I wanted to let you know that here at the City of Madison, our staff have worked thousands of hours responding to the COVID-19 pandemic – transporting people to the hospital, working on contact tracing the ill, setting up emergency shelters for the homeless, supporting essential workers with bus service and emergency child care, and countless other tasks.

In addition,  hundreds of staff and poll workers pulled off the most innovative, orderly and safe pandemic election possible – protecting workers and voters along the way.

Local governments have always risen to the occasion during national emergencies, and the same is true now. But -- because of COVID-19 — cities, towns and villages across Wisconsin are facing huge budget shortfalls.

That is why the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act — a new bill to ensure that local governments -- regardless of size -- are able to maintain personnel throughout the response and recovery. The bill also extends unemployment benefits for all workers, provides food support for families, and funds the COVID19 testing and contact tracing we need to open up our economy.

Our local heroes have done the right thing to respond rapidly to this pandemic. I hope you will join me in calling on Washington to do the right thing and pass the HEROES Act. ​
Thank you for wearing a face covering, keeping six feet of separation, washing your hands and doing all you call to keep our community safe from COVID-19.