What Will The Future Look Like? The Pandemic and State Legislatures

Image description: Black text against a faded image of a pile of newspapers. Text says, “A whopping 80% of legislative seats across 40 seats will be on November’s ballot.These new legislators will decide what their state’s pandemic recover will look like. Sister District wants to support these newcomers and make sure they have our shared progressive values.

Image description: Black text against a faded image of a pile of newspapers. Text says, “A whopping 80% of legislative seats across 40 seats will be on November’s ballot.These new legislators will decide what their state’s pandemic recover will look like. Sister District wants to support these newcomers and make sure they have our shared progressive values.

By Marylin Silverman

No one could fail to “get” that policies made at the state level during 2020 determined how safe or threatened we felt during Covid.  In a time of intense anxiety and the absence of any coordinated federal policy, Governors and State Legislators told us what to do and how to think.  Briefings by Governors and legislative leaders became a competitive sport.

 It’s probably true that most people learned in school that:

  •  States introduce more legislation than the U.S. Congress

  • State level legislation is more likely to be enacted than federal legislation

  • Powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states

  • Each state has its’ own written constitution

 But, unless this information was relevant in your daily life, the importance of the states’ contributions to your health and wellbeing was not top-of-mind.

Then Covid happened! The general population finally caught up with Sister District. We all realized the important things that were being done by the states. Turning on the news for the daily reporting of the infection rate, the number of deaths, and the constantly updated do’s and dont’s opened our eyes..  Life experience created an awareness of the importance of states more than any textbook could.

  What’s next:

We certainly realize that there are many things that need fixing and many opportunities to  fix.  Many of these fixes are at the State legislative level.  

Two important facts: The major thrust of anything that happens in 2021 will be defined by revenue declines faced by every state.  And, very importantly, the problem solvers may be new to the issues. A whopping 80 % of the legislative seats across 40 states will be on November's ballot.  Sister District wants to support these newcomers and make sure they have our shared progressive values. 






Each state has its own particular agenda. These are some of the universal issues and questions for the 2021-2022 legislative session:

Budgets

In planning for 2020, most states looked forward to revenue growth. That is not the case for 2021.  Some states didn’t do as badly as anticipated in 2020, but no one did well.

With different kinds of revenue issues state by state come different kinds of solutions.  For example:

  •        How will stimulus spending from the Federal government be spent in each state 

  •       What new taxes are likely to be proposed on a local level?

  •       How will legislators set priorities?

 Health Care

The Pandemic gave us a view of our healthcare issues that was indisputable.  No hiding from this unpopular topic this time. Going forward, how are we going to protect our population? States can:

  • Support and make changes to the ACA

    • Make premiums more affordable to a broader group of income levels

    • Create a “medicare” like program run by the Federal government to be competitive with private programs

    • Restore funding for outreach and sign-ups

  •    Create a single payer program

    • Go this route, California, Colorado, Iowa, illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Washington are currently pursuing

State Aid for Public Schools

Education is traditionally one of the largest categories for state spending. The Pandemic made clear how funding inequalities affect underserved communities. Data clearly confirms that increased spending on children leads to improved outcomes.  How will we tackle this issue this year?

  • Can we make school budgets more equitable for all students

  • Can we make our classrooms more diverse

  • How will we help our kids go back to school

  • How can we support teachers so they can do the job that needs to be done

Policing

George Floyd died in May of 2020.  The 2021 legislative session will be the first time for many state legislatures to weigh in about policing.  And while the issues of Police brutality and Black Lives Matter were top of mind last summer, some of the urgency has been supplanted by the election and its aftermath and dealing with the Pandemic.      

 If timing is everything, will this be the moment that legislative change will be tackled?  Will that change be piecemeal or will an ambitious omnibus plan have the best chance of passing.

Omnibus plans focus on changing the root causes that facilitate abuse today:

  • Lack of accountability in communities most affected by police abuse

  • Lack of independence of the oversight committees 

  • Biased investigations

  • Failure to address patterns of abuse

  • Lack of transparency in the system

Will  partisan legislatures pass this sweeping legislation or will the pieces be cherry picked?

 These are some of the big issues, but the list goes on. The issues are complex and changing. Some of the landmark post Covid legislation will be largely done by State legislatures. It is their bailiwick. These are some of the most important quality of life issues that we have faced.  Sister District focuses on these State legislatures where the changes will be made. We are committed to help progressive legislators and legislation succeed. 

 

 

Danielle Dowler