ARPA: Support for Hartford’s Library Branches

Mayor Luke Bronin and the City of Hartford are allocating $10.5 million to its public library system, in funds made available through the revenue replacement provisions of the ARPA. The city will relocate a public library branch to a new site within the Swift Factory, a community and entrepreneurial center in Hartford. The new space will be state-of-the-art, comprising over two stories and including a new job search center. The library is expected to revitalize the community and spur economic development. Additionally, the city will also renovate an additional branch to incorporate the nearby historic Northwest Jones School building. By uniting the two buildings, the expanded branch library will be able to provide more services to residents.

New Bill Seeks to Set Digital Literacy Standards

A recent Stanford University survey of American high school students found that 96% lacked the skills to judge the reliability of online information. This sobering finding, combined with the increasing role misinformation has played in American political division, inspired NewDEALer Delaware Senator Sarah McBride to introduce legislation to require Delaware’s Department of Education to set “evidence-based media literacy standards” to be incorporated into learning plans. The legislation has passed both the House and the Senate and awaits the Governor’s signature. McBride hopes the new standards will allow “educators to really address these two significant, insidious problems: a mental health crisis exacerbated by online bullying and a democratic crisis fostered by disinformation, misinformation.” The new curriculum is intended to help students identify credible sources of information, foster positive social media behavior, and identify techniques of online manipulation. Read more about this important issue, and how Delaware is tackling it, here.

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Formal Equity Audit of City Government Practices

Problem:

City and local governments often face challenges in addressing inequities within their institutions, and especially with knowing exactly what areas to target and address. Systemic biases against minority groups are institutionalized and long ingrained into city operations, and changing the existing system requires time, funding, and leadership willing to take on the challenge. The difficulty also lies in how to best present solutions that are quick enough to address community needs but are also genuinely efforts that will last in the long-term.

Solution:

Conducting a formal equity audit of city government practices will allow for better accountability to the Albany community and allow for city government to take a deeper look at current issues in order to develop solutions to address any lacking areas. This audit will examine hiring and promotional rates, allocation of city services, granting of permits and contracts, compliance with Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The audit will also assess internal operations for any evidence of systemic biases or inequities. A thorough city-wide audit by the Office of Audit and Control will allow for this in-depth analysis of city operations and grant time for city officials to examine the issues found and develop task forces or policy changes in response to them.

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Brooke Lierman, Delegate (Baltimore, MD), Michael Naft, County Commissioner (Clark County, NV), and Michelle Wu, Mayor (Boston, MA)

New Infrastructure Plans Rolling Out

Following the signing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, NewDEALers are poised to lead in directing investments to long-overdue projects that will impact the economic vitality of their communities. Many NewDEAL Leaders are already taking action on these priorities. Delegate Brooke Lierman’s Maryland Transit Safety & Investment Act overcame a gubernatorial veto and is set to eliminate the state’s $2 billion public transportation maintenance backlog by spending nearly half a billion dollars each year for repairs and enhancements. In Nevada, Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft celebrated the groundbreaking of a long-awaited bridge project which first received federal funding in the 1990s. “This bridge is an important transportation element and it is also critical for emergency responders,” Naft said. Elsewhere, the Boston Council approved newly-elected Mayor Michelle Wu’s $8 million plan for three of the city’s bus lines to go fare-free, an important step towards making the city’s transportation equitable and accessible. The program will utilize federal funding, and early numbers suggest that ridership will be significantly boosted by the measure.

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CommUNITY Response Teams

Problem

Chester County experienced immeasurable loss during the pandemic, including more than 800 lives and hundreds of businesses. In order to get back to where we were, and ideally have a better economy than we had previously, we need to include all corners of our community to develop long-term, forward thinking solutions that will establish our County as a driver of economic growth during the next 10 years.

 

Solution

Chester County has embarked on a mission to use the American Rescue Plan Act funds to rebuild our community.  A critical part of the process is to include members of the public as part of the evaluation teams that will prioritize and review proposals that would most effectively spend-down the funding.  Seven evaluation teams will be established by Chester County to address each priority area for ARPA funding.  Each team will include representatives from Chester County Government’s finance department, solicitor’s office and strategic planning team, who will facilitate the priority groups. Three county employee volunteers and four volunteers from the community will complete each team.  Members that will help direct the ARPA funds represent a cross section of people covering all ages, genders, socio-economic and geographical areas of the county. This approach helps ensure the difficult questions are asked of proposals, leading to increased results and outcomes.

