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It’s Friday, Jan. 20, and we’d prefer to welcome you to our recent weekly State and Local Roundup.
As big consumers of stories, we come across tons of of stories each week. These are about common challenges across states and localities, efforts underway to unravel them, trends we’re seeing, interesting reads, and notable events. We’re going to begin rounding them up and sharing them in this article each Friday. Here goes!
Pennsylvania Removes Degree Requirements
Democrat Josh Shapiro was sworn in on Tuesday as Pennsylvania’s forty eighth governor and by Wednesday he was signing his first executive order, removing college degree requirements for hundreds of state jobs.
His directive nixes the necessity for four-year college degrees for roughly 65,000 positions, accounting for 92% of all state jobs. It comes as Pennsylvania, like other state and native governments, is struggling to fill vacancies across agencies. State and native governments have about 450,000 fewer staff than before the pandemic, based on one evaluation.
“In Pennsylvania, the people should determine what path is best for them,” Shapiro said on the signing, “not have it decided by some arbitrary requirement or any arbitrary limitation.”
The order follows similar actions by cities and counties. In 2019, for instance, Boulder County, Colorado, did away with degree requirements for about 80 different jobs with the county. Philadelphia, too, has removed such requirements where feasible. Most of those efforts by local governments are done in a more targeted way, often for jobs that they are having trouble recruiting for or in a desire to maneuver toward greater workforce diversity.
However it is a somewhat recent practice for states. Maryland, last yr, dropped four-year degree requirements for greater than 300 job postings in what the governor’s office described as a “first-in-the-nation workforce development initiative.”
Maryland’s First Black Governor Sworn In
Speaking of firsts, Maryland swore in its first-ever Black governor, Wes Moore, on Wednesday. Introduced by Oprah Winfrey, Moore is simply the fifth Black governor in our nation’s history and the one Black person leading a state today.
“This journey has never been about making history, it’s about marching forward,” he said in his inaugural address. “We should not have to make a choice from a competitive economy and an equitable one. Maryland mustn’t be forty third in unemployment or forty fourth in the associated fee of doing business. We must always not tolerate an 8-to-1 racial wealth gap, not since it only hurts certain groups, but since it prevents all of us from reaching our full potential.”
Along with addressing the economy and tackling the racial wealth gap, the Democrat promised to place the state on course to generate 100% clean energy by 2035 and pledged “prime quality, highly inclusive schools” with a service yr option for all highschool graduates.
Mayors Discuss ARPA, Immigration, Housing, and Pickleball
While governors are being sworn in and delivering their state of the state addresses across the country, the nation’s mayors are meeting in Washington, D.C.
Recent York City Mayor Eric Adams made headlines earlier this week on a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, where he asked for assist in addressing the migrant crisis. He, together with lots of the nation’s mayors, reiterated that request on the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting.
Frightened about federal Covid aid clawbacks, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan warned other mayors on the meeting to spend all of their American Rescue Plan Act funding sooner slightly than later in case newly empowered Republicans within the U.S. House push to take it back later this yr as a part of negotiations over the nation’s debt limit.
Also on the mayors’ meeting agenda was a session focused on how pickleball is “transforming cities.” Bryan Barnett, the Republican mayor of Rochester Hills, Michigan, said his city opened its first pickleball facility last yr with eight courts. “I can let you know it has far surpassed anything we ever really could have imagined,” he said, describing the sport as “wildly popular.” Some governments have tapped ARPA dollars to construct pickleball courts, a move that doesn’t sit well with GOP lawmakers in Congress.
Ensure that to come back back here every Friday for the week’s highlights. For those who don’t already and would like to get it in your inbox, you may subscribe to the newsletter here. Have an amazing weekend.
News to Use
Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs, and Notable Events
- California recovers. Powerful winter storms hitting the state have finally subsided. A recovery effort getting underway could cost upwards of $1 billion, the Los Angeles Times reported. President Biden surveyed the damage yesterday in Northern California. A recent flood protection plan for the Central Valley released this week warned that preparing the state for future catastrophic flooding would require billions in investments.
- Energy grid reform. Following the 2021 winter storms in Texas that left hundreds of thousands without power, the state has been working to make its energy grid more reliable. State regulators this week approved a controversial reform and first-of-its-kind proposal referred to as the “performance credit mechanism,” based on The Texas Tribune. State lawmakers will get a likelihood to review the plan before it goes into effect.
- Electing judges. It’s the election you most likely don’t find out about, but one which The Recent York Times called “arguably an important” in America in 2023. An April 4 contest for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will determine whether conservatives or liberals hold a 4-to-3 majority in a critical presidential battleground state.
- Big infrastructure. Already four-and-a-half years behind schedule, construction on Maryland’s light rail, referred to as the Purple Line, is facing one other seven months of delay that might thrust back the road’s opening to mid-2027. The delay will add nearly $1.5 billion to the project’s $3.4 billion cost.
- Banning China. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration halted efforts to site a Ford battery plant in Virginia late last yr over concerns about Chinese Communist Party influence, news reports this week revealed. Now, the Houston Chronicle reports that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is in search of to ban China, Russia and Iran from buying Texas land, following an identical move by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
- Sports betting pays off. It’s been a yr since Recent York first allowed mobile sports betting and its popularity has exceeded expectations, with wagers topping $16 billion despite a 50% tax rate.
- Homeless hotels. Through the height of the pandemic, several cities turned to hotels to deal with their homeless populations. While Washington, D.C., announced it might end hotel shelter for homeless residents earlier this month, two cities said they’re moving forward with the model. Los Angeles said it might keep its downtown hotel open as homeless housing for an additional yr, and the Denver City Council approved the acquisition of a hotel with 95 rooms to deal with the homeless. Meanwhile, the mayor of Albuquerque, Recent Mexico, said this week that his city is “getting price gouged” by hotel sellers.
Picture of the Week
Cleanup continued this week after an enormous landslide caused U.S. Highway 101 in Oregon to crumble and drop as much as 12 feet in areas. The state Department of Transportation tweeted that the landslide is for now stable, but said the road could should be closed again on “short notice,” with plans for a long-term fix still within the works.
Government In Numbers
313
Detroit’s area code has developed a certain cachet, very like Recent York City’s 212, 310 in Los Angeles, and 305 in Miami. It’s turn into a part of the town’s brand, featured on T-shirts and even tattoos. But now the state is running out of 313 phone numbers and desires to overlay a recent area code–679–to be used in the town and a few surrounding suburbs.
ICYMI
When the Infrastructure Boom Meets the Workforce Crash
With federal dollars pouring into state and native governments for infrastructure, there’s one huge challenge: Who will do all of the work?
BY KATHERINE BARRETT & RICHARD GREENE
Cutting Constructing Emissions is About More Than Gas Stoves
As an uproar over the long run of gas appliances burns hot, it’s overshadowing efficiency gains and other advantages states can achieve with constructing code updates.
BY DANIEL C. VOCK
Recent Federal Money Headed to Trail Projects Nationwide
Among the money is from earmarks included in a recent federal spending package. The funding comes as bike and pedestrian trail use has been on the rise.
BY MOLLY BOLAN
