State of Homelessness in America 2011

The National Alliance to End Homeless has released a new report which "reveals national and state level homeless counts, but also delves into economic indicators and demographic drivers." Selected key findings include:

The nation’s homeless population increased by approximately 20,000 people from 2008 to 2009 (3 percent increase).

A majority – 31 of 50 states (including Hawaii) and the District of Columbia - had increases in their homeless counts.

The largest percentage increase was in the number of family households.

Nearly 4 in 10 {homeless} were living on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation.

State of Homelessness in America (available as PDF, 48 pp, 5 MB) by M William Sermons and Peter Witte

America's children

In May and June the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) has been publishing sections of a compilation of national and 50-state data on the nation's children.

The report provides a statistical compendium of key child data showing alarming numbers of children at risk: the number of poor children has increased by 2.5 million since 2000 to 14.1 million, with almost half of them living in extreme poverty, and 8.1 million children lack health coverage―with both numbers likely to increase during the recession.

According to the CDF report, children in America lag behind almost all industrialized nations on key child indicators. The United States has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized nations in relative child poverty, in the gap between rich and poor, in teen birth rates, and in child gun violence.

The report covers: Key Facts, Child Population, Child Poverty, Family Structure, Family Income, Child Health, and Early Childhood Development. Sections to come: Education, Other Vulnerable Children and Youths, and Gun Violence.

The State of America's Children 2010

Wage penalty in the public sector

With the recession, state and local government budgets have been buffeted by lower tax revenues and higher demand for social services. In a paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), economist John Schmitt responds to arguments that "excessive pay for public employees is the real cause of the financial woes."

Schmitt found three important differences between state-local and private workforces:

1. State and local employees are substantially better educated than workers in the private sector--over half of state and local employees have a four-year college degree or more, compared to about 30 percent in the private sector.
2. State and local employees are about four years older than private-sector workers.
3. Sixty percent of state and local workers are women compared to less than half of private sector worker.

When the two sectors are compared, especially when matched by age and education, public workers earn 4 percent less on average.

According to 50-state charts in the report measuring state and local public employees, ages 18-64 in 2009, Hawaii has 70,742 such employees (55,725 state and 14,747 local) comprising 13.8 percent of all employees.


The Wage Penalty for State and Local Government Employees (pdf, 20pp/257kB), May 2010
      Press Release, May 12, 2010

Related Issue Brief: The Benefits of State and Local Government Employees (pdf, 2pp/78kB), May 2010

Pension funding 2009-2013

A recent paper from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College reports on funding levels for state and local pension plans for FY2009, the first year that reflects the financial crisis, and projections for 2010-2013.

The report covers: (1) the evolution of public sector funding, which from the early 1980s made significant progress until the 2008 market collapse; (2) 2009 status of plans; and (3) projections for 2010-2013 under three different scenarios for the stock market (Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index).

An appendix of 109 state and 17 local plans provides ratios of assets to liabilities for 2001-2008 and estimates for 2009. The aggregate funding ratio declined from 91.4 in 2001 to 84.3 in 2008 and 78.5 in 2009. Hawaii went from 90.6 (2001) to 68.8 (2008) to an estimated 62.9 (2009).

From the Conclusion:

The key question is what should be done. A major increase in contributions is not realistic at this time....if funding levels are to be restored quickly, the money must come primarily from tax revenues. But the recession has decimated tax revenues and increased the demand for state and local services. Thus, finding additional taxes to make up for market losses will be extremely difficult. One small step that would be viewed as a commitment to responsible funding would be for states and localities to at least pay their full ARC [annual required contribution]. Otherwise, the only option is to wait for the market and the economy to recover.

The Funding of State and Local Pensions: 2009-2013, April 2010
      Report (pdf, 18pp/268kB)
      Introduction

Public retiree health liabilities

Today the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study on state and local governments' retiree health liabilities, specifically: (1) what has been reported in their annual comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFR), (2) actions they have taken to address retiree health liabilities, and (3) the overall fiscal pressures they face.

Under accounting standards issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in 2004, governments are required to account for costs of other postemployment benefits (OPEB) when they are earned (during employment) and not when they are paid (during retirement). The largest component of OPEB is retiree health benefits. Historically, governments have not funded these benefits when they were earned, therefore much of their liability may be unfunded. According to GAO, the total unfunded OPEB liability in state and the largest local governments exceeds $530 billion.

