’s budget shortfall as a result of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state faces a $54 billion budget shortfall for the current and next fiscal years – a 37% decrease from the current state funding level. This stark news comes just ahead of his revised 2020-21 budget proposal. We can’t ignore how quickly COVID-19 has changed California’s fiscal outlook. Nor can we look away from the high price Californians are paying as they shoulder the economic impact of this crisis.
The COVID-19 public health crisis has upended the lives of Californians. So far, a relatively small but rapidly increasing number of Californians have gotten sick, some with severe consequences – while millions more people have experienced serious disruptions to their jobs, schools, child care settings, and services as a result of the public health measures required to “flatten the curve” of infections. The potential health effects and economic effects may be severe – and Californians with low incomes will be especially hard hit.
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