⁍ State and city leaders are grappling with whether to delay tough budget decisions in the wake of President Donald Trump’s shutdown of negotiations on a comprehensive stimulus package ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

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⁍ The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic punched big holes in state and local government budgets across the nation.

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⁍ Those hopes suffered a setback on Tuesday after Trump rejected a $2.2 trillion package approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

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– President Trump’s failure to sign the spending bill that passed the House on Tuesday has cities across the country scrambling to find ways to balance their budgets, Reuters reports. According to the National Association of State Budget Directors, state and local governments are facing a deficit of more than $300 billion because of the economic fallout from the H1N1 virus. Cities including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles have already warned they will be forced to reduce services or raise taxes if they don’t receive any aid from the federal government. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’s holding off on budget cuts and tax increases because he believes Democrats will win the White House and the Senate and pass aid. “The only way to get close to closing that deficit within the state’s abilities, you would have to do a tax increase. You would have to cut expenses. And you would have to borrow,” Cuomo says. “This would do tremendous economic damage to the state.” In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she’s not waiting on Washington. “Blue states, red states, purple states—this is a bipartisan issue because it has bipartisan impact,” she says.