For this study, GAO selected 10 governments and reviewed their actions in more detail: four states--Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey, and South Carolina; three counties--Montgomery County, MD; Harris County, TX; and Oakland County, MI; and three cities--Gainesville, FL, New York, NY; and Thousand Oaks, CA.

GAO found that some governments have addressed retiree health liabilities through prefunding using irrevocable trusts, and making benefit changes such as: (1) changing the type of health benefit plan, (2) changing the level of government contributions, and (3) changing eligibility requirements.

State and Local Government Retiree Health Benefits: Liabilities Are Largely Unfunded, but Some Governments Are Taking Action, GAO-10-61 (pdf, 49pp/772kB), Nov. 30, 2009

States, pass or fail? Innovation in education

The Center for American Progress, "a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action," examines all 50 states and D.C. and their approaches to innovative improvement in education. Two years ago they similarly co-authored with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute the first Leaders and Laggards report examining school performance.

In this follow-up report, we turn our attention to the future, looking not at how states are performing today, but at what they are doing to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead...We chose this focus because, regardless of current academic accomplishment in each state, we believe innovative educational practices are vital to laying the groundwork for continuous and transformational change...Put bluntly, we believe our education system needs to be reinvented.

The report focuses on eight areas:

• School Management
• Finance
• Staffing: Hiring & Evaluation
• Staffing: Removing Ineffective Teachers
• Data
• Technology
• Pipeline to Postsecondary
• State Reform Environment

As reported in Christian Science Monitor, "States like Nebraska, Hawaii, and Nevada, meanwhile, receive abysmal grades in at least a few areas and don't shine in any."

Leaders and Laggards A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Innovation:

Executive summary (pdf, 5pp/250kB)

Full report (pdf, 135pp/1.2MB)

Interactive map (html)

Individual state profiles (in pdf)

12 to life

New York Time's editorial for July 27 online and July 28 in print expresses concern for the children caught in the adult court machinery.

[States] have continued to mete out barbaric treatment - including life sentences - to children whose cases should rightly be handled through the juvenile courts.

Suggesting Congress should correct these states' practices by amending the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, NYT mentions a new study by Michele Deitch, of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin:

According to the study, every state allows juveniles to be tried as adults, and more than 20 states permit preadolescent children as young as 7 to be tried in adult courts.

The study reports such alarming findings as:

• Policy makers lack reliable data on the numbers of children "shunted into the adult system by state statutes or prosecutors."
• Children 13 and under who commit crimes like burglary and theft are just as likely to be sent to adult courts as children who commit serious acts of violence against people.
• Transferring juveniles to the adult system is counter-productive as a strategy for preventing or reducing violence.
• Juveniles held in adult facilities are five times as likely to be victims of sexual abuse and rape as youth kept in the juvenile system.
• Children under age 14 are as poorly prepared to participate in their trials as adults with severe mental illness.

The study concludes offering ten policy changes, among which include:

• Keep young children in the juvenile justice system.
• Disallow mandatory sentencing of young children in adult criminal court.
• Always provide an opportunity for parole for young children transferred to the adult criminal justice system.
• Young children in the adult criminal justice system should be housed in juvenile facilities.
• Improve data collection on young children in the adult criminal justice system.

From Time Out to Hard Time: Young Children in the Adult Criminal Justice System
(pdf/134 pp, 1.1 MB) Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, July 2009

Executive summary (pdf/4pp, 228kB)

LBJ School Alumni Discuss Work: Survey of Statutes of 50 States Began as Supreme Court Certiorari Petition (html)

Child stats

On May 1 the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) released Children in the States Factsheets for the U.S. and each of the 50 states. Data are from November 2008. The factsheets provide basic stats and rankings for racial demographics, poverty, health, hunger, early childhood development, education, child welfare, and youth at risk.

Factsheets for:
      U.S. and all states (pdf, 104pp/608kB)
      Hawaii (pdf, 2pp/60kB)

Public pension plans

In its April Notes, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) covered public pension plan asset allocations.

This analysis examines the volatility in employer contribution rates caused by the higher-return-seeking/higher-risk investment portfolios adopted by many pension plans, and whether plan sponsors will increase fixed-income investments in order to reduce volatility. It appears that, in the short run, a significant shift toward a lower-return investment policy in return for reduced volatility in employer contributions is unlikely to occur because of plan sponsors’ expected high returns from current asset allocations, their current ability to use high discount rates, and the tendency of investment managers to not deviate from peer group investments.

