By skyforbes 
Originally published on May 09, 2017
It’s a popular notion among national pundits that the political center is gone. It’s also not completely true. Politics may be polarized at the federal level, but a new piece by Governing Staff Writer Alan Greenblatt looks at how Republican governors and Democratic mayors continue to forge effective partnerships. For instance, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker recently teamed up to convince General Electric to move its headquarters to Boston. And in Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed get along so well the local press calls them BFFs. Democratic mayors and Republican governors won’t always see eye-to-eye, but when it comes to pragmatic issues like economic development and infrastructure, states and localities can still get things done.
If the Trump Administration follows through on promises to dramatically shrink the federal government workforce, the impact will be felt far beyond the D.C. beltway. Numbers from the Office of Personnel Management show 79 percent of federal civilian employees are based outside of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The administration’s budget blueprint would hike funding for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs — and cut spending on the remaining agencies, which employ some 774,000 people throughout the country. States outside the D.C. area with the biggest number of vulnerable employees include California, Texas and Georgia. Governing Data Editor Mike Maciag explores the potential impact here.
Public workforces face other pressures too. Our analysis of U.S Bureau of Labor statistics offers more evidence that government employees skew older than those in private industry. The numbers also show that public agencies continue to struggle with attracting younger workers, compared with commercial businesses.
The interconnected nature of health and human services issues means that policy and funding changes at the federal level can have a ripple effect on states and localities — and these impacts often aren’t well understood or anticipated by state and local leaders. For instance, Medicaid provides $4 billion annually to the nation’s school districts for medical services related to teaching students with disabilities, as well as vision and dental screenings for low-income kids, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. We’ll tackle this and other issues in Governing’s annual Health and Human Services Report, which publishes in September, and at our HHS Summit in October. Contact me if you’d like to learn more.
State revenue sharing with cities still hasn’t bounced back from recession-era cuts. A Governing analysis of U.S. Census Bureau statistics shows that state aid shrank by more than 10 percent for local governments and school districts in 16 states and dipped by an average of 6 percent nationally. We compared the most recent fiscal 2014 totals to averages between 2007 and 2009 when revenues peaked. Although local officials had hoped state aid would recover, most now view the reductions as permanent. They’re developing new strategies to cope, including local tax levies and media campaigns intended to build citizen opposition to further revenue-sharing cuts.
Interest in public-private partnerships has never been higher. The Trump Administration has signaled that P3s will be a crucial part of fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to spend big on rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. In June, our Summit on Infrastructure and Public/Private Partnerships will explore ideas for making P3s easier to use and examine the impact of potential changes to federal tax policies. We’ll also hear from P3 pioneers about how they’re leveraging investment in vital transportation, water and technology infrastructure. Drop me a line if you’d like to learn more about this timely event.