Governing: State and local government news and analysis
Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and witnessed the removal a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, VA. The events reflect on the country’s changing national identity, symbols and myths - and the cost that comes with them.
A blockbuster video stars a LEGO re-creation of the city of Arlington, Texas. A city official’s hobby is helping citizens understand how it makes budget decisions.
In one town, police say products like Nextdoor and Ring are helping fight crime. But racism and vigilantism are pervasive on safety platforms.
Government chief information officers know that building an IT agency that can withstand any challenge means learning how to both do more with less and also exercise restraint when there’s a windfall.
Local candidate debates and town halls have devolved into substance-free, celebrity-focused dog-and-pony shows, at a time when we need serious examination of issues. Can’t we do better?
They provide nonpartisan advice and expertise on the legislative process. In recent decades, their role has grown more influential, especially with budgetary matters, but not everyone agrees that’s good.
There have been plenty of failures along the way, but there’s no question coordination between levels of government has improved over the past 20 years, along with security capabilities for blocking catastrophic attacks.
New state laws empower citizens to take the law into their own hands when it comes to abortion and elections. They're only the latest manifestation of rage against government itself.
Houses of worship own billions worth of empty, deteriorating or underused real estate. Some local governments and denominations are moving to carve it into badly needed housing, but there are plenty of obstacles.
When workers own the businesses where they work, the benefits can be broad and deep. But they don’t know how these plans work or how to set one up. That’s where state and local governments can help.
Following a year-long investigation into food delivery platforms, the city has filed first-of-its-kind lawsuits accusing the platforms of tactics that violate municipal law.
As state courts prepare to weigh in on accusations of gerrymandering, lawmakers across the country are hard at work trying to change those courts’ ideological balance.
With staffs stressed by the pandemic and threats growing, managed security service providers can bring up-to-date expertise to bear while helping governments hold down costs.
Visitors to the National 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center towers once stood, reflect on the events that took place two decades ago and what it means to them today.
With the city’s transit system badly flooded by the hurricane’s rains, calls have grown to increase capital spending now to upgrade subways and buses. But fees from the road tolling program are many months away.
Natural disasters such as fires, floods and storms are more intense and are developing more rapidly. The “new normal” that climate change has brought to emergency managers is unpredictability.
Most Americans associate Labor Day with the end of summer. But the holiday was originally a form of worker activism during a period of rapid industrialization. Solidarity, not barbecue, was the buzzword back then.
The goal of having nonpartisan elections is not to remove all politics from governing but to remove a conflict point that keeps a school board from doing its job.
Transportation and housing advocates are becoming fed up with the review process, which can easily delay or kill a project. They say it puts too much power in the hands of a few privileged citizens.
The infrastructure bill being debated in Congress looks like a small but genuine down payment on a more climate-friendly transportation sector and electric power grid. What comes next is crucial.
Federal pandemic relief funds offer state and local governments the chance to invest in public health programming and infrastructure to make communities safer, particularly those that have been the most harmed.
Selma was a crucible of the civil rights movement. That brings visitors, but residents and businesses have fled the Alabama town.
Local governments lack the tax base for meaningful income redistribution programs, and they risk losing residents to lower-tax jurisdictions. The economics suggest that it’s a job for higher levels of government.
Counties range in size from thousands of residents to millions, with varied levels of responsibility and efficiency. Some advocate shrinking the number of them, but that raises questions both practical and sentimental.
We’re used to blaming the Army Corps of Engineers for monolithic, expensive reclamation projects that go bad. Here’s something they did right, and at a very low cost.
The world changed on Aug. 6. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, triggering a hasty withdrawal and changing the world’s perception of the U.S. while causing Americans to question the state of the national soul.
States are launching cyber navigator programs to help election officials protect their systems from cyber threats, by helping break down the highly technical skills of cybersecurity into practical next steps.
The White House, tech firms, insurers and educational organizations announced near-future steps to improve national cybersecurity, including new NIST guidelines and tech support for governments looking to upgrade defenses.
Even accounting for factors lenders said would explain disparities, people of color are denied mortgages at significantly higher rates than white people.
A new report finds that the wear and tear on our highway system has greater costs than were previously understood, implying a need for more transportation infrastructure investment, especially for road maintenance.