Public Pension Plan Asset Allocations
      Report (pdf, 12pp/328kB), April 2009
      Executive Summary
      Press release

Recent GAO reports

From the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

FOSTER CARE: State Practices for Assessing Health Needs, Facilitating Service Delivery, and Monitoring Children's Care, GAO-09-26 (pdf, 58pp/944kB), Feb. 6, 2009

State child welfare programs, including foster care, are federally funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), but states are responsible for their foster children's health care, which is often financed by Medicaid. For this study, GAO reviewed policies and practices in 10 states (CA, DE, FL, IL, MA, NY, OK, TX, UT, and WA) of efforts to improve the delivery of health services. It covers state actions (1) to identify health care needs, (2) ensure delivery of appropriate health services, and (3) document and monitor the health care of children in foster care.


TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM: Status of Efforts to Address Transparency and Accountability Issues, GAO-09-296 (pdf, 112pp/2.7MB), Jan. 30, 2009

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was authorized by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Among other information, the report gives the status of $293.7 billion of TARP funds disbursed as of Jan. 23, and a timeline of programs and selected actions under TARP from Oct. 2008 to Jan. 2009. From the Highlights page:

While GAO does not question the need for swift responses in the current economic environment, the lack of a clearly articulated vision has complicated Treasury’s ability to effectively communicate to Congress, the financial markets, and the public on the benefits of TARP and has limited its ability to identify personnel needs

TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM: Status of Efforts to Address Transparency and Accountability Issues, GAO-09-359T (pdf, 13pp/176kB), Feb. 5, 2009

This is testimony by the Acting Comptroller General on the Jan. 30 report.


Update of State and Local Government Fiscal Pressures, GAO-09-320R (pdf, 8pp, 177kB) Jan. 26, 2009

This letter is an update of GAO's testimony of Nov. 19, 2008, covered in an earlier post. GAO has developed a model that simulates fiscal outcomes of state and local governments for several decades into the future. GAO's two findings: (1) Long-term fiscal challenges faced by the the state and local sector are exacerbated by the current recession, and (2) Consideration of state fiscal relief requires attention to targeting and timing of temporary assistance, specifically Medicaid.

Just in ... on education

Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools is the final report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education on the School Finance Redesign Project, based on a six-year study of America's school finance system. Its four recommendations for a new finance system optimized to promote student learning:

• Drive all funds to schools based on student counts
• Keep linked data about uses of funds and results
• Encourage innovation and experimentation
• Hold schools and districts accountable for student performance and continuous improvement

LB2825 H54 2008
Report (pdf 69pp/1.6MB), Dec. 2008
Summary


Making Charter School Facilities More Affordable: State-driven Policy Approaches is the latest in the Innovations in Education series from the U.S. Dept. of Education (ED). It profiles policies in 8 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Texas) and the District of Columbia "that have been developed to help charter schools address various facilities-related challenges." The report offers the following considerations in implementing the models presented:

• Context is key (different circumstances suggest different approaches)
• Policy remedies are evolving and can be interdependent
• The current environment presents questions about the extent to which charter schools should be in the real estate business
• Challenges remain and innovative solutions are needed
• Policy decisions touch on equity and cost-effectiveness

LB1027 U54 (08-1)
Report (pdf, 78pp/585kB), Dec. 2008
Overview

Recent CRS reports

Recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports from Open CRS:

Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policies, R40104 (pdf, 23pp/327kB), Jan. 23, 2009

This report discusses the current state of the economy, including measures already been taken by monetary authorities; reviews proposed economic stimulus package; assesses need for, magnitude of, design of and potential consequences of fiscal stimulus; and discusses recent and proposed financial interventions.


Proposed Funding for Education in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, R40151 (pdf, 34pp/1.2MB), Jan. 22, 2009

H.R.1 (pdf, 647pp), the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" was introduced in the House on Jan. 26 to promote economic recovery. This report gives an overview of programs that are or would be administered by the U.S. Dept. of Education (ED) in the act under Titles IX and XII. It discusses elementary and secondary education, higher education, the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), and the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.


Health Insurance Continuation Coverage Under COBRA, R40142 (pdf, 13pp/164kB), Jan. 16, 2009

COBRA requires employers to offer continued health insurance, generally for 18 months, to employees who lose coverage under certain circumstances. CRS reports on COBRA coverage and discusses issues of employer size and retirees and costs for both employees and employers.


