A county executive on Long Island has a bold new proposal to distribute $100 million in direct cash payments to homeowners.
Executive Laura Curran hopes her new plan to stimulate the economy of Nassau County will get approval from the County Legislature to give $375 payments to residents.
"This is to benefit the middle class," Curran said Monday. "It is my hope that people who receive this check spend this money in Nassau - go to your downtown restaurants, go to the movies."
The county is projected to receive roughly $380 million from the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March, $200 million of which is getting to Nassau County this year, Curran said. She wants half of that money to go directly into the pockets of county residents.
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"In order for us to have a strong economic recovery we must continue to address the economic impact of the virus. Since day one of this crisis Nassau County has focused on providing relief to tax payers whenever possible," she said.
Under the Nassau County Homeowner Assistance Program, eligible households would be determined by Basic and Enhanced STAR data. Curran estimates 300,000 homeowners in the county would benefit from the program.
The executive highlighted dropping virus cases and and increasing vaccination rates in the county's long road back from the pandemic. Nassau County's COVID-19 positivity rate now sits below 1% and health officials recorded four days last week without a single virus death, she added.
