Governing: State and local government news and analysis
WEBState and local governments face a tight labor market and a competitive disadvantage with the private sector. But salaries aren’t the only issue, with cities, counties and states all grappling ...
Over Two Decades, Much of the West Has Turned Blue. Why
WEBDec 12, 2023 · Over the last 20 years, the West has politically transformed. The onetime Republican stronghold has become a Democratic bastion, dramatically reshaping the fight for the White House as Colorado ...
What's Behind the Push Toward Privatizing Water Systems?
WEBFeb 5, 2024 · The finding ran against a prior trend in favor of consolidation of utilities. Nationwide, publicly owned water systems remain the primary source of water for Americans. That likely won’t change ...
The Rise, Fall and Mutation of Political Machines - Governing
WEBJacob Arvey, the legendary Chicago political boss of the 1940s, had something important that he liked to tell novices about how to succeed in politics. “It’s very simple,” he would say ...
The Week in Public Finance: The 10 States That Give More to the …
WEBJan 10, 2019 · In total, 10 states are so-called donor states, meaning they pay more in taxes to the federal government than they receive back in funding for, say, Medicaid or public education. North Dakota ...
2021 Military Active-Duty Personnel, Civilians by State - Governing
WEBFeb 1, 2022 · The five states with the most total active-duty and reserve members of the military, as of September 2021, were: 217,889 in California. 174,598 in Texas. 156,475 in Virginia. 122,214 in North ...
The Pros and Cons of Privatizing Government Functions
WEBNov 29, 2010 · Problems from poorly conceived contracts can create cost increases that surpass the costs of in-house services, and if there’s shoddy contract oversight, a government is vulnerable to corruption ...
What Painted Us So Indelibly Red and Blue? - Governing
WEBAugust 3, 2021 •. Alan Ehrenhalt. 2020 U.S. election results. (Shutterstock) “We’re not a collection of red and blue states,” Barack Obama is famously supposed to have said in 2004. “We ...
The Biden Administration Will Pay Farmers More Money Not to Farm
WEBThe government had spent more than $7 billion to preserve those acres. “A huge amount of money was essentially paid and then lost when those acres go back into farming,” Schechinger said ...
What a Politician Needs to Do to Be a Public Servant - Governing
WEBI never liked it when someone called me “a politician.” I would always cringe and snap back, “public servant.” Whenever I tried to argue with my friends about almost any subject, they ...