States and Proposed Economic Recovery Plans, R40112 (pdf, 16pp/177kB), Jan. 5, 2009

This report examines the arguments presented by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the National Governors Association (NGA) to include state fiscal assistance in an economic recovery plan, several arguments to exclude state assistance from such a plan, and the implications the proposals presented by NCSL and NGA might have for the economy. It also examines issues related to the targeting of state fiscal assistance and arguments for and against including infrastructure construction projects in an economic recovery plan.

Just in ...

Engines of Democracy: Politics and Policymaking in State Legislatures, by Alan Rosenthal of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, likens the state legislature to the Little Engine That Could. "The legislature (and not the executive or the judiciary) is truly the engine of democracy." Acknowledging that state constitutions also provide for executive and judicial branches of government, "Yet in the order in which provisions are specified in constitutions, the legislative branch comes first, ahead of the executive and judiciary. The legislature is not only the first branch of government, it is the branch closest to the people." 466 pp.
JK2488 R68 2009 (ISBN 978-0-87289-459-4)


State & Local Government Procurement: A Practical Guide. Considered the flagship publication of the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), this updated guide covers, among other subjects, emerging issues such as:

• Pervasiveness of information technology and its implications
• Streamlined procurement processes and emphasis on performance-based contracting
• Convergence of federal and international policies and practices
• Vendor opposition to terms and conditions
• Growth of green purchasing, immigration enforcement and other social policies

422 pp.
JF1525 P85 N37 2008


Encouraging Bicycling and Walking: the State Legislative Role from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports on recent trends in bicycling and walking and examines state legislative activity in funding, planning, and safety.

• Funding - Reviews efforts to finance biking and walking infrastructure and programs, including funding stream mechanisms
• Planning - Examines how states have integrated biking and walking into transportation plans and projects
• Safety - Discusses increasing safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, including creating new laws; increasing penalties; targeting enforcement; and increasing responsibility for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists

76 pp.
HN85 N37 (08-4)

Public safety employees

A recent report from the RAND Corporation examines ways for policymakers and employers to improve workplace safety for public safety employees. The focus is on police officers and firefighters but EMS responders and correctional officers are also considered when data were available.

The goal of this study was to characterize the health and safety risks to public safety employees in such a way as to help identify the most promising areas for reform that would both protect employees and help alleviate the costs of disability and injury compensation.

Some findings to improve health and safety issues:

• Better surveillance of injury data
• Proper training
• Increased information analysis and sharing
• Strong safety messages from department leadership
• Improvements to protective equipment

Occupational Safety and Health for Public Safety Employees: Assessing the Evidence and the Implications for Public Policy, Dec. 17, 2008
      Report (pdf, 157pp/792kB)
      Summary (pdf, 15pp/205kB)

Easy targets

States that supply crime guns at the highest rates have comparatively weak gun laws.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns

The Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition and its Trace Data Center published a report which analyzes state-by-state 2006 and 2007 trace data released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). According to the ATF:

Firearm tracing is the systematic tracking of firearms from manufacturer to purchaser for the purpose of aiding law enforcement officials in identifying suspects involved in criminal violations, establishing stolen status, and proving ownership.

Noting many states have enacted strong gun laws supplementing federal laws, the report's summary asks, "What is the relationship between a state’s gun regulations and the likelihood that it will be a source of guns recovered in out-of-state crimes?"

The key finding of this report is that states that supply crime guns at the highest rates have comparatively weak gun regulations. This association strongly suggests that gun traffickers favor these states as sources.

The Movement of Illegal Guns In America: The Link between Gun Laws and Interstate Trafficking (Dec 2008, pdf, 40pp/5.8MB)

Related material:

Regulating Guns in America - An Evaluation and Comparative Analysis of Federal, State and Selected Local Gun Laws
by Legal Community Against Violence (February 2008)

One bill at a time

MAPLight.org and the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) filed a lawsuit (pdf, 5.3MB/71pp) December 3 against the Office of Legislative Counsel of California for violating California's open records law (pdf, 67pp) by denying access to California's computer database for tracking thousands of votes and pieces of legislation. Currently the Office of Legislative Counsel provides California legislative information on the state's official website. MAPLight.org and CFAC assert:

Although the public currently can access this info one bill at a time through the state’s official website, that does not allow computer-assisted analysis of the data...

