More than one hundred business leaders from companies including Disney, Google, Apple, Netflix, and Salesforce, added their voices to the call for federal funding for states, an attempt to help local governments meet budget shortfalls resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

“State, local and tribal governments are critical to our recovery,” the leaders wrote in a letter to congress. “Without additional assistance from the federal government, the very programs that will help people get back to their lives and get back to work – from childcare to job training to small business support – will all be forced up on the chopping block.”

The Economic Policy Institute has reported that “failure by Congress and the president to help states, cities and towns would undoubtedly lead to a depression,” and that federal funding for states and municipalities will “create or save roughly 5-6 million jobs by the end of 2021.”

The alternative, the EPI predicts, is “a prolonged depression.”

Read more about the necessity of federal funding for states and municipalities here.