Internet Explorer 11 is not supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.
jonathan-walters

Jonathan Walters

Senior Editor

Jonathan Walters -- Senior Editor. Jonathan has covered state and local government for more than 30 years, including for publications ranging from The Washington Post to USA Today. His beats include public sector management and administration, with an emphasis on results-based government. He also covers human services-related topics, and does a monthly e-newsletter on human services. He is author of three books, two on performance measurement in the public sector and one on public sector press relations. He started with GOVERNING in 1989 as a staff correspondent, and now serves as the magazine's executive editor. Walters lives in Columbia County, New York, where he serves as chairman of his local planning board. He is also a Class A interior attack qualified firefighter, and serves as president of his local volunteer fire company. 

This is supposed to be the era of enlightened federal transportation policy. Sometimes you have to wonder.
We haven't heard a lot about botched disaster response this year. There's a reason for that.
The Great Lakes states and provinces sign on to protect their greatest resource -- and need only a rubber stamp from the feds.
High drug prices are pushing some states to take radical action.
States can fume about the federal identification law -- or they can find ways to cope with it.
States face a Congress increasingly hostile to outsourcing.
The nation's roads and bridges urgently need attention. The question is who can best provide it.
The feds want to run utility corridors right through state and local turf -- without asking permission.
It's not that someone was asleep at the switch on mortgage lending. It's that everyone was.
The feds don't spend much time hashing out mutual problems with states and localities. It's time they started.