The state and local government had to act entirely because the federal government had no real plan. Someone is going to fill the decision making vacuum, but it is a problem when the people making the decisions don't have the financial power to make the right decision. The federal government is the only government in the US that had the power to pay people to stay home and experts were telling us that was the right decision 9 months ago.
State governments have the power to pay people to stay home. They might have to shift funding from other areas or raise taxes in order to do so.
But they don't have the money to do so. Plans like that require deficit spending, which the federal government can do but the states can't.
Your alternative suggestions are not serious ideas. Do you really think the states could find the money to pay people to stay home by levying taxes on basically those same payments?
So, basically, you think they should do things like finance their house with their credit card (general obligation bonds) instead of taking out a mortgage (federal deficit spending)? And what's your reason for that?
Honestly, this seems more like you're opposed to stay at home orders directly, but expressing that opposition indirectly by demanding arbitrary (unreasonable) policy restrictions to make them seems less desirable by making their implementation unnecessarily painful and difficult.
>State governments have the power to pay people to stay home. They might have to shift funding from other areas or raise taxes in order to do so.
Most states are run on a deficit and several states are already near bankruptcy. There simply isn't a capability at the state level to have the type of financial response that is possible at the federal level with its ability to print money.
This is not true. All the states except Vermont have a legal requirement of a balanced budget.
https://www.ncsl.org/research/fiscal-policy/state-balanced-b...
>State balanced budget requirements in practice refer to operating budgets and not to capital budgets. Operating budgets include annual expenditures--such items as salaries and wages, aid to local governments, health and welfare benefits, and other expenditures that are repeated from year to year. State capital expenditure, mainly for land, highways, and buildings, is largely financed by debt
It is much easier to balance the budget when you ignore all those capital expenses.
Also there are other complexities involved. You can look at what happened in Illinois a few years back as an example. They basically didn't have an official state budget for multiple years. That didn't stop them from racking up costs and debt. It contributed to a debt crisis that the state is still trying to claw its way out of.
The first isn't true at all. Most US States are forbidden to run deficits[0].
Which is why many states are already cutting services and laying off workers.
What's more, there are significant restrictions in most states on when and how they can raise money by issuing debt obligations (bonds).
With sales and income tax revenues plummeting in many states, that leaves them with few options other than cutting services, laying off workers and slashing public programs.
Without Federal assistance, things are going to get much worse before they get better.
[0] https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-state...
https://rockinst.org/issue-area/new-yorks-balance-of-payment...
Because Florida benefits immensely from supporting a state which has, if it were a country, the 6th highest GDP in the world.
The economy in Florida would be heavily affected if California left the union.
Your question is basically like asking "why do federations exist?"
"Some small businesses" is a washy phrase with no substance.
And states do have options for funding relief at the state level. For example they could temporarily raise income taxes on the wealthy for the duration of the pandemic. Or issue pandemic bonds.