 State legislatures are making more policy decisions than Congress, meaning the
next hot spot in the battle over health-care or education funding will happen in
places such as Little Rock, Arkansas or Springfield, Illinois.
Photo by Benjamin Yount
Photo by Benjamin Yount
NOT HERE: State legislatures and governors are doing the heavy lifting.
“The states are laboratories of democracy,” said Jonathan Williams, head of the
American Legislative Exchange Council’s Center for State Fiscal Reform. “States
are innovative, for better or for worse. We think (for) much of the past few
years the states have been moving in a very free market, pro-growth direction.”
Williams said states are acting either because Congress is gridlocked, or
because state lawmakers are reacting to federal decisions.
No action
The 113th Congress, which ended its two-year term in early January, passed 352
pieces of legislation. Congress, for example, took the bold step of delaying
premium increases for flood insurance and made it a federal crime to fake being
a war hero.
But in the same two years — 2013 and 2014 — state legislatures approved and the
governor’s signed 45,564 laws and regulations.
“The brass tacks issues when it comes down to the states … the biggest drivers
of cost in state budgets are education, health and human services, (and)
transportation,” Williams said.
The federal government is quick to promise to help states pay for the costs of
health care, roads and schools.
But, Williams said, that’s the problem.
“We know the dollars are temporary, (but) we know the strings that come with
those dollars are permanent,” Williams said. “It very hard to have a system of
state autonomy and federalism … when the federal government comes in with these
dollars.”
The balance between federal promises and federal requirements is clear when you
look at how states are dealing with health care and education.
Medicaid
Tarren Bragdon, CEO at the health-care advocacy group the Foundation for
Government Accountability, said the federal government has been playing a role
in state based health-care decisions since Medicaid and Medicare were launched
in the 1960s.
But, Bragdon said, after the Affordable Care Act, the federal mandates on states
got “super sized.”
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 “The policy makers believe that spigot from the federal
government is open, and will always remain open,” Bragdon said. “And
(they believe) Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion won’t bust the budget”
The federal government has promised to cover no less than 90 percent
of the costs for newly eligible Medicaid patients — mainly young,
single men. The federal government pays about 50 percent of the cost
for the traditional Medicaid patients — the old, the sick, the
disabled and children.
But the number of those newly eligible patients is far beyond what
states were told to expect.
In Illinois, for example, state Medicaid managers said in early 2014
that no more than 500,000 newly eligible young men would ever sign
up for Obamacare. The latest figures show 570,000 newly eligible
patients are enrolled, and the state expects to have 650,000 by June
of 2016.
The newly eligible Medicaid population has pushed Illinois’ total
Medicaid tab to $20 billion this year, nearly twice what the state
paid a decade ago. Illinois is on pace to have more young, single,
Obamacare expansion men on Medicaid than senior citizens and adults
with disabilities.
And even though the federal government will pick up 90 percent of
the costs, Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion will cost Illinois an
additional $1 billion this year.
Education
“Over the past eight years or so, the federal role (in schools) has
shifted quite a bit and has caused a lot of confusion in the
states.” Kara Kerwin, president of The Center for Education Reform,
told Watchdog.org. “And quite frankly, the federal role has not been
supportive or helpful.”
Kerwin points to the No Child Left Behind initiative, which, she
says, began with the best of intentions.
“And then, the typical reaction …was to try and get in and regulate
it more. Impose more regulations, impose more red tape.”
President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative promised a flood of
federal money, at a time when schools needed cash, to any state that
would adopt a new set of educational standards and tests.
That’s when, Kerwin claims, local taxpayers started to see that they
no longer had control over their local schools.
“The American public realizes that education really is a state and
local issue,” Kerwin said. “We need to put the power back in the
hands of principals, teachers and parents.”
Pendulum swinging
ALEC’s Williams said sometimes it takes the federal carrot and stick
turning into a carrot shaped stick to change peoples’ minds and
behavior.
Williams said that is happening as policy battles move to the
states.
“Policy does move much quicker at the state and local level,
Williams said. “And I think you’re seeing a realization of that. As
different groups across the country that had spent lots of resources
watching Washington D.C., now are finally turning their attention to
the states.”
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