Reference no: EM133372509
Assignment:
SUMMARIZE THE FOLLOWING: ("Public Policy Concerns of State Legislatures" to "Economic Development")
Public Policy Concerns of State Legislatures
State and local governments enact laws that make public policy in many areas. These laws regulate business, control and regulate natural resources, and protect individual rights. They carry out health, education, and public welfare programs. Public policy is a plan of action made by government decision makers to solve a problem or reach a goal. State and local legislatures can make policy like national legislatures do, by writing new laws, removing old laws, or changing laws.
This section describes a few of the many problems and goals states have been working on. Many of these issues concern more than one level of government.
Voting Laws
Many states have enacted stronger rules for voting. They claim there is a problem with voter fraud, which means that some people who vote do not have the right to vote. The first voter-identification laws were passed in 2003 to make voters prove who they were. In 2008 an Indiana law said that voters had to show identification, or documents such as a driver's license, that had a photo. The Supreme Court said that law was legal in the case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. Eleven states passed these voter-ID laws during the next four years.
People who oppose these laws argue that they affect poor, minority voters who are less likely to have a photo ID. Getting a photo ID can be expensive or hard for the poor or the elderly. People who oppose these laws also say that few cases of voter fraud have been proven, so there is no need for such laws. People who support these laws claim that voter fraud is a real problem and must be stopped.
Some states have made it easier for voters to get a photo ID.
Some states wanted to enact voter-ID laws, but the federal government stopped them from doing it. These states have kept minorities from voting for a long time, so the U.S. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. It said that these states could not change their voting laws without the federal government's approval. In 2013 the Supreme Court overturned parts of the Voting Rights Act. This allowed those states to pass photo ID laws without the federal government's approval. The Attorney General of Texas said his state's voter-ID law would be used right away. Four other states did the same within 24 hours. In response, the federal Department of Justice quickly sued to stop Texas and North Carolina from implementing their new voter-ID laws.
Voter-ID laws are not the only voting laws states have passed recently. In recent years, many states have passed laws that allow early voting, voting by mail, and absentee voting, or voting without being present. Many states enact laws after presidential elections, when any problems with voting become clear. They pass the laws to stop those problems in the future.
Environment
Many states work to balance, or make equal, the need to produce energy with the need to protect the environment. They do this by regulating the use of energy sources. Energy companies have found new ways to get fuel from the ground. One way is hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." In fracking, water, sand, and chemicals are pushed into rock to break it and release natural gas and oil. Some believe this is a good way for states and the nation to produce more of its own fuel. Others believe this has a bad effect on the environment. In 2012, 24 states proposed more than 130 bills to deal with fracking.
The states also regulate older sources of oil and gas. In 2013 the Alaska state legislature spent $355 million on a gas pipeline, or a system for carrying fuel across long distances. States in the Midwest passed new laws about pipelines that cross state borders and connect oil fields with ports in the Gulf of Mexico. These states want more control over pipelines, and they want to make energy companies get state approval to build them.
State legislatures also regulate other issues affecting the environment, such as the size and location of landfills. In 2007 the North Carolina legislature passed a bill that said there had to be buffer zones between landfills and state parks and wildlife refuges. However, the growing need for landfill space caused the North Carolina Senate to approve a law in 2013 that reduced the use of buffer zones.
Other states have taken action to protect land and water resources. Oregon has protected 500 miles of rivers, and it has banned billboards and disposable bottles, bottles that can be easily thrown away. Almost half of the states have passed laws to control strip-mining, a type of mining that removes the top layer of the Earth's soil.
Education
States keep trying to find new ways to make sure that their students get the best education. Some states have passed laws to allow public charter schools. These are public schools that do not have to follow all state regulations. They can try new ways of teaching students. Other states provide vouchers for students to go to private schools. A voucher system allows students to get money the state would spend for them to go public school. They can then use the money to go to a private school. Many states have new policies that incorporate technology into the classroom.
States also try to find ways to judge how well teachers do their job. Some states judge teachers by their students' scores on standardized tests. Students in some schools might do poorly on these tests. Some states require those schools to make changes in how they teach. California recently passed a law that says the parents of students in a school with low test scores can sign a petition. If half of the parents sign the petition, the school must either close, become a charter school, or make other important changes.
