The Thicket at State Legislatures

Bring in the Candles

by Karl Kurtz

In an excellent commentary on Congress, "The Best Way to Fix Government Dysfunction," Lee Hamilton of the Center on Congress at Indiana University tells a story about the dedication to duty of a Connecticut state legislator, Col. Abraham Davenport, on a "dark day" in New England in 1780 that many thought to be the Judgment Day.

I had never heard the story before, so I did a search on Abraham Davenport and found a marvelous Stamford Historical Society website. It turns out that I probably should have known about Col. Davenport, as John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem about him, John F. Kennedy quoted him numerous times in his 1960 presidential campaign, and the Connecticut Legislature commemorated him on the 200th anniversary of the dark day in 1980:

...Abraham’s character was firm, even stern, constant in his dedication to his responsibilities concerning all of community and church life, which at this time were a single entity. Nothing embodies this better than his role during New England’s famous Dark Day—a day where the skies of the Northeast, for no explicable reason remained almost completely dim. Davenport’s resolve during this troubling time is described by Timothy Dwight of Yale in his Travels in New England and New York, published 1822.

“The 19th of May, 1780, was a remarkably dark day. Candles were lighted in many houses; the birds were silent and disappeared; and the fowls retired to roost. The legislature of Connecticut was then in session at Hartford. A very general opinion prevailed that the Day of Judgment was at hand. The House of Representatives, being unable to transact their business, adjourned. A proposal to adjourn the Council [Senate or Upper House] was under consideration. When the opinion of Col. Davenport was asked, he answered, ‘I am against an adjournment. The Day of Judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.”

State Legislation Challenging Health Care Reforms

Legislators in 36 states have introduced bills or resolutions that challenge reforms to the nation's health care system.  Most of these proposals for state constitutional amendments or changes in state law seek to keep health care coverage optional and allow people to purchase coverage of their choosing.

NCSL is actively tracking this legislation on our health policy web page. 

Mad in March for Ethics Reform

by Natalie Wood

While you’re busy tracking your brackets, we at NCSL’s Ethics Center are tracking legislation in our own version of March Madness. Seven legislatures adjourned their 2010 regular sessions by mid-March, and five of them--Indiana, New Mexico, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia--took on the issue of ethics reform.

Indiana’s House Enrolled Act 1001 passed with unanimous consent in both chambers and was signed by the governor this week. Changes include a one year revolving door provision, a revised monetary threshold for lobbyist gift reporting, a conflict of interest reporting requirement for lobbyists, and a requirement that university legislative liaisons register as lobbyists. Some have called it “the most sweeping legislative and lobbying reforms in decades,” while others claim it serves as a “starting point,” and plan to push for more change in 2011.

The Utah Legislature, after tweaking gift disclosure, mandating ethics training, and instituting a revolving door provision last year, once again broached ethics – this time focusing on ethics oversight, namely the creation of an ethics commission.  HJR15 would establish an independent ethics commission in the state constitution, pending voter approval, and SJR3 would modify the legislature’s joint rules to outline the makeup of the new panel and establish how it will review complaints. A citizen’s group is gathering signatures to put a competing ethics commission proposal on the ballot this fall. The legislature also passed rules that ban gifts over $10 from lobbyists to legislators, with some exceptions, and requires other gifts to be reported. The issue of ethics has been a hot topic in the press and at the Capitol for the past few years, largely due to allegations and scandals implicating legislators, two of whom resigned during the 2010 session.

Maryland Moves North

From an AP story, "Md. lawmakers not feeling so Southern any more," that appeared in the Washington Post:

Though Marylanders live just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, their attitudes and even their accents straddle that border. These days, leaders feel they've got more in common with states to the north.

In one sign of the shift, lawmakers successfully petitioned to move from the Southern Region of the Council of State Governments to the Eastern Region, where they'll be able to trade ideas with fellow officials from Pennsylvania, New York, and other states they consider more like-minded.

"I just don't think we're as Southern as people used to think," said state Sen. Catherine Pugh, a Baltimore Democrat.

It's unusual for states to switch regions in the 77-year-old council, which provides a forum for state officials to share ideas. The last time was when Missouri switched from the Midwestern Region to the Southern Region in 1994. 

