Massachusetts will use $186 million in federal aid for the coronavirus pandemic to help struggling hospitals, bolster the local health care workforce and invest in workforce training efforts, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker announced Monday.
The governor said $55 million will go towards health and human services’ workforce development, another $50 million for hospitals facing major financial shortfalls, $31 million for inpatient psychiatric acute facilities and $50 million to help train an estimated 15,000 unemployed or underemployed people to learn new skills in manufacturing, health care, information technology and construction.
“Our administration is putting this $186 million to work now because many communities throughout Massachusetts — especially low-income families and communities of color — have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and cannot wait for assistance,” Baker said in a statement.
The spending is part of $200 million designated to the governor to respond to the immediate needs of the pandemic. It represents just a sliver of the roughly $5.3 billion Massachusetts received under the nearly $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package approved by Congress earlier this year. The majority of that funding is controlled by the Democratic-led legislature.
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Baker has proposed using nearly $3 billion toward a range of housing, economic development, job training, health care and infrastructure priorities.
