Look to the states, America

WASHINGTON — If you're wondering where American governance is headed, don't look to Washington — look to the states.

We're into one of those classic times, repeated through our history, when the federal government retrenches, trying to cut taxes, leaving decisions to the private sector.

The Democrats controlling Congress may prefer a more activist course, but the Bush administration's program of deep tax cuts and its preference for military over domestic spending will leave its mark for years to come. Even a Democratic president, should one be elected, would be restrained by the deep debt run up by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by Bush-era deficit spending.

But check the states. And start with global warming — likely the most serious challenge of this century. While Washington debates what to do, roughly half the states have already responded by requiring or urging utilities to move toward renewable, nonpolluting energy sources such as wind and solar.

California recently became the first to enact a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions, aiming to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The Northeast states, from Maine to Maryland, are also moving to adopt a regional compact to cut carbon-dioxide emissions significantly.

On health insurance, the federal government has been stalled for years. But last year, Massachusetts passed a sweeping plan to require health insurance for virtually every citizen, with the state helping those who can't afford it. Now, in themegastate of California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling for a parallel program that would put a major emphasis on prevention and wellness and keep insurance companies from denying coverage due to age or health status. Minnesota, Maryland and other states are looking at similar reforms.

On minimum-wage increases, many states acted far ahead of the long-delayed increase now before Congress; several have established minimums well above the new federal figure of $7.25.

Meanwhile, the Center for Policy Alternatives has reported on state breakthroughs in such areas as criminal-sentencing reform, lower-cost prescription drugs, crackdowns on payday lending, plus an array of environmental reforms.

The states have also been well ahead of Washington on other social issues, with several moving to permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes. And also there is Oregon's assisted-suicide law.

The hot new issue is immigration. Much of the press attention has gone to conservative efforts such as Georgia's 2006 measure requiring police officers to check the legal status of anyone they arrest and imposing sanctions on firms that employ undocumented workers. Similar punitive bills have been debated in Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas. But there's another side: Several have taken steps to provide college benefits to children of undocumented residents — young people who will be a major chunk of our work force of the future.

No one doubts that there are some black clouds over the states' fiscal futures. States are obliged to deal with constantly inflating health costs and the Medicaid cash vacuum. As much as $1 trillion is owed for unfunded state and local government pensions and retiree health plans. States face rising education bills, overdue infrastructure repair and more.

Yet their reform potentials are immense. Montana, for example, faces predictions of rapidly rising prison populations; Gov. Brian Schweitzer notes that 93 percent of the state's prisoners are incarcerated in part because of alcohol and drug addiction and 50 percent because of a mental illness. The time has come, he said, for correctional, health and human-service agencies "to work together so that we are actually treating the root causes" and start returning prisoners to productive lives.

In New York, Gov. Eliot Spitzer promises historic measures to reform calcified institutions — what he calls "the most complex and costly court system in the country," public authorities that have become "patronage dumping grounds," and "multiple layers of local government," including "4,200 taxing jurisdictions that cost taxpayers millions each year in duplicative services."

Pennsylvania's Gov. Ed Rendell, meanwhile, is risking the ire of the National Rifle Association by highlighting spiraling levels of gun violence and proposing legislation to reduce fast-rising gun-related crimes and the country's highest black homicide rate.

Across the country, other examples of fresh state leadership abound. Recent years have seen governors ranging from Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and Mississippi's Haley Barbour to Arizona's Janet Napolitano seize the initiative on similarly tough issues, from public health to Katrina recovery to renewed care for abused and neglected children and assuring universal kindergarten.

Dismissed as governmental relics in eras of strong federal expansion, states may be our best hope in a globalized age.

Neal Peirce's column appears alternate Mondays on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com