At least 30% of North Bay taxpayers await stimulus checks, Congressman Mike Thompson’s survey shows

Kristen Sansing of Santa Rosa is among the multitude of taxpayers still waiting for a coronavirus check in the mail or a direct deposit in their bank account more than a month after Congress and President Donald Trump approved a $290 billion payout to ease the economic sting of the crippling pandemic.

A semiretired bookkeeper for small businesses, Sansing said she is still working at home with her husband. The couple’s $2,400 stimulus payment - $1,200 each - may come in the form of a 2020 federal tax credit, she said.

The IRS, tasked with delivering the windfall, reported last week it had issued 128 million stimulus payments for a total of more than $218 billion in the program’s first four weeks. Californians received 13.6 million payments totaling $22.5 billion, the most of any state.

“If I get it fine - we’ll take a trip,” Sansing said.

Among the reasons why taxpayers are still waiting are the lack of a bank account or their incomes exceed the $75,000 taxable income limit for individuals and $150,000 for married couples. Such high-income earners won’t get the stimulus payment.

An informal and admittedly unscientific survey by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, indicated that about 1,400 of his constituents, about 31% of survey participants, were awaiting the check or a direct bank deposit. Nearly 1,000 (about 21%) said they were ineligible and about 300 (6%) said the IRS website was “unable to find my information.”

Nearly 2,000 survey respondents (about 42%) said the dough was in their hands.

On a related question, about 70% said they had been seriously or somewhat hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, and 30% said they were unharmed.

Thompson’s survey, conducted during the first eight days of May and covering several coronavirus-related issues, included responses from 4,605 constituents, less than 1% of the population in his district covering all of Napa and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, Solano and Sonoma Counties.

Thompson, a two-decade veteran in Congress, said he was heartened by the 69% of respondents who said communities should move cautiously “to prioritize protecting public health” in reopening the area economy from social and economic constraints aimed at curbing the deadly infection. Just 24% said they favored priority on “getting people back to work.”

Despite news coverage of protests against continued social restrictions locally and around the state and nation, Thompson said the survey was evidence his constituents want to approach reopening with “an abundance of caution.”

That sentiment contrasts with Trump’s approach that “from day one has been pushing to downplay the seriousness of this problem,” the congressman said.

Asked to name the federal coronavirus relief programs that should be extended or increased, respondents cited small business assistance (22%), expanded unemployment insurance (21%), stimulus payment (16.8%) and student loan relief and mortgage forbearance (both 15.6%). Only 2.6% said no extensions were needed.

There was near unanimity that Congress should provide more money for schools, hospitals, paramedics, police departments and other services, with almost 75% in favor, 13% not sure and only 12% opposed.

More than half of the voters (53%) in Thompson’s district are registered Democrats, with Republicans (18%) outnumbered by no-party-preference voters (23%).