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Secure Tokens for State Financial Offerings

Problem

 General obligation bonds are prohibited under the Colorado Constitution without voter pre-approval. As a result, capital financing has principally been done through tax or revenue anticipation notes or certificates of participation (COPs). Tax or revenue anticipation notes are used to help cash flow of the General Fund or local school districts, but they are repaid within the same fiscal year. The State of Colorado uses COPs to finance construction of new facilities. These COPs are typically offered to lessors who assign their interests to commercial banks, mutual or pension funds, and PERA to own the property, collect lease and interest payments from the state, and make payments to investors. This method of securing state debts limits the number of businesses and organizations that can invest in the state and assist in financing capital projects.

 

Solution

In order to reduce the dependence on commercial banks, institutional investors, mutual funds, and pension funds, COPs could be funded by millions of individual investors through the use of secure tokens. The introduction of a policy that sets up a plan for secure tokens to be used to finance COPs would greatly expand the number of potential investors and decrease the interest rate that the state would owe on its principal loan as a result of direct purchases by retail investors. Instead of the state using investment banks that charge high fees to underwrite new COP offerings, Colorado would be able to issue secure token offerings (STOs).  This approach would likely lower interest rates compared to traditional COP financing methods and the citizens of Colorado could share in the ownership of new capital assets until the state has paid back the principal and interest to each investor.

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Project Taillight: Keeping Columbus Safe One Vehicle at a Time

Problem

 Too often, low-income individuals don’t have the disposable cash to have their vehicle’s safety lights repaired when headlights, taillights, license plate lights, or brake lights are broken or burned out. The result is unsafe vehicles on the road and opportunities for folks to be pulled over and ticketed for safety violations. Those tickets cost money (on top of repair costs) and could result in unpaid fines leading to suspended licenses or worse. In the City of Columbus, we have seen a disproportionate number of vehicle safety violations issued to residents in our most economically challenged neighborhoods and wanted to take a proactive approach to address the issue.

 

Solution

Offer free vehicle safety light repairs to low-income households. Through Project Taillight, individuals living in households with annual income less than 200% of the federal poverty line and needing safety light repairs can contact the City Attorney’s Office to schedule repair appointments with Columbus State Community College’s Automotive Technology Program. Project Taillight participants receive free light repairs, vehicle safety checks, and fluid top-offs (oil, coolant, etc.).  We tested the model with 79 people and had overwhelming responses from participants, residents, and community leaders– all recognizing how a small setback, like an unpaid ticket, could upend families struggling to make ends meet and that a small investment in parts and labor could help overcome this challenge. We piloted the program through our local community college and plan to expand/scale the service through commercial auto repair shops and have an agreement from local law enforcement to give Project Taillight information to drivers in lieu of citations.

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Barry Finegold, Senator (Andover, MA)

Massachusetts Expands Voting Access

This week, the Massachusetts Senate approved a major expansion in voting access, codifying mail-in and early voting. NewDEAL Leader Senator Barry Finegold drafted the legislation and has been a leader in the fight for more access to the ballot. In addition to mail-in and early voting, the bill will allow same-day registration and require state prisons to ensure that eligible inmates can access ballots. Read more about the legislation here, and for more, check out our Democracy event series.

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Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State (Michigan)

MI Vote Matters

NewDEAL Leader Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, celebrated National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday with the launch of the MI Vote Matters High School Voter Registration Challenge. This new initiative encourages eligible high school seniors to exercise their rights by registering or pre-registering to vote. Another NewDEALer, Alex Padilla, had significant success in registering and pre-registering 400,000 young voters with a similar program when he was Secretary of State in California, before being appointed to the U.S. Senate. To learn more about how Secretary Benson is encouraging young voters, read the article here.

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Jeff Bridges, Senator (Greenwood Village, CO)

Closing Colorado’s Digital Divide

This week, NewDEAL Leader Colorado Senator Jeff Bridges’ bill to invest in internet access was signed into law. With the pandemic adding urgency to the necessity for access to high-speed reliable internet to participate in economic activities, education, telehealth, and more, Bridges’ bill provides $75 million to connect unserved and underserved communities, including $20 million specifically set aside for the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Tribes. Learn more about how this funding increases equity, and keep an eye out for information on similar topics from the NewDEAL Forum Broadband Task Force.

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