If the House of Representatives approves the COVID-relief bill already passed by the Senate, it’ll mean more than $89 million coming into Onondaga County coffers.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon welcomes the direct funding for a county government that’s been hit hard, facing huge budget cuts, while at the same time bearing much of the cost of the pandemic. He has some priorities.
“First, it will allow us to respond to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, we’re not quite through with it,” McMahon said. “But the next phase of the pandemic is recovery. It will allow us to reactivate our planned investments helping people, addressing poverty, modernizing our infrastructure, enabling economic development opportunities."
McMahon said some of these investments will be plans that were ditched because of the pandemic.
“And there’s some new opportunities that we think will fit nicely into some parts of our economy that have been struggling,” he said.
Between 2020 and 2021, the county cut $120 million from its budgets.
The relief plan, if approved, would also be a boon for the city of Syracuse. It would receive $126 million under the bill.
