Quarrelsome, politically hamstrung, dancing on the edge of bankruptcy:
Are America’s state governments becoming obsolete?
Ten states reached the end of the fiscal year on June 30 still deadlocked over how to deal with deficits: Illinois had an $11.8 billion shortfall; Connecticut, $8.8 billion; and our once-“Golden” California, a stunning $24.3 billion gap.
Sure, the deep national (and global) recession accounts for much of the pain. But several states, California most glaring of all, have structural deficits — requirements for legislative supermajorities, or unreformed health, welfare or corrections systems that lawmakers lack the courage to change or finance appropriately.
The state-level theatrics and fiscal feuds reflect a potentially fatal diversion from the challenges of a globalized century — stiff worldwide economic competition, severe energy shortages, imperiled ecosystems, and more.
Brain-active states would be revamping their revenue systems, investing heavily in school reform and higher education to keep their populations internationally competitive. They’d be stepping up environmental protections and stopping wasteful sprawl development while also reforming criminal justice systems to cut back on burgeoning prison populations.
Yet on most such indicators they’re headed downhill.
Example: States are using most of their federal stimulus transportation dollars on building and improving roads, not on the big need of a petroleum-short era — energy- saving public transit systems.
For a moment, step back and ask yourself: If we were organizing the United States for the first time right now, would we repeat our arbitrarily drawn state lines across the continent? And would we stick like glue to our existing political units — roughly 85,000 cities, towns, boroughs, counties and districts, some drawn up in the colonial mist of three centuries past?
We claim to have the world’s longest-standing democracy. But our Constitution was written by representatives from a thin string of ex-colonies whose largest city (Philadelphia) had 44,000 people. Suburbs didn’t even exist.
If you believe numbers count, the real America of 2009 is focused in its 363 metro regions, especially the 100 largest — the citi- states of our modern world — which account for 65 percent of U.S. population, 75 percent of our economic output, 76 percent of our good-paying “know ledge jobs,” and 94 percent of our venture-capital funding.
If we were starting again, these centers of population would be the logical core.
OK, we aren’t starting anew. The reality is that massive constitutional power resides in our 50 state governments. The challenge is to wake them up to serving and advancing the real — predominantly metropolitan — America of today.
One crucial problem: State legislatures are still heavily influenced by rural lawmakers.
Plus — rural or not — legislators like to micromanage.
“Smart” states, like smart corporations, would grant autonomy — rewards and incentives for productivity — to their legal subsidiaries, the regions. In turn, the regions would be invited to set goals and fashion their own tax systems, balancing property, sales and income for best results. They’d be encouraged to merge their planning and priorities for roads and transit, housing, employment, environmental controls.
Then the states could focus on their indispensable priorities. A lead item would be to restore the quality and affordability of their community colleges and state universities. Another is to provide social safety nets, plus incentives for personal advancement.
There’s one glimmer of hope: Central cities and their suburbs are starting to vote more alike (and progressively). Rural and conservative control of legislatures may suffer.
