The federal CARES Act funding was intended to provide relief from the coronavirus pandemic, and lawmakers were criticized for banking the money at a time when many Hawaiʻi residents were jobless and urgently needed help.

On Monday a group of nonprofit organizations called the Working Families Coalition released a plan to distribute $362 million including CARES Act funds “to help families with rent and mortgages, food, healthcare, child care, domestic violence response, kūpuna wellness checks, and more.”

The coalition’s proposal also calls for $11 million to be committed to support immigrants in Hawaiʻi who are ineligible for the federal stimulus checks and unemployment insurance.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the legislature was focused on a historic joint package for Hawaiʻi’s working families,” said Gavin Thornton, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, in a statement. “Today, we’re asking legislators to support those same families, who are now struggling to pay rent and feed their children.”

The group also proposed a package of “alternative revenue options” to help balance the state budget, including proposals to borrow up to $2.1 billion from the federal government for up to three years; eliminate a tax deduction for real estate investment trusts; impose new taxes on sugary drinks; and tax wealthy pensioners.

The state is facing a $2.3 billion budget shortfall for this fiscal year and next year, and Governor David Ige told leaders of the public-worker unions in April that he planned to impose 20 percent pay cuts for state employees, including teachers, to help balance the budget.

But union leaders and others contend that cutting public workers’ pay would do more damage to the state economy and might prolong the economic downturn that was triggered by the pandemic.