States Step in With Tax Rebates, Other Help as Pandemic-Era Benefits Dry Up

Packs of freshly printed $20 bills are processed for bundling at the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington on July 20, 2018. (Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images)

On April 10, 2023, the White House announced the official termination of the COVID-19 national emergency. With it went a collection of pandemic-era assistance programs. Now some states are using their own resources to fill in the gaps.

Here’s a look back at some of the benefits that expired, the ones that were extended to 2024 and beyond, and the programs some state and local governments are putting in place to keep the public assistance train moving locally.

Emergency Rental Assistance

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act became law in March 2020, prohibiting landlords “from initiating eviction proceedings or ‘charg[ing] fees, penalties, or other charges’ against a tenant for the nonpayment of rent. These protections extend for 120 days from enactment.”

On Aug. 8, 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that “the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of CDC shall consider whether any measures temporarily halting residential evictions of any tenants for failure to pay rent are reasonably necessary to prevent the further spread of COVID–19 from one State or possession into any other State or possession.”

The CDC issued a nationwide eviction moratorium in September 2020 and extended the order the following year through Oct. 3, 2021, but on Aug. 31, 2021, the Supreme Court blocked enforcement of the order, ruling that the CDC had exceeded its authority.

The Department of the Treasury established two separate Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs. The first program, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, provided $25 billion in “housing stability services” to eligible households. The second program, part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, provided $21.6 billion to cover the costs of rent and to prevent landlords from evicting tenants who didn’t pay.

The first batch of ERA funds expired on Sept. 30, 2022. The Treasury announced in February 2023 that “over 9.7 million payments were made to households at risk of eviction.” The second batch of funds will expire on Sept. 30, 2025.

But the need for rental assistance continues.

A 2023 report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies showed that from 2019 to 2021, 21.6 million American households were paying at least 30 percent of their income on housing, with some paying at least 50 percent.

In December, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that overall homelessness increased by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023.

A July 2023 notice from the Treasury Department stated that 99 percent of ERA funds had been drawn down, and the department encouraged grantees to use their remaining funds to “make long-term investments in affordable housing and eviction prevention infrastructure ... through the end of ERA2’s period of performance on September 30, 2025.”

According to Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, “use of those funds is neglecting the well-stated intent by Congress in appropriating those funds.”

“Those funds are supposed to be used for an emergency response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID shutdowns,” he explained. “To encourage private parties to utilize those resources in a way that doesn’t deal with the actual economic crisis of COVID is skirting the intent of Congress.”

On Nov. 30, 2023, Democrat New York state Sen. Brian Kavanagh announced that Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York lawmakers secured over $1.15 billion to supplement the federal emergency rental assistance program.

The Eviction Moratorium

While the eviction moratorium helped thousands of tenants remain in their homes rent-free—with two-thirds of the recipients having very low incomes and about 60 percent of funds going to minority households—landlords suffered huge financial losses.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, renters in the United States owed an estimated $30 billion to $70 billion in back rent by the end of 2020 alone.

Property owners in the National Apartment Association (NAA) say they were left “holding the bag on $26.6 billion in rental debt.”

The NAA filed a lawsuit “to recover damages on behalf of rental housing providers who have suffered severe economic losses” under the CDC’s “overreaching federal eviction moratorium.”

Joel Griffith, research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, during an interview with NTD TV in July 2022. (NTD TV)

In May 2022, a federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss.

Mr. Griffith says the eviction moratorium was not only financially devastating for landlords, but was also unconstitutional.

“The Supreme Court ultimately came around to ruling on that but those moratoriums should never have been put into place,” Mr. Griffith told The Epoch Times. “It was an absolutely awful public policy, not to mention illegal.”

“In effect,” he said, “it was a federal seizure of public property.”

Child Care

On April 5, 2021, the White House announced that $39 billion from the American Rescue Plan would be released to “help early childhood educators and family child care providers keep their doors open.”

States are tapping into their own resources and tweaking regulations to make child care more accessible.

