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Stateline.org, a nonprofit organization financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts, tracks policy, political, fiscal and legal developments at the state level in all 50 states. It publishes every weekday.Daniel C. Vock is a Stateline.org staff writer.
Not knowing when more help might be forthcoming from Washington, many states are acting more aggressively than in the past to try to keep their economies moving. "The governors of New Jersey and California have summoned lawmakers back to their state capitols to take up their governors’ economic stimulus packages. Florida, Ohio and Vermont passed plans earlier this year," reports nonprofit online news agency Stateline.org. "And the governors of Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin are pitching their ideas for legislators to act on in January." However, Stateline points out that many of the states most deeply in need of help generally don't have the financial resources to do very much.
States will get some type of help from Washington relatively soon -- either in the current lame-duck session or after Barack Obama and the new Congress take over Jan. 20. Or perhaps both. It's possible that Congress will approve a modest package, extending unemployment benefits before Christmas and beefing up Medicaid to ease strained state budgets. Then Democrats could pass the more comprehensive package they favor early next year.
In the meantime, many governors and state legislatures are trying to fill gaps in federal aid with their own efforts, Stateline.org reports. For example, Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey either have plans or are drafting measures that would provide money or loans to local banks that aren't receiving help from the federal bailout package that Congress passed late last month. The hope is that banks will then be freer to provide the badly needed loans that grease local economies. “It’s tougher for people who want to start a business or buy a house to tap into a line of credit, and that’s a grave concern for me,” Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a former family banker, tells Stateline. He points out that 31 of Illinois’ 102 counties have unemployment of 8% or more. A tight credit market could exacerbate the bleak jobs picture.
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