Follow the leaders
Nature abhors a vacuum, and apparently so do state and local politicians. While a battle over authority may be steadily building between the legislative, judicial and administrative branches of the federal government, contenders for that same power are rising from the ranks of cities, counties and states.
Pick an issue: illegal immigration, global warming, stem cell research, health care or energy. Each are important and controversial, and all are being addressed by many progressive state and local leaders.
For example, when Congress was monkeying with Medicare, Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was working with his Democratic legislators to craft a new and innovative way to cover health care costs for everyone in the state. The beauty of the law is the attention it pays to employees of small businesses, many of whom are not offered health insurance. If they buy it on their own, they have to pay for insurance with after-tax income, unlike employees of larger businesses, who pay less for the same insurance by using pre-tax income. The Massachusetts law also turned hundreds of millions of federal and state dollars previously used to pay health care facilities to treat the uninsured into money to buy insurance for the same people.
Following suit last month, the Vermont legislature created an insurance system that will cover about half of its uninsured residents. The new state-funded program penalizes employers who do not offer health insurance and subsidizes health care costs based on residents’ income. Several other states are considering similar measures, including New York, Wisconsin, Texas and Michigan.
State and local governments are tackling the more emotional issues, too, such as stem cell research. New Jersey took the lead in mid-2004 by including nearly $10 million in its budget for a stem cell institute. California, Connecticut and Illinois followed, together funding research amounting to more than $3 billion.
Because their residents will be living in the nest they may be fouling, 136 mayors are applying the Kyoto agreement’s standards locally to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; state and local government fleet managers are buying hybrid vehicles at record rates; and local governments are building or retrofitting facilities to lower energy demands and reduce hazardous emissions.
Like other times in our history, local and state governments are legislating in areas that are eventually addressed by Congress. For example, by the time the Social Security Act was passed, 30 states offered old-age pension programs, most of which had been created after the Great Depression began.
Then, as now, states are helping their residents receive proper medical treatment and live in a healthy environment. At the same time, Washington’s power is being diffused as Congress, the courts and the president fight for dominance. In the vacuum, state and local leaders have assumed the authority to act. It may be difficult for those who seek power to share it, but it is a Constitutional requirement and one that surely aims for a balance — not in favor of one branch of government or group of individuals, but to benefit the people they all have sworn to serve.