NCSL relies on CSG's structure for the definition of states in each region for governance purposes in its bylaws.

Photo credit: AP Photo

1313: A Famous (or Infamous) Landmark of Public Administration

by Karl Kurtz

Delving into the first (1935) volume of the Book of the States led me to revisit some of the early history of interstate organizations.  One of the most interesting and remarkable aspects of the development of modern public administration in the 1930s is the joint occupancy by 17 organizations of public officials of a building at 1313 E. 60th Street in Chicago. 

The building became famous (infamous to some) and was known simply as 1313.  A 2004 article, "1313's Hidden History," in the Hyde Park Herald tells the story of the building's beginnings:

1313, completed in 1938, embodied the vision of two men, Charles E. Merriam, and Louis Brownlow. Brownlow had forged a career (without benefit of formal education) as a city manager and as a forceful advocate for the public service professions. Merriam was a University of Chicago political science professor with a bent for activism that led to service as a Chicago alderman and to two (unsuccessful) runs for the Mayoralty. The two men conceived 1313 as a vibrant center for (in the words of a 1963 booklet) “the improvement of the organization, administrative techniques, and methods of government--municipal, county, state, and federal--in the United States.” Within a few years, 1313 had clearly become a nerve center for American public administration. By 1963, it was organizational home to 22 non-profit entities, including:

American Public Works Association
American Public Welfare Association
Council of State Governments
American Society of Planning Officials
American Society of Public Administration
National Legislative Conference [One of NCSL's predecessor organizations]
Public Administration Service
National Association of State Budget Officers
National Association of Attorneys General

Missing from that list, perhaps because they had already moved out by 1963, are some of the original 17 organizations, still well known and active today, like the Federation of Tax Administrators, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International City Management Association, and the Municipal Finance Officers Association.

The Parliamentarian: A Cross between Bartleby the Scrivener and a Talmudic Scholar

by Karl Kurtz

The position of parliamentarian--the arbiter of rules for a legislature--is often overlooked and seldom publicized.  Last weekend, however, the New York Times had an interesting story about the parliamentarian for the United States Senate, Alan S. Frumin, who has a difficult role to play in the parliamentary maneuvering in the national health care policy debate.  Frumin is an attorney who has served the Senate as parliamentarian since 1987 under both Democratic and Republican majorities.

Technically, Mr. Frumin’s decisions are not binding. But Senate leaders almost never overrule the parliamentarian, so he will effectively have the final word.

“He’s basically the defense, the prosecution, the judge, the jury and the hangman in this scenario,” said Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, whose staff has been meeting with Mr. Frumin on reconciliation matters for months. “It all comes down to him.” 

The story goes on to provide a job description of sorts:

Learning from the 1935 Edition of the Book of the States

by Karl Kurtz

I have recently completed writing a chapter on state legislatures for the 2010 edition--the 75th anniversary--of the Council of State Governments' Book of the States.  This work occasioned a thorough study of the first 1935 edition of that venerable reference work.  It's a slim volume (181 pp.) compared to the modern 600+ page tomes, but it contains some fascinating information and enabled me to write about "75 Years of Institutional Change in State Legislatures," forthcoming later this year.

That first volume was published jointly by the American Legislators Association, which was founded in 1925, and  the Council of State Governments, formed in 1933.  The driving force behind the two organizations was Colorado State Senator Henry W. Toll, who served as executive director of both.  Eventually the activities of the American Legislators Association were merged into those of CSG, and the ALA ceased to exist.

The scope of my article did not allow me to capture some of the more interesting or humorous tidbits contained in the 1935 edition.  Here are a few of those nuggets.

The initial volume of the Book of the States has a marvelous dedication:

To the tens of thousands of American citizens who, as state legislators, have given more honest and competent service to their government than their constituents will ever know.

One of four (!) forewords to the volume ("a symposium of forewords") contains this prescient comment:

This volume is nothing but a lick and a promise.  It is the meager and unorganized beginning of a periodical publication which may eventually become a very useful reference work.

All Together Now ...

