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The Best of Public Policy
Year In Review
Good public policy has the power to move America forward. The Best of Public Policy scours the country for the most promising local, state and federal initiatives proposed or enacted in 2008.
Los Angeles has the busiest port in the nation. It supports a million jobs and a critical flow of cargo. But it’s also a dirty place: it fouls the air throughout the region and contributes to global warming. Ships, cargo-handling equipment and freight trains all pollute, but the worst culprit is dirty diesel trucks. The problem, though, is that port truck drivers are independent owner-operators who are already in the poorhouse due to rising fuel and maintenance costs and low prices per ton hauled. Most don’t even have health insurance. There’s no way they can afford to upgrade to cleaner, greener trucks. So this year, the LA Harbor Commission mandated that trucking companies hire the drivers now exploited, giving drivers a chance to get employee benefits (and even unionize) and ensuring that port trucks are owned by folks who have the resources to retrofit or shift to cleaner vehicles. Although delayed by the Federal Maritime Commission, the program should get back on track shortly. The whole move is part of a larger Clean Air Action Plan that aims to cut overall port emissions 45 percent by 2012. For combining environmental and economic justice in a way that helps truck drivers and residents of the LA area to breathe free, Los Angeles’ Clean Trucks Program finds a comfortable berth on our list of the best public policies of 2008.
If you declare bankruptcy, the judge can modify the terms of the mortgage on your summer bungalow in Nantucket. But if, like most Americans, you have only one home and are at risk of losing it to foreclosure, there’s nothing the courts can do. This problem should have been addressed yesterday: more than 3 million homes are expected to be in foreclosure by the end of 2008. The effects of these foreclosures have spread, devaluing nearby houses and eating away property tax revenues. Legislation proposed by Senator Dick Durbin would have stopped the bleeding. The measure allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of subprime mortgages made on a homeowner’ primary residence, something they can already do for vacation homes, family farms, and commercial real estate. By letting judges reduce the principal owed to the current fair market value of the property, change payment schedules and lower interest rates, the bill would have helped homeowners afford their mortgage payments, preventing 600,000 foreclosures and preserving $72.5 billion in wealth at no cost to the American taxpayer. Lenders, meanwhile, would continue to receive payments, often netting a greater return than they would through foreclosure. So why did the mortgage industry lobby so aggressively against the bill that they ultimately killed it? The Center for Responsible Lending points to a mismatch between the interests of investors who own the loan and servicers who handle payments (and have little interest in avoiding foreclosures). For leveling the playing field between folks who own one home and those who aren’t even sure how many houses they have, the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act finds a permanent home on our list of the best policies of 2008.
Everyone knows about former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s shortcomings, but his prize policies get less ink. One highlight: Spitzer systematically cracked down on crooked businesses that cheated their employees – and the state. Here's the skinny: a lot of people get hired for jobs, but employers incorrectly list as many as 10 percent as independent contractors rather than employees. Misclassifying lets the bosses save a bundle by ignoring minimum wage requirements, overtime pay, worker's comp, and Social Security and Medicare taxes. Employees miss out on benefits, while the state and federal governments lose tax revenue. So Spitzer issued Executive Order 17, establishing a taskforce on employee misclassification to link city agencies that deal with taxation, enforcement and labor, pool their resources, and get a yearly report. Results? In a recent sweep, the task force found nearly $19 million in unreported wages, $3 million in underpayments to workers and $1 million in unpaid taxes. And, the task force is around to stay. Governor Paterson recently continued Executive Order 17 with his own Executive Order – number 9 (now that’s a potion we can welcome). By giving workers and the state a fair shake from the boss, the crackdown on misclassified employees earns a place on the best of 2008.
One More Chance
No one benefits when prison gates turn into revolving doors. Every year, almost 700,000 criminal offenders are released from prison to reenter civilian life. But two out of three of them will be rearrested within three years. So what is the criminal justice system doing to combat the sky-high rate of recidivism and the threat that it poses to public safety? In many cases, the answer is nothing at all. A third of the nation’s correctional departments offer no transitional programs and those that do exist are often woefully inadequate in preparing and supporting ex-offenders for life outside the prison walls. The Second Chance Act, sponsored by Representative Danny Davis and Senator Joe Biden, signed into law in April, is a welcome change of course. The new law increases drug treatment support systems and provides access to educational and job training programs for ex-offenders. The law also creates incentive programs for employers who hire former offenders. For helping the men and women leaving our prisons return to their communities as law abiding and self sufficient citizens, The Second Chance Act improves public safety for everyone and joins our list of the best policies of 2008.
