For decades, Republicans have spent their time putting energy into building a network of locally elected officials. ALEC, Americans for Prosperity, and several other Republican groups have put considerable efforts into making sure that local positions, from school boards to county commissions, stay in Republican hands. What these conservative think tanks and lobby groups have known for years is that locally elected officials can make major changes in policy that impacts our day-to-day living.
In some cases, their decisions can impact policies like taxes and revenue. They can make decisions about school improvement plans and curriculum, water and electric programs and availability, and zoning and local safety. Democratic activists have struggled to see how these items can be used to advance a progressive agenda, while conservatives have used these policies to neutralize—and often shame—Democratic efforts to build a more inclusive community.
Now, empowered by series of wins in 2017 and 2018 at the local level, Democratic local officials are implementing sound policies that help improve their municipalities—and also help build strong support for Democratic efforts.
Confrontational states? Cities are leading the way on LGBT rights
While Republican governors and legislators continue to discuss anti-LGBT policies in state houses, around the country, newly elected Democratic local officials have taken time to lay out the welcome mat to LGBT families and community members in series of local non-discrimination ordinances.
Whether it is Prairie Village, Kansas; Magnolia, Mississippi; or just the folks standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, local communities are making an effort to offer non-discrimination ordinances as a means to promote their community as accepting of LGBT residents. This is an economically smart move: people who have opportunities to live and work in these states may otherwise think twice due to the perception of these states on social issues.
In an exchange with a state house official in Missouri two years ago, a reporter asked if intolerant legislation would lead to people leaving the state. “That’s kind of the point,” the legislator said. For conservatives, those policies, cycle over cycle, made their states into stronger Republican leans, as people chose to leave, citing intolerance. Now, as cities exhibit more welcoming attitudes, more progressive voters feel as though they can stay, or move into these communities. And, little by little, these policies help build a blue future.
Trickle-down economics hits local first
Time and again, local elected officials have had a tendency to use bonds, local sales and property taxes, and give-aways to hand out rewards to their strongest supporters and develop a narrative of what society expects. Progressives have let this pass for so long that I often hear the same arguments come up, and even people who tell me that they are Democratic progressives shrug them off. Yet when you take a step back, you realize how these local policies have the long-term effects of building the conservative movement and squeezing out the poor and the middle class. In a recent exchange at a meeting of the Johnson County (Kansas) Community College Board of Trustees, Greg Musil, a moderate Republican, gave voice to the heart of Republican messaging. As an attorney with a focus in property, Musil has always been known to look after the economic interests of Johnson County. At least, that’s how moderates have always seen it. In so many ways, though, this is how decades of framing on local tax issues have changed the way we view the role of taxes and community support.
Last year the college cited extensive cash reserves, leading it to offer reductions in local property taxes; by the end of the year, the college was reviewing tuition increases at the same time as it was developing a plan to cut property taxes.
Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But for Musil, the logic was sound: The funding a college has should be predominantly from student tuition, not from property owners, who deserve relief. He noted two key points: A small raise in tuition would have no impact on his daughter, for example; and even for people who rented, high property taxes had an impact.
While it is comforting that the daughter of a prominent Johnson County attorney can afford to go to a community college, the second point points to decades of local Republican governance. It goes unquestioned, despite the fact that the largest beneficiaries of property tax relief are corporate owners, and landlords rarely—if ever—pass property tax relief on to their renters. As a result, in such a situation, the poor are punished, while the more wealth and property you own, the better off you are. But in bodies around the country, from county commissions to school boards, when local tax policy can be impacted, conservatives and even moderates eon those boards have a tendency to look out for, you guessed it, local business leaders who support Republican philosophy.
While everything from schools to public water works, septic treatment, and road work all benefit businesses directly—trained workers and a means to reach them are a high priority—their interest in having their own “skin in the game” is minimized, while their interest in making the poor and middle class foot more and more of the bill increases.
Most progressives have missed out on these issues, because we have focused on the presidency. But around the country, local elected Democratic officials are doing real work on maintaining the infrastructure that keeps our communities strong.
Leadership changes everything
Democratic opportunity, from local races to the U.S. presidency, certainly matters. Local races, though, are often a forum from for voices that can make major changes in policies we don’t think about. For school funding, for example, this means using the opportunity to ask businesses to play the role they need to play in building the workforce that they need for the future, understanding their tax dollars come back to them in the form of a workforce prepared to advance their business interests.
These leadership moments come not from the White House, and sometimes not from the state house. Around the country, spring elections are coming; in some states, odd years bring local elections in November. These locally elected officials aren’t just biding time in a local office and thinking about when they can move on; they are the people that can help make the policies that shape good communities for the future. Or they can keep us lingering in a status quo in which Republican leadership has enabled, funded, and built relationships that help fuel their agenda from the moment kids get into school through their home ownership.
It’s time to celebrate and recognize how important our locally elected officials truly are in our lives.
