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Coronavirus Recovery: Maryland Delegation To Ask For Additional Stimulus Money For Baltimore City, Counties

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore Mayor Jack Young and the Maryland delegation held a virtual press conference Monday morning to lay out why they are asking for additional stimulus funds to help Baltimore city and other counties in the state with coronavirus-related economic losses.

State, county, and city revenue has plummeted due to closures and costs related to COVID-19. It's also affected the local economy and regional tourism as hotels, restaurants and other businesses have shut down.

"I was on the phone with [the Maryland delegation] early during this COVID-19 outbreak, and each one of them understood deeply, the potential damage to our cities and outcomes," Young said.

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Young said the city relies heavily on tourism for revenue and the pandemic has really hurt that revenue source.

The U.S. Senate is reconvening this week and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said he will continue to advocate for Marylanders and it's his top priority to help Baltimore city and other Maryland counties push forward after the virus.

"The federal government must step up, the health and welfare of the people of our state are directly involved in this, we're gonna get through this," Cardin said.

Most of the initial stimulus dollars were allotted directly for schools and to fight this virus, however, in order to recover, local leaders say they will need some more support. Also smaller municipalities, with less than 500,000 people, had to apply for the money and it's a much more rigorous process to get the funds. So the delegation will ask for more flexibility and fight directly for municipalities so that they get some of the stimulus dollars.

Several cities and counties have said that if they don't have the support they will have to make major cuts or layoff and furlough city workers, including some first responders, to make up the difference.

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"[The] last thing that I ever want to do is lay off anyone because it adds to the stress that we're facing here in Baltimore," Young said.

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and Montgomery County Executive Mark Erlich also joined the call to discuss what losses their counties are facing.

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.

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