Healthy San Francisco
Everyone gets to see a doctor. Not just an overworked E.R. staffer who will see you after a five hour wait when you’re facing a medical crisis, but a primary physician who can provide routine preventive care as well as treatment when you get sick. That’s the ideal at least, and San Francisco is moving towards it more swiftly than any place else in country. Uninsured city residents can enroll in the Healthy San Francisco program for a sliding-scale fee based on income. Once enrolled, participants pick a “medical home” from any of the 27 participating public and non-profit health clinics throughout the city. Participants still don’t have insurance that will follow them throughout the country and the world, but they do have regular access to health care at home by the Bay. Yet that’s just part of the program. The other component, in effect for the first time in 2008, requires that all city employers with more than 20 workers contribute at least $1.17 per hour worked per employee to pay for health care. Employers can put the cash toward private insurance. They can contribute it towards the city clinic system. Or they can set up health care accounts. But they can’t avoid making some provision for their employees’ health. Employer groups sued to stop the plan, but lost in court. As of October, nearly 31,000 San Francisco residents – out of an estimated 73,000 who were uninsured – get to see a doctor whenever they need to. For an innovative approach to expanding health coverage, Healthy San Francisco gets a hale and hearty place on our best of 2008 list.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Family Leave
What do Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and the United States have in common? They and we belong to the small community of nations without a law guaranteeing some form of paid time off work for new parents. The Family Leave Insurance Act introduced by Representative Pete Stark looks to change all of that. The bill establishes an insurance fund to cover up to twelve weeks of paid leave per year for employees to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member, or to recuperate from a serious health condition of their own. Leave could also be used for emergencies that arise from a military deployment. The fund would be financed by employer and employee contributions equal to 0.2 percent of annual earnings; businesses with fewer than 20 workers could opt out of the program or choose to make a smaller contribution. Lower-income workers would receive their full paycheck while on leave; others would get a reduced portion of their usual earnings. Unfortunately, the bill never came to a vote in 2008. Still, for ensuring Americans can spend time with their families when it matters most, without losing a paycheck to do it, we welcome the arrival of Family Leave Insurance Act onto the best of 2008 list.
When Infrastructure Attacks!
Preventable floods… collapsing bridges… breached levies… How many cataclysmic events does it take before we realize that neglecting the nation’s public infrastructure costs lives? The American Society of Civil Engineers’ latest Report Card for America's Infrastructure gave the nation a "D" average, and estimates that $1.6 trillion needs to be invested into infrastructure related projects by 2010 just to get the country back on track for acceptable maintenance. This abysmal status quo is not only responsible for catastrophic loss of life and property, but also for commuters using 5.7 billion gallons of gas and spending 46 hours a year stuck in traffic. Senators Chris Dodd and Chuck Hagel are taking steps to help improve this state of affairs by introducing the National Infrastructure Bank Act. The proposed National Infrastructure Bank will help states and localities to launch infrastructure improvement projects with a federal price tag of $75 million or more which would usually fall by the wayside due to prohibitive costs. While the bill never came to a vote in 2008, the need continues to grow. By protecting American lives, the environment, public health and the economy through stronger infrastructure, this bill fills a critical gap in our list of the best policies of 2008.
Taming Toxic Toys
Whether a toy car or an action hero, who can forget their first beloved toy? We played late into the night and awoke early to find comfort and imagination in these plastic gems. We never worried whether we would suffer because of our imagination. But the presence of dangerous toxic ingredients in our childhood treasures (like lead, cadmium, and plastic softening agents called phthalates) allowed toy companies’ profit to come before our kids. Not anymore. This year the state of Washington pushed back against toy manufacturers by passing the Children’s Safe Products Act. Washington now holds the strongest standards in the country, banning toxic chemicals in toys and children’s products sold in the state. While Governor Gregoire made some concessions, particularly for educational toys with internal electronics, she still showed the kind of courage we should expect from our leaders. By passing the Act, Washington also blazed a path for similar federal legislation (the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law in August). Now standards are higher nationwide, and the nation’s kids are better off. Because we shouldn’t have to think about long term brain damage when playing house, the Children’s Safe Products Act gets lots of play on our list of the best of 2008.
