State legislators ‘have to work closely’ with county counterparts

Many of the folks walking the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. were once state legislators or county officials. Those state and local officials who took their places back home just want them to remember one thing: Don’t forget where you came from!

“I remember state legislators telling me, ‘I don’t know what happens to them when they go to Washington, it’s like they go to some class on how to make state officials crazy,” said National Conference of State Legislatures Executive Director Tim Storey.

“I think state legislators do the same thing for local governments,” he said.

“But they have to work closely together. My general sense is that, across the board, it’s a very strong working relationship. It’s far superior than the federal relationship with the states.”

“When budget times are good, it makes those relationships a lot easier.”

Three ‘mega-impact’ issues

According to Storey, there were three “mega-impact” issues that came into play for state legislatures after the roller-coaster ride that was 2020. “Twelve months ago, June of 2020, it was such a radically different world than where we are now in terms of policymaking,” he said. “There were at least two mega-impact events with the George Floyd murder and the issues that came about because of that. Of course, the nation’s been dealing with it for two-and-a-half centuries. So, there was that catalyst for a lot of policy discussion and change, much of which got deferred until these sessions.”

“And then of course the health pandemic crisis. And frankly there was a third megatrend, which was the economy seeming to fall off the cliff. And it did, right? I mean the GDP ground to a halt and unemployment spiked crazily mostly because of the service sector.”

Slamming on the brakes, gunning the accelerator

“So you know states, they slammed on the brakes, like a deer had run in front of the car, in terms of their budgets and state spending,” he said. “It was like, ‘freeze everything.’

They didn’t know what the next six or 12 months would look like. They locked it down. This was before they started to get the big stimulus payments from the federal government.”

“Twelve months ago, the state budgets, which you know, that’s the policy of states is passing the budget — they slammed the brakes on and now, here we are 12 months later and they’re gunning the accelerator. States have sufficient funds to get back to where they were before and to initiate a whole ton of new programs.”

An obvious reason is the large infusion of cash from the federal government, for both states and counties “and that is a huge part of the story,” Storey said. “State revenues have recovered remarkably well. States are seeing revenue growth and they’re mostly sales tax collections. And a lot of that is prompted by the stimulus checks that went out to individual Americans who then spent that money on all manner of consumer goods, staples and larger purchases — appliances and vehicles and recreational vehicles.”

Election legislation grabs headlines

“The election issues have been a major, major item in the news,” Storey noted.

“It’s a big issue. But you know, elections are run by local governments. I noticed in a lot of the election bills, the state is funding everything, regardless. This is the second wave of election change, I don’t want to say reform. On the election bills, the vast majority is on absentee voting rules, tightening requirements for verification, identification, that kind of thing. In some cases, changing the parameters of the hours and the days. It’s happening primarily in GOP states although some Democratic states have also made changes to election laws and expanded mail-in voting and same-day registration. So that’s one of the issues that has a direct impact on local governments.”

Other big news, he noted, has been police accountability — “at least 35 states have done that,” Storey noted.

“And that has a direct impact on local governments.”

For counties with colleges in their midst, the “pay to play” issue, which allows student athletes to receive compensation for their own likenesses, could be a factor in recruitment issues.

California passed such a law in 2019 and 40 other states introduced similar legislation with 19 states passing similar legislation.

While Storey notes that election news often grabs the headlines, there are plenty of other non-divisive issues that state legislators on both sides of the aisle can agree on. Some of those include:

• California revised their licensing laws around fines for barbers and other occupations, associated with COVID.
• Georgia legalized cell phone mounts on dashboards. “That might seem minor, but there are hundreds if not thousands of these things that gets hands down agreement,” Storey said.
• New York started a new program for surplus food to go to food banks and hunger relief organizations.
• Ohio put in a property tax exemption for people with mental health and substance abuse diagnoses.
• Oklahoma increased their state employee benefits substantially.
• Virginia passed housing laws about discriminating against military families.
• Arkansas changed the laws around how local police transport intoxicated people.

“My point is, there are countless bills that get passed unanimously because they’ve been worked out and everybody agrees this is a solution to a problem,” Storey said.

“While you’re going to hear about the divisive culture issues, what really happens, and I’m sure in county governments as well, is there is a whole lot of work that gets done solving problems.”