On May 8, 2023, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure into law that exempts small, in-home day care centers with six or fewer children from the expense of some state licensing requirements.

While the Montana Legislature passed a measure to provide an annual $7 million boost to a program that helps low-income families pay for child care, it wasn’t signed into law by Mr. Gianforte until June 13, 2023.

Beginning with tax year 2023, Minnesota rolled out a child tax credit of $1,750 per qualifying child, which “phases out if your income is over $29,500 ($35,000 for Married Filing Jointly).”

California is also extending the 2021 child tax credit and allowing residents to file a 2021 tax return or amend a return by April 18, 2025, to claim the credit of up to $3,600 per qualifying child.

A tax credit worth up to $1,083 per tax return is also available for families with a child under the age of six.

On Sept. 13, 2023, a group of Democrat lawmakers introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act to provide $16 billion every year for the next five years to prop up child care businesses, but the bill never advanced due to lack of Republican support.

Student Loan Payment Pause

Under the CARES Act, Congress paused payments on most federal student loans. The pause—extended by both President Trump and President Joe Biden multiple times—ended on Sept. 1, 2023. Student loan interest has resumed and borrowers had to resume making payments starting in October 2023.

In August 2022, before loan payments resumed, the White House announced President Biden’s plan to “provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients.”

However, in a 6–3 decision issued in June 2023, the Supreme Court struck down the debt forgiveness plan before it could take effect.

In October 2023, the Biden administration announced that another 125,000 people were approved for $9 billion in debt relief due to having “total and permanent disabilities.”

And in December, the Biden administration said there would be another $4.8 billion in student debt relief for over 80,000 borrowers via income-driven repayment forgiveness and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Taxes, Stimulus, and Rebate Checks

On Dec. 19, 2023, the IRS said it would provide about $1 billion in penalty relief to 4.7 million people, businesses, and tax-exempt organizations that weren’t sent automated collection notices during the pandemic.

“Most of those receiving the penalty relief make under $400,000 a year,” the agency said.

Some states are also implementing additional COVID-related benefits in the form of tax rebates and stimulus checks.

As part of the Arizona Families Tax Rebate announced in November, an estimated 743,000 Arizona residents can expect a rebate check in 2024.

As explained by the Arizona Department of Revenue, “the rebate is $250 per dependent under age 17 and $100 per dependent over age 17,” as claimed by eligible taxpayers on their 2021 returns. “A taxpayer cannot claim more than three dependents, regardless of age,” and “the maximum amount of a taxpayer’s rebate is $750.”

In April 2023, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that residents will receive a rebate check of up to $500 for single filers and $1,000 for couples filing jointly.

In 2024, a new program under the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) could increase tax refunds for families. Single filers could see a refund of $800. Those filing jointly could get $1,600. A total of about $3.28 billion is expected to be returned to taxpayers.

With the passage of SB 552 in Maryland, residents with children can receive a $500 tax credit for each qualified child if they have a federal adjusted gross income of $6,000 or less.

ESSER Funds in 2024

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, enacted on March 11, 2021, allocated $190 billion in federal funding to America’s public schools to support virtual learning, tutoring, and the reopening of schools and to prevent students from suffering in their education.

As of September 2023, an estimated $90 billion in ESSER funds remained, which must be spent by September 2024, McKinsey & Company reported.

An analysis by ProPublica in 2021 of over 16,000 reports filed with the federal government by state education departments between March and September 2020 showed that just over half of the $3 billion in taxpayer-funded relief accounted for in the reports was listed in the “other” category, providing no clarification on where the money went.

“I don’t believe those funds should have been provided in the first place,” Mr. Griffith said. “When it comes to virtual learning, schools already had the resources available through their property taxes.”

Looking back, he also noted that the billions in federal funds did nothing to mitigate the damage to education caused by the shutdowns.

To continue “throwing tens of billions of dollars at this now that the crisis has passed,” he said, “is a blatant giveaway to teachers unions.”