A New GI Bill for New Veterans
The original GI bill of 1944 changed the American landscape: it stimulated the economy and fortified the middle class by providing education and home loans to veterans of WWII. Like that act, the "New GI Bill," introduced by Senator Jim Webb, offers critical educational assistance to this generation's veterans. The bill fully covers college tuition up to the cost of the most expensive in-state public school. And a monthly living stipend is supplied so that no veteran needs to choose between school and keeping a roof over his or her head. But don't think that this bill sailed into law through peaceful seas. Both President Bush and Senator John McCain vehemently opposed it, claiming that it would decrease re-enlistment. In fact, the battle was so fierce that the new GI Bill had to be included in a war spending measure to assure passage—even though its cost for ten years is equivalent to just about one week of the Iraq war effort overall. The "Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act" goes into effect immediately and is sure to cultivate a new cadre of dedicated students and future leaders. Because education for veterans is a sound investment in the future, and the least we owe the men and women who volunteered to serve our country, we salute the New GI Bill as one of the best of 2008.
California Cuts the Sprawl
So you want to be green and drive less. But if you live in one of California’s sprawling subdivisions, there’s not much you can do: public transportation isn’t available, you may live far from where you work and shop, and even sidewalks and bike lanes are nonexistent. Multiply that situation by millions, and you’ve got an exponential increase in car travel statewide and a tremendous obstacle to the Golden State’s ambitious goals for cutting global warming pollution. The solution? Create incentives so that new development is denser and gets built in proximity to mass transit. And while you’re at it, make sure there’s affordable housing, lots of flexibility for local governments, and fewer traffic jams. That’s what California did. On September 30, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill with the uninspiring name of SB 375, creating unprecedented links between zoning, transportation, and housing regulations and subsidies to overhaul land use planning throughout the state. The legislation was supported by an unlikely bipartisan coalition of real estate developers, affordable housing advocates, and environmentalists. If all works well, the state will see more sustainable neighborhoods and shorter commutes over time. For showing the nation how to “grow green” on a massive scale, California’s law is zoned for a prime spot on our best of 2008 list.
Read The Best of Public Policy in its entirety
Year In Review
Good public policy has the power to move America forward. The Best of Public Policy scours the country for the most promising local, state and federal initiatives proposed or enacted in 2008.
Clearing the Air
Los Angeles has the busiest port in the nation. It supports a million jobs and a critical flow of cargo. But it’s also a dirty place: it fouls the air throughout the region and contributes to global warming. Ships, cargo-handling equipment and freight trains all pollute, but the worst culprit is dirty diesel trucks. The problem, though, is that port truck drivers are independent owner-operators who are already in the poorhouse due to rising fuel and maintenance costs and low prices per ton hauled. Most don’t even have health insurance. There’s no way they can afford to upgrade to cleaner, greener trucks. So this year, the LA Harbor Commission mandated that trucking companies hire the drivers now exploited, giving drivers a chance to get employee benefits (and even unionize) and ensuring that port trucks are owned by folks who have the resources to retrofit or shift to cleaner vehicles. Although delayed by the Federal Maritime Commission, the program should get back on track shortly. The whole move is part of a larger Clean Air Action Plan that aims to cut overall port emissions 45 percent by 2012. For combining environmental and economic justice in a way that helps truck drivers and residents of the LA area to breathe free, Los Angeles’ Clean Trucks Program finds a comfortable berth on our list of the best public policies of 2008.
Holding onto Homes
If you declare bankruptcy, the judge can modify the terms of the mortgage on your summer bungalow in Nantucket. But if, like most Americans, you have only one home and are at risk of losing it to foreclosure, there’s nothing the courts can do. This problem should have been addressed yesterday: more than 3 million homes are expected to be in foreclosure by the end of 2008. The effects of these foreclosures have spread, devaluing nearby houses and eating away property tax revenues. Legislation proposed by Senator Dick Durbin would have stopped the bleeding. The measure allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of subprime mortgages made on a homeowner’ primary residence, something they can already do for vacation homes, family farms, and commercial real estate. By letting judges reduce the principal owed to the current fair market value of the property, change payment schedules and lower interest rates, the bill would have helped homeowners afford their mortgage payments, preventing 600,000 foreclosures and preserving $72.5 billion in wealth at no cost to the American taxpayer. Lenders, meanwhile, would continue to receive payments, often netting a greater return than they would through foreclosure. So why did the mortgage industry lobby so aggressively against the bill that they ultimately killed it? The Center for Responsible Lending points to a mismatch between the interests of investors who own the loan and servicers who handle payments (and have little interest in avoiding foreclosures). For leveling the playing field between folks who own one home and those who aren’t even sure how many houses they have, the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act finds a permanent home on our list of the best policies of 2008.