States also pay for higher education-colleges, universities, technical colleges, and community colleges. These schools can offer an education to students who cannot pay the high costs of private colleges. However, costs for higher education have gone up a lot, but most states have less income and have cut their budgets. Ten states have already started giving schools funds based on how well their students do rather than how many students they have. Twenty-four other states are either moving toward that or thinking about it. States want community colleges and local businesses to work together to help students get the education they need.
Public Safety and Corrections
State and local governments view public safety as an important issue. Legislatures often enact laws to deal with crime. Crime levels grew from the 1960s through the early 1990s, and many states passed stronger laws against those who broke the law. They made the time spent in prison longer for many crimes. This caused the number of people in prison to grow by almost 800 percent. That number does not include the larger number of juveniles, people under the age of 18, held in detention centers.
The cost to keep one person in prison for one year is about $30,000. In some states it can cost up to $80,000, depending on the age and health of the prisoner.
States have faced money problems in recent years. Many states are changing their policies about prison sentences. Some states keep only the most dangerous offenders in prison for a long time. States have improved how they watch what happens to convicts when they leave prison. States have also improved programs that help convicts move back into the community. These programs have reduced crime and recidivism rates. The programs also save money. Many states are making sentences shorter for minor drug crimes. Drug offenders are offered treatment instead of prison.
Public Policy Concerns in Local Legislatures
Local legislatures work on the same public policy concerns state legislatures work on. However, other public policy areas are very important to local governments.
Land Use and Zoning
Local governments want to make cities good places for people to live and work. One way to do this is to regulate land use with zoning laws. Zoning laws create zones, or parts of a city, and say how land in those zones can be used. Zoning laws name four types of use for land. They are residential (homes), commercial (businesses), residential-commercial (a mix of the two), and industrial (factories).
Zoning laws, and the rules made by zoning boards that carry out zoning laws, can be very detailed. Zoning rules may say how big a building can be, how close to the street it can be, and where parking will be located.
City councils are also concerned with other types of land use. These include how public land will be used, how much land should be used for open space and parks, and how much land is needed for government buildings.
Land use issues can cause disputes. Some people believe zoning ordinances are unfair because they restrict how people can use their own property. For example, a family may believe they should have the right to raise chickens in their backyard. Their neighbors may be happy that zoning rules prohibit raising chickens in the city. People also disagree about how public land should be used. When the city buys a field in the middle of the city, people might disagree about whether it should be used for a soccer field, a park, or a new jail.
Transportation and Mass Transit
Some cities, like Los Angeles, are famous for their traffic jams. Each person in Washington, D.C. who drives a car to work wastes about 67 hours per year in traffic jams. Traffic problems also affect air quality and result in wasted resources. State and local governments want to move people to where they are going in a faster, cheaper way. Governments also want transportation to be good for the environment.
State and local governments try to do this by providing mass transit systems. However, many cities with the worst traffic problems also have mass transit systems. Local governments have policies that try to make the system work better.
Some local governments offer incentives for carpooling. They mark special traffic lanes for carpoolers. They also help arrange carpools and offer cheaper parking for carpoolers. Other local governments encourage riding bikes by creating special bike lanes and by having bikes that people can borrow. Local governments also might offer tax breaks for companies that encourage telecommuting, or working from home by using a computer.
Economic Development
State and local governments are concerned about the condition of their economy. Often they work to keep or bring in business. They offer tax breaks or credits to businesses that move their company into the state or city and to businesses that create more jobs. For example, the state of Maryland set up 28 "enterprise zones" in 2012. These were areas where businesses moved to get lower taxes and fewer regulations. These zones helped grow areas of the state that needed jobs and money. The zones included large rural areas and poor neighborhoods in Maryland's largest city.
Smaller cities also try to bring in businesses. The city of Grand Island, Nebraska, offers businesses many incentives to move there. These include cash payments to businesses based on the number of jobs they create. The city of Waco, Texas, offers lower taxes for projects that would buy new equipment and machinery.
These types of programs are becoming more common. Every state and many cities now offer incentives. States and cities spend billions of dollars each year on these incentives. Some people doubt that these programs work. Others believe they are a good way to improve areas that need help.
Economic experts study the best ways for these policies to work. They warn state lawmakers and city councils to think about how these tax incentives will affect their areas.
City and state governments also work to improve their economy by helping people who need jobs. One way is to operate job placement centers where people get help to look for jobs. Another way is by offering training in new skills to people who have lost their jobs.