What MAPLight.org is requesting is copies of the database records used to create the website. These database records would allow searching for how a member votes, analysis of trends in voting and in bill topics, analysis of patterns of campaign contributions and votes to track special-interest influence, and many more valuable civic uses.

Reported in a Sacramento Bee article:

Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine refused the request, asserting in a letter to MAPLight.org in July that the California Public Records Act "does not require disclosure of the database itself."

Press release by MAPLight.org and CFAC.

Still up in smoke

In the last 10 years, the states have spent just 3.2 percent of their total tobacco-generated revenue on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

So finds the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and reported in their newly released study. By 1998, all fifty states had reached settlement with the tobacco industry to recover healthcare costs related to smoking. The multi-state settlement, known as the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) imposed not only restrictions on the marketing of tobacco but required "the tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years." The Campaign's report states:

Ten years after the November 1998 state tobacco settlement, we find that most states have failed to keep their promise to use a significant portion of the settlement funds to reduce tobacco's terrible toll on America's children, families and communities.

Although receiving $203.5 billion in tobacco revenue, states only used $6.5 billion for tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

Ranking all states, the study found no state to be funding tobacco prevention programs at levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only nine states fund tobacco prevention at even half the CDC’s recommended amount. Hawaii is ranked 4, funding $11.3 million for FY2009, 74.3% of the CD's recommendation of $15.2 million.

While states cut funding for tobacco prevention, tobacco companies dramatically increased marketing expenditures. From 1998 to 2005, tobacco marketing nearly doubled from $6.9 billion to $13.4 billion, according to the most recent data from the Federal Trade Commission.

A Decade of Broken Promises: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement Ten Years Later - Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Full Report (pdf, 142pp/740kB)
Executive Summary & Key Findings (pdf, 6pp/56kB)
State Rankings (pdf, 2pp/40kB)

Scanning public policy history

The Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau is making available online digital versions of their older reports. From the Hawaii territorial days and up through 1995, when the Bureau began directly putting reports online, this project attempts to provide a more complete history of public policy in Hawaii and perhaps offer recommendations of value even today.

The reports will be added as they are digitized and optimized for network access.

Newly Added LRB Studies from the Archives (1950 - 1995)

Sorry, your name's not here.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice.

from The Brennan Center for Justice mission statement

The Brennan Center for Justice recently released two reports on the "barriers to voting" preventing eligible voters from casting their ballots. The first report deals with the purging of voter registration records.

A citizen typically cannot cast a vote that will count unless her name appears on the voter registration rolls. Yet state and local officials regularly remove-or "purge"-citizens from voter rolls. In fact, thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia reported purging more than 13 million voters from registration rolls between 2004 and 2006...

Officials strike voters from the rolls through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation.

The report goes on to state that the absence of transparency and consistency in the purging process makes it nearly impossible to determine the number of voters erroneously removed from the rolls.

The Brennan Center's second report addresses the de facto disenfranchisement from a criminal conviction.

State laws vary widely on when voting rights are restored. Maine and Vermont do not deny the franchise based on a criminal conviction; even prisoners may vote there. Kentucky and Virginia are the last two states to continue to permanently disenfranchise all people with felony convictions unless they receive individual, discretionary clemency from the governor. The remaining 46 states fall somewhere in between, with the varied state laws forming a patchwork across the country.

The lack of training for election officials in the local felony disenfranchisement policies, and the little or no communication between the criminal justice system and election offices:

result in the mass dissemination of inaccurate and misleading information, which in turn leads to the de facto disenfranchisement of untold hundreds of thousands of eligible would-be voters throughout the country.

Voter Purges - by Myrna Pérez
(September 2008; pdf, 52pp/644kB)

De Facto Disenfranchisement - by Erika Wood and Rachel Bloom
(October 2008; pdf, 24pp/272kB)

RGGI auction

Follow-up to today's earlier FR post, Reuters reports RGGI's first auction of permits allowing power plants to emit a greenhouse gas "raised nearly $39 million."

The auction kicked off the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an agreement by ten states to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions from more than 230 power plants in January. The states, from Maryland to Maine, are taking action in the absence of guidance from the Bush Administration on how to regulate the gases widely blamed for warming the planet.

RGGI's website reports, "All allowances offered in Auction 1 were sold at a clearing price of $3.07." The RGGI states plan to use the money to protect consumers from higher costs resulting from the emissions cap.