Classification Crackdown
Everyone knows about former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s shortcomings, but his prize policies get less ink. One highlight: Spitzer systematically cracked down on crooked businesses that cheated their employees – and the state. Here's the skinny: a lot of people get hired for jobs, but employers incorrectly list as many as 10 percent as independent contractors rather than employees. Misclassifying lets the bosses save a bundle by ignoring minimum wage requirements, overtime pay, worker's comp, and Social Security and Medicare taxes. Employees miss out on benefits, while the state and federal governments lose tax revenue. So Spitzer issued Executive Order 17, establishing a taskforce on employee misclassification to link city agencies that deal with taxation, enforcement and labor, pool their resources, and get a yearly report. Results? In a recent sweep, the task force found nearly $19 million in unreported wages, $3 million in underpayments to workers and $1 million in unpaid taxes. And, the task force is around to stay. Governor Paterson recently continued Executive Order 17 with his own Executive Order – number 9 (now that’s a potion we can welcome). By giving workers and the state a fair shake from the boss, the crackdown on misclassified employees earns a place on the best of 2008.
One More Chance
No one benefits when prison gates turn into revolving doors. Every year, almost 700,000 criminal offenders are released from prison to reenter civilian life. But two out of three of them will be rearrested within three years. So what is the criminal justice system doing to combat the sky-high rate of recidivism and the threat that it poses to public safety? In many cases, the answer is nothing at all. A third of the nation’s correctional departments offer no transitional programs and those that do exist are often woefully inadequate in preparing and supporting ex-offenders for life outside the prison walls. The Second Chance Act, sponsored by Representative Danny Davis and Senator Joe Biden, signed into law in April, is a welcome change of course. The new law increases drug treatment support systems and provides access to educational and job training programs for ex-offenders. The law also creates incentive programs for employers who hire former offenders. For helping the men and women leaving our prisons return to their communities as law abiding and self sufficient citizens, The Second Chance Act improves public safety for everyone and joins our list of the best policies of 2008.
Healthy San Francisco
Everyone gets to see a doctor. Not just an overworked E.R. staffer who will see you after a five hour wait when you’re facing a medical crisis, but a primary physician who can provide routine preventive care as well as treatment when you get sick. That’s the ideal at least, and San Francisco is moving towards it more swiftly than any place else in country. Uninsured city residents can enroll in the Healthy San Francisco program for a sliding-scale fee based on income. Once enrolled, participants pick a “medical home” from any of the 27 participating public and non-profit health clinics throughout the city. Participants still don’t have insurance that will follow them throughout the country and the world, but they do have regular access to health care at home by the Bay. Yet that’s just part of the program. The other component, in effect for the first time in 2008, requires that all city employers with more than 20 workers contribute at least $1.17 per hour worked per employee to pay for health care. Employers can put the cash toward private insurance. They can contribute it towards the city clinic system. Or they can set up health care accounts. But they can’t avoid making some provision for their employees’ health. Employer groups sued to stop the plan, but lost in court. As of October, nearly 31,000 San Francisco residents – out of an estimated 73,000 who were uninsured – get to see a doctor whenever they need to. For an innovative approach to expanding health coverage, Healthy San Francisco gets a hale and hearty place on our best of 2008 list.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Family Leave
What do Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and the United States have in common? They and we belong to the small community of nations without a law guaranteeing some form of paid time off work for new parents. The Family Leave Insurance Act introduced by Representative Pete Stark looks to change all of that. The bill establishes an insurance fund to cover up to twelve weeks of paid leave per year for employees to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member, or to recuperate from a serious health condition of their own. Leave could also be used for emergencies that arise from a military deployment. The fund would be financed by employer and employee contributions equal to 0.2 percent of annual earnings; businesses with fewer than 20 workers could opt out of the program or choose to make a smaller contribution. Lower-income workers would receive their full paycheck while on leave; others would get a reduced portion of their usual earnings. Unfortunately, the bill never came to a vote in 2008. Still, for ensuring Americans can spend time with their families when it matters most, without losing a paycheck to do it, we welcome the arrival of Family Leave Insurance Act onto the best of 2008 list.