By Michelle Blackston

Just as the federal government considers reducing its role in traditionally state-operated public schools, lawmakers and education policy experts met to put the process of education reform into action.

NCSL’s National Education Seminar brought state lawmakers focusing on education, legislative staff and experts in the field of education reform together to share ideas and best practices for what works in turning around troubled schools and boosting student achievement.

On the day before this meeting began, the president and secretary of education announced plans for the reauthorization or “reworking” of the No Child Left Behind legislation passed under President George W. Bush. The federal education plan, detailed here in the Wall Street Journal article, would be changed to focus less on standardized test scores and more on a broad set of national goals.

From the Wall Street Journal: 

“The Obama version would essentially flip the government's focus by setting firmer, nation-wide goals for success while allowing more latitude for how states reach those goals. The proposal would also judge schools by the growth of individual students instead of overall class performance. The aim is to assure that high school graduates are "college-ready and career-ready."
"We don't think we should micromanage the schools from Washington," Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on Friday. "We want to hold educators accountable but let them be creative."

Coincidentally, state education lawmakers and industry experts were in New York at Columbia University’s Teachers College discussing what works to improve education. The more than 150 attendees of the three-day meeting couched the discussion in budget terms as nearly every state struggles with budget deficits that often result in forced reductions in education spending. So, how can states do more with less and still improve student achievement?

For starters, states legislators need to know what works.

The topics at the seminar ranged from online learning and measuring student achievement to school choice and higher education funding. The leading education reform experts and education researchers debated the results of numerous studies on what works and offered success stories from districts that improved overall student achievement.

Teachers College Professor and education researcher Amy Stuart Wells (pictured left) offered her insight on school choice and the implications on public policy. Barnett Berry, (pictured below) of the Center for Teaching Quality shared strategies on measuring teaching effectiveness.  Berry told the group of state policymakers that teachers and principals are two of the most important factors for improving student achievement, especially in high-needs schools. 

The Soul of the State

by Meagan Dorsch

Happy Birthday to South Dakota's Capitol on its one-hundredth anniversary!

Hundreds of citizens, legislators and elected officials came to honor the centennial of the Capitol last week in Pierre, topped off with a cake in the shape of the statehouse and 100 candles surrounding it. It was truly a party when the crowd sang "Happy Birthday."

Watch this quick video (3:11) of Governor M. Michael Rounds and House Speaker Tim Rave as they talk about the history of the Capitol and being captivated by the building's physical appearance. 

State Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson told the birthday crowd that the supreme court is the only branch of state government to have once lived in the Capitol building's first floor offices, and few states (to this day) have Supreme Court offices in the Capitol. Gilbertson called this building home and said the court would leave when the governor and the legislature leaves. “We are here to stay,” said Gilbertson.

Pierre beat out the cities of Huron and Mitchell to become the state Capitol of South Dakota. The 1905 legislature authorized the construction of a permanent state Capitol and it took 10 years to build. Does the South Dakota Capitol remind you of anything? Maybe Montana's statehouse? The same architect designed the two buildings.

The States: Where the Action Is

by Brian Weberg

State legislatures...the laboratories of democracy.  How many times have you heard it?  Well, it's as true today as ever.  The Christian Science Monitor, in an article titled "Want to Beat Partisan Politics? Ask Your State Government," offers up a laundry list of examples of current actions being taken across the country by state lawmakers to solve difficult problems...all while Congress seems unable to cure its chronic political gridlock.

The article goes on to comment that "state lawmakers are shaping the legislative landscape of American life more than at any time in the past half century." The article adds additional praise for state lawmakers:

States often are described as legislative “laboratories of innovation.” Their willingness to experiment and cooperate, say experts, has become especially critical as the country seeks a way out of the economic crisis and as the public mood toward government has soured.

Many who observe state legislatures believe that  state lawmakers and staff are tiring and growing increasingly frustrated in their work due to the pressures of economic recession, the weight of growing public cynicism toward government and the polarization of politics.  In this article we have a reminder that great things continue to happen, and happen first, in the states.  I recommend that everyone who works for a state government send a copy of the CSM article to one of their colleagues.  It isn't often that the good news gets reported.  Find a way to share it.