Policy innovations/Working with Congress

The good part about being a notetaker with a laptop is having the ability to just cut and paste my notes directly into the blog. Many of the issues discussed at our conference today were pretty wonkish and not particularly blogworthy. I'll spare you of a lot of that -- there were some good topics hashed throughout the afternoon, which I'll discuss here. One of the observations at meetings like this is the effect of term limits. Over the last two election cycles, we've lost a larger percentage of legislators than any other state. Not only does it exacerbate turnover, the loss of institutional memory can stifle some legislative action (which may be a good thing). On the other end of the spectrum, the representative next to me today has been majority leader in his state since I was in the 6th grade.

Our first program this afternoon dealt with policy innovations and collaboration with non-profit organizations. The talking point was that government, acting alone, cannot solve the complex issues facing us today. Ralph Smith, VP of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, explained that a wealth of resources exist for legislative leaders to leverage for addressing the most intracable and social and economic challenges facing state legislatures today. Many would suggest that this already exists at the Capitol, but I think the point is that governments should reach out and partner with organizations in the trenches to foster more innovative, cost effective public policies that better meet the needs of our constituents. Smith is right by saying that the bulk of the big issues and main services are at the state and local levels, and that they often land on our doorsteps at a point in time when we're stretched budget-wise.

The most profound quote of the day also came from Smith: "the difference between being a legislator and a statesman is being able to recognize the conflict between good politics and good policy."

We also had a conversation with former state legislators turned Congressmen Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan), Michael Michaud (D-Maine), and Peter Roskam (R-Illinois) about a more effective bond between state legislatures and Congress. Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) (himself a former legislator in the MD Senate) joined the conversation and offered some of his views on the leadership and the 110th Congress. We discussed a wide range of potential collaborative topics from enforcement of illegal immigration, federal educational measures (largely centered on No Child Left Behind), Streamlined Sales Tax (not on anyone's radar on the Hill), and state legislative budget restrictions compared to spending measures in Congress.

It's interesting to learn of the constitutional and statutory restrictions in other states. For instance, in Missouri, once a bill leaves the chamber, it cannot be called back for any reason. In Maryland, the budget is so executive-oriented that the legislature cannot amend a final budgetary proposal handed down by the governor. It can cut provisions and send supplemental budgets for approval, but it cannot increase individual appropriations for the fiscal budget. Of course, our own Revenue Stabilization Act is unique to any other funding mechanism in the country and prioritizes appropriations for general revenue in categories.

We'll hear from David Broder in the morning on the current political climate before discussing the revolution in web-based media outlets (a la Politico.com -- its founder will be the moderator tomorrow). We'll also discuss the role of state legislatures in protecting democracy and macro-issues that are affecting our National Guardsmen (in the communities with natural disasters and abroad) before ending on a discussion of institutional trends in state legislatures.