WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, as Congress considers additional coronavirus relief measures, Senator Rick Scott released the following statement rejecting bailouts for liberal states that want to use taxpayer money intended for coronavirus response to backfill their poorly-managed budgets and pension plans. 

Senator Rick Scott said, “I’m very disappointed that a proposal from some of my colleagues today apparently includes provisions that spends hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out wasteful states when we don’t even know how much is still unspent from the previous coronavirus response packages that Congress passed earlier this year. I’ve reached out to every Governor to learn exactly how this money has been spent, and most have refused to give us any information. It’s time we get serious about where taxpayer money is going, and reject unnecessary state bailouts.

“The liberal Governors who refuse to open their states or spend taxpayer money wisely are seeing high numbers of unemployment. But what they don’t want you to know is that state and local governments’ projected revenue shortfalls due to the coronavirus have not come to fruition – which is a great thing. Revenue collections in many states exceeded their initial projections, and most states will be in a strong position to get through this pandemic without more federal aid. Again, that’s great news for our country.”