Gov. Evers announces second package of COVID-19 relief and support

MADISON, Wis. (WEAU)-- Just days after Gov. Tony Evers announced his first package COVID-19 relief and support, the Governor announced his second package of relief and support. The comprehensive legislative proposal would provide critical investments in health services, support for essential workers, and assistance for Wisconsin families and businesses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This package, among many other proposals, includes:

• Increasing funding for Medicaid providers via supplemental payments and rate increases to support the healthcare system’s response to the public health emergency;
• Establishing a fund to reduce providers’ uncompensated care costs targeting reimbursement for treatment-related costs for uninsured individuals;
• Establishing a COVID-19 reinsurance program to reduce health insurance premiums;
• Providing grant funding to provide food assistance and meal delivery;
• Prohibiting utility cooperatives from disconnecting customers and prohibiting land-lord directed disconnections from rental units during a public health emergency;
• Ensuring workers receive back payment for any lost unemployment insurance benefits as a result of the delay in suspending the one-week waiting period;
• Providing supplemental payments to child care providers, if that provider needed to shut down during the public health emergency;
• Allowing households to apply for heating assistance under the low-income energy assistance program anytime during the 2020 calendar year;
• Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families;
• Providing municipalities the flexibility to implement multiple installments of three or more payments for 2020 property taxes;
• Waiving interest and penalties on delinquent property taxes included in the 2019 payable 2020 tax roll, on and after April 1, 2020;
• Creating a fund through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic -Development Association to provide 6 months of support for prevention of single-family foreclosures and providing refinancing opportunities to current borrowers; and
• Providing grant funding for small businesses and workers through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

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