Governing: State and local government news and analysis
Children with a parent in prison face a higher risk of social, economic, educational and behavioral challenges. There’s much that could be done to reduce collateral damage to families.
Even where abundantly available, the costs of clean water are rising faster than the CPI. Where it’s scarce, there’s double trouble. Ultimately, securing enough clean and affordable water will require state laws mandating realistic long-term pricing.
Hospitals stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars under the new tax and spending law, with rural facilities at particular risk. Some states are likely to reconvene their legislatures to deal with funding shortfalls.
The state is trying to make apprenticeships a common offering in high school, but there are challenges, including a shortage of interested businesses.
After more than 1 million deaths, opioid mortality is dropping fast.
Employers aren’t happy with the skills today’s college graduates bring to the workplace. A few states are addressing the problem with effective work-based learning programs.
Phone lines that provide mental health support to tens of thousands of Californians say they are on the verge of shutting down or dramatically scaling back as a result of cuts in the state’s new budget.
Andrew Cuomo avoided the mistakes that kept his father from reaching his full potential. But then he found other mistakes to make.
Arizona has seen more turnover in its election offices than most states. A fellowship program showed a path for attracting young workers to these jobs.
Lawmakers approved numerous bills to help his companies, including a shield against shareholder lawsuits and changes to highway and airspace usage around his SpaceX facility.
Self-government and local control are in jeopardy as never before. Diversity initiatives are engines of equal opportunity, offering a direct return on public investment.
A narrow majority of justices found that by regulating abortion, legislators had "impliedly repealed" the state's near-total ban on the procedure. Dissenters called the ruling pure policymaking.
Universities were already facing a grim future due to demographic changes. Then along came Trump.
Senators voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It would have blocked state and local governments from regulating AI for a decade.
States should remove barriers to building, siting and competition to unleash electricity.
The growth of cities between San Antonio and Austin, separated by 75 miles, is creating one massive metro region.
Congress is still working through the budget process but it's clear no federal agency or program is immune from change.
The notion of controlling development and limiting suburban sprawl is finding some traction in pockets of the Sun Belt and West. You might be surprised at what’s been happening in Montana.
Threats down to the local level have grown more pervasive. Party officials worry that recent shootings could have a deterring effect on some prospective candidates.
A slew of measures that passed the Senate failed to come up for a vote in the Assembly. Advocates blame Speaker Carl Heastie, who says they’ve failed to build up support for legislation.
The public sector is more obsessed than ever with using data to make decisions. But some think the quality of it may be getting worse.
Ruthzee Louijeune is the city’s first Haitian American City Council president. Now she’s fighting the Trump administration on immigration.
It won’t be easy, but former mayors Michael Tubbs and Aja Brown hope to prevent displaced lower income Altadena residents from being displaced for good.
The state is seeing a larger decline in residents 18 and younger than any other state. It’s also getting older and seeing losses in its working-age population.
Mamdani intends to freeze rent and offer free bus service and child care. Although a Democratic socialist, he insists he will be pragmatic in office.
One promising approach is a dedicated specialist to prevent ordinary pain management from turning into the kind of addiction that tears at the fabric of communities.
A 2018 housing bond in the Portland region has helped produce more units than it initially promised to voters. But the region’s affordability and homelessness problems are still worsening.
School choice programs provide state money to help families who want to educate their kids outside of public school. After launching programs targeted at disadvantaged students, many states are opening the programs up to everyone.
Now 25,000 members strong, financially secure and long blessed with thoughtful leadership, the Government Finance Officers Association is poised to address the challenges to come for those who manage the public purse.
The incinerated town of Lahaina has barely begun to recover. Policymakers have scrambled to ease inflexible laws and regulations but rebuilding would be happening much more quickly if that had happened before the fires.
