Local government work is mostly cyclical and the "customer" is captive. It's not the end of the world if they bill someone a day late or have to re-add the new librarian to the payroll system. It's not like people can up and switch to a new government because they don't like the quality of service.
Based on having grown up in the region and having, um, "connections" to state and local government I think it is highly likely that their desire to not throw out work was based around reasoning around how their public image would be affected if a batch of fines/taxes/fees/bills had to be waived. Cutting people (collectively, waiving something on a case by case basis is fine) a break because the government screwed up is kind of a non-starter because of the possibility of setting a precedent.
Based on having grown up in the region and having, um, "connections" to state and local government I think it is highly likely that their desire to not throw out work was based around reasoning around how their public image would be affected if a batch of fines/taxes/fees/bills had to be waived. Cutting people (collectively, waiving something on a case by case basis is fine) a break because the government screwed up is kind of a non-starter because of the possibility of setting a precedent.