State Legislators Await Onslaught

Santa Fe. A revitalized Western conference of state legislators met here this week, joined by more than 300 business, education, and other civic leaders, to address the unprecedented number of major institutional and policy issues that must be dealt with by state governments in 1997.

In the first meeting to be orchestrated by their new Denver-based executive director, Kent Briggs, Western legislators came face to face with the complex policy agenda that the 104th Congress and other federal agencies shifted to the states in last year's "devolution revolution." Result: A major change in the way we do the public's business in the U.S. as state governments assume a larger role in national policy making. The policy challenges facing the states are daunting:

Telecommunications Reform.The Telecommunications Act of 1996 left most of the details for expanding competition in electronic communications to the Federal Communications Commission, but an August FCC hand-off gave most of the tough choices to state legislators and utility commissions. A lot is at stake because their decisions will determine how quickly consumers enjoy true competition, how much we pay for telephone and Internet services, how much these companies invest in our states to maintain and improve the communications network, and whether small towns and rural areas will participate in the information revolution in this century.

Welfare Reform.Congress has eliminated welfare as an entitlement and, based on the idea that the best jobs program is a job, wants to substitute work for welfare. But the details on how to make "workfare" work have been left to the states, where the timeline for action is very short.

Electric Utility Deregulation.Dramatic changes are reshaping the electric power industry nationally, but especially in the West. Congress gave state legislators and utility commissions the responsibility to create more competition in the way electric utilities purchase and transport electricity they deliver to homes and businesses. These reforms will create many winners and losers among the nation's brand-name electric utility companies - including the rural electric co-ops that serve vast regions of the West. State policy decisions will also affect how much consumers pay for electricity and how pension funds and other utility shareholders are compensated for investments that are left "stranded" by government's new rules.

Western Governors' University.Legislators must decide whether to fund a regional degree-granting university that would harness the Internet and other cyberspace technologies and practices to expand opportunities for higher education for all students in the West.

These issues are on the agenda in every state. Welfare reform alone would constitute a major challenge. In addition, most state agendas for 1997 also include many other red meat issues. Examples: health care financing, prison construction, expansion of gaming, highway construction, school reform and proposals for a regional presidential primary to help focus national political attention on Western issues.

Managing all these hot button issues is complicated by term limits. Of the 13 member states of the Western legislative conference, legislators in all but two are term limited. As term limit restrictions kick in, they are forcing the retirement of many of the "old hands" who have provided leadership in the past. They are also infusing new blood into leadership positions, one of the purposes of term limits.

General Electric CEO Jack Welch once said, "When things on the outside are changing faster than things on the inside, the end is near." By this measure, Western state legislatures are in a healthy condition. We'll know for sure by the end of next year.