Santa Rosa asks Trump administration for help unlocking aid for smaller cities

Santa Rosa wants President Donald Trump’s help in the face of a looming hole in the city’s budget after federal lawmakers excluded smaller local governments from direct access to a $139 billion coronavirus relief fund.

In the wake of two disastrous wildfires, Sonoma County’s population has dropped by several thousand people since peaking in 2017 just above 500,000 - the threshold at which state and local governments are eligible for direct federal assistance under the CARES Act, which Congress passed and Trump signed to partially offset the budget shock imposed by the pandemic.

The city and the county can still receive money from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, but only if it’s routed through California, which is slated to receive about $15.3 billion from the fund, according to estimates by congressional researchers.

Now, Santa Rosa is on the outside looking in and facing a $20 million revenue loss over three months, Mayor Tom Schwedhelm wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in an April 20 letter. The mayor noted the shortfall “means cuts in services from furloughs and layoffs, which will impact quality of life services such as road and parks maintenance, and public safety.”

“We respectfully request that the President support additional funding for communities that were left out of the CARES Act,” Schwedhelm wrote. “This will ensure that local governments in Sonoma County receive the funding assistance they need to continue to provide critical services that our communities need to respond and recover from this pandemic.”

The city has yet to order any furloughs or layoffs, a city spokeswoman confirmed. It has suspended hiring for most open positions.

The unprecedented economic fallout from the pandemic has left the door open for additional federal help for local governments, with Trump tweeting Tuesday that he would welcome that step. The latest relief package, a nearly $500 billion bill passed Tuesday by the Senate, sets aside more funding for small businesses, hospitals and coronavirus testing.

U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson signed onto a bipartisan letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, in early April - after the landmark coronavirus stimulus bill had passed - that urged her either to direct coronavirus-related relief funding for smaller cities or lower the 500,000-person threshold in future legislation.

“We believe this funding will allow smaller counties, cities and towns in our districts to continue the tremendous work they are doing to protect our constituents during this difficult time,” more than 100 House lawmakers said in the letter.

A panel of Santa Rosa council members is set to discuss the city’s budget outlook Wednesday afternoon. Schwedhelm’s letter to Mnuchin noted that Santa Rosa is continuing to work on projects to recover from the 2017 Tubbs fire that required the city to put up money and wait for reimbursement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, using reserves to cover those costs in the interim.

“A prolonged loss of revenue will only exacerbate pressure on the General Fund reserves,” Schwedhelm wrote.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.