Avoiding it will result in missed opportunities. It’s critical to adapt to unpredictable challenges. Too often governments treat inaction as the safe choice.
As a recent study documents, federal fiscal stimulus created a budget windfall for states. Most cut taxes, and some now must scramble to make up for shortfalls. Congress is likely to impose tighter restrictions on future countercyclical aid, so it’s a time for all levels of government to get their acts together.
Millions of Americans, particularly people of color buying lower-cost homes, have turned to land contracts and other alternative financing that lack the protections of traditional mortgages. Lawmakers could make these processes a lot safer.
Innovative wage subsidy programs and other services can help workers without college degrees demonstrate their skills to the employers who need them.
Turning some of it into fuel, as a Michigan facility plans to do, is labeled as “recycling,” but it may be worse for the environment than dumping the waste into a landfill.
It could be a very different landscape than the one that will decide this year’s election. Will North Carolina be the next Pennsylvania?
We need more welcoming public places where people can connect in person — high-quality, well-maintained parks, trails, libraries and community centers. Investing in them is good for us and good for democracy.
They do better in school, parents have to spend less money on food and all households benefit from lower grocery prices.
The public likes what lawmakers around the country are doing, but the industry’s lobbyists are working hard to embed provisions into trade deals that would undermine much of the progress states have made.
We know what works to prevent tragedies like the recent one at a Georgia high school. Effective gun policies could save thousands of lives.
Members of the state’s Election Board need to be referees, not cheerleaders, but Donald Trump has made clear he considers some of them on his team.
They face a unique long-term threat from global efforts to address climate change, strategies that will sharply reduce demand for fossil fuels. The best time to build a more resilient economy is before a crisis arrives.
The idea that the lakes’ bounty will quench the thirst of the western United States is an obstacle delaying the West’s inevitable reckoning with the unsustainable status quo.
Through boot camps and training sessions, a group is helping smaller cities and towns with limited resources put together competitive grant applications. More mayors should take advantage of it.
When the 2017 tax law expires next year, Congress will revisit the limits on SALT deductions on federal returns. With elections approaching, it’s time for governors and mayors to offer some viable new policy options — and ways to pay for them.
As they expanded eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, some skirted the law by misclassifying new enrollees to maximize revenue from Washington while doing little to help those who need care. It will take federal legislation to end this behavior.
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