When Infrastructure Attacks!
Preventable floods… collapsing bridges… breached levies… How many cataclysmic events does it take before we realize that neglecting the nation’s public infrastructure costs lives? The American Society of Civil Engineers’ latest Report Card for America's Infrastructure gave the nation a "D" average, and estimates that $1.6 trillion needs to be invested into infrastructure related projects by 2010 just to get the country back on track for acceptable maintenance. This abysmal status quo is not only responsible for catastrophic loss of life and property, but also for commuters using 5.7 billion gallons of gas and spending 46 hours a year stuck in traffic. Senators Chris Dodd and Chuck Hagel are taking steps to help improve this state of affairs by introducing the National Infrastructure Bank Act. The proposed National Infrastructure Bank will help states and localities to launch infrastructure improvement projects with a federal price tag of $75 million or more which would usually fall by the wayside due to prohibitive costs. While the bill never came to a vote in 2008, the need continues to grow. By protecting American lives, the environment, public health and the economy through stronger infrastructure, this bill fills a critical gap in our list of the best policies of 2008.
Taming Toxic Toys
Whether a toy car or an action hero, who can forget their first beloved toy? We played late into the night and awoke early to find comfort and imagination in these plastic gems. We never worried whether we would suffer because of our imagination. But the presence of dangerous toxic ingredients in our childhood treasures (like lead, cadmium, and plastic softening agents called phthalates) allowed toy companies’ profit to come before our kids. Not anymore. This year the state of Washington pushed back against toy manufacturers by passing the Children’s Safe Products Act. Washington now holds the strongest standards in the country, banning toxic chemicals in toys and children’s products sold in the state. While Governor Gregoire made some concessions, particularly for educational toys with internal electronics, she still showed the kind of courage we should expect from our leaders. By passing the Act, Washington also blazed a path for similar federal legislation (the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law in August). Now standards are higher nationwide, and the nation’s kids are better off. Because we shouldn’t have to think about long term brain damage when playing house, the Children’s Safe Products Act gets lots of play on our list of the best of 2008.
A New GI Bill for New Veterans
The original GI bill of 1944 changed the American landscape: it stimulated the economy and fortified the middle class by providing education and home loans to veterans of WWII. Like that act, the "New GI Bill," introduced by Senator Jim Webb, offers critical educational assistance to this generation's veterans. The bill fully covers college tuition up to the cost of the most expensive in-state public school. And a monthly living stipend is supplied so that no veteran needs to choose between school and keeping a roof over his or her head. But don't think that this bill sailed into law through peaceful seas. Both President Bush and Senator John McCain vehemently opposed it, claiming that it would decrease re-enlistment. In fact, the battle was so fierce that the new GI Bill had to be included in a war spending measure to assure passage—even though its cost for ten years is equivalent to just about one week of the Iraq war effort overall. The "Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act" goes into effect immediately and is sure to cultivate a new cadre of dedicated students and future leaders. Because education for veterans is a sound investment in the future, and the least we owe the men and women who volunteered to serve our country, we salute the New GI Bill as one of the best of 2008.
California Cuts the Sprawl
So you want to be green and drive less. But if you live in one of California’s sprawling subdivisions, there’s not much you can do: public transportation isn’t available, you may live far from where you work and shop, and even sidewalks and bike lanes are nonexistent. Multiply that situation by millions, and you’ve got an exponential increase in car travel statewide and a tremendous obstacle to the Golden State’s ambitious goals for cutting global warming pollution. The solution? Create incentives so that new development is denser and gets built in proximity to mass transit. And while you’re at it, make sure there’s affordable housing, lots of flexibility for local governments, and fewer traffic jams. That’s what California did. On September 30, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill with the uninspiring name of SB 375, creating unprecedented links between zoning, transportation, and housing regulations and subsidies to overhaul land use planning throughout the state. The legislation was supported by an unlikely bipartisan coalition of real estate developers, affordable housing advocates, and environmentalists. If all works well, the state will see more sustainable neighborhoods and shorter commutes over time. For showing the nation how to “grow green” on a massive scale, California’s law is zoned for a prime spot on our best of 2008 list.
Go to next section: The Worst of Public Policy
Read The Best of Public Policy in its entirety