States and localities in 2023: A look at the top stories of the year

The U.S. House voted 749 times this year, but passed just 27 bills—making Congress the least productive in decades. But that’s not the story in state and local government. 2023 has been a busy year, and Route Fifty’s top 10 stories show the breadth of topics that leaders from statehouses to city halls have been dealing with. This is just a sampling, of course. Other big stories of the year covered electric vehicles, bail reform, broadband, gas stoves, artificial intelligence, passenger rail, housing and more.

Rental assistance

The biggest story on our website this year was about what goes into emergency rental assistance. Written by housing and homelessness reporter Molly Bolan, the story shows how cities and states worked behind the scenes to support their communities after the last of the $46 billion in federal Emergency Rental Assistance funding dried up. The story couldn’t be more salient. Statistics show that since the funding ended, eviction filings in some cities increased by as much as 50% beyond pre-pandemic levels. 

Cybersecurity

Ransomware attacks and breaches are a growing threat, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the most popular stories on our site was about government efforts to combat them. This summer, tech reporter Chris Teale wrote about how counties were tackling the threat. Even as they wrestle with legacy systems, a workforce skills gap and tight budgets, more counties than expected were adopting a cybersecurity framework to help them better evaluate their risk and protect their assets.

Autonomous Vehicles

Like it or not, driverless vehicles are coming. That was the title of one of Route Fifty’s most popular articles this year. AVs are being tested in cities throughout the nation, and not all public officials are enthusiastic about the new technology. This August story by senior reporter Daniel C. Vock provided a snapshot of the complex relationships behind the development of a new industry and the state and the city policymakers trying to regulate it. Public safety, tech innovation, economic development and vehicle manufacturers all have a dog in the fight. 

Muni Bonds and ESG

The announcement was made this month, but Citibank’s decision to exit the municipal bond business got our readers’ attention. “The last few years in the municipal bond market have been volatile ones,” wrote Liz Farmer, author of the Route Fifty’s Public Finance Update newsletter, “and Citi’s exit could reflect that. But many believe that the recent bank boycotts by conservative politicians whose politics clash with some banks’ investment strategies played a role in Citi’s decision.” No matter the reason, the decision could have a significant impact on local governments.

Food Stamps

Route Fifty’s coverage of pandemic-era benefits as several programs wound down this year was some of the most clicked on content on our website. In addition to rental assistance and child tax credits, this story about food stamps garnered the second most pageviews on the site. During the pandemic, Congress temporarily increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. But with the termination of those extra benefits, the federal minimum monthly SNAP benefit fell from $95 to $23, significantly reducing some families’ grocery budgets. Census data ultimately showed that the end of expanded SNAP benefits threw 1 in 4 households into food insecurity, according to Molly Bolan.

Immigration

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in June declaring that out-of-state licenses are “invalid” if they are issued “exclusively to undocumented immigrants who are unable to prove lawful presence in the United States,” readers took notice. Senior reporter Daniel C. Vock unpacked the implications of the provision, which is part of a sweeping anti-immigrant bill that also requires medium and large companies to use E-Verify to screen new workers, prohibits local governments from issuing their own ID cards for undocumented immigrants and provides funding for the relocation of migrants to protest federal immigration policy. The approach toward driver's licenses was so novel, Vock wrote, that immigration lawyers, motorist groups and civil rights organizations were still trying to figure out how it would work and who it would apply to.

Corrections

Readers appreciated Kery Murakami’s article about the federal government’s decision tol step in and cap how much state prisons and local jails can charge inmates for phone calls. For many years advocates have claimed state and local corrections officials overcharged incarcerated people for calls and used the income for operating expenses. But in January, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan law ordering the Federal Communications Commission to set “just and reasonable rates” for the calls in the next 18 months.

Marijuana

Hope springs eternal for those looking for Congress to allow banks to provide services to cannabis businesses, which are increasingly common in the states where medical and recreational use has been approved. Senior reporter Kery Murakami has been following Senate Democrats’ attempts to change federal banking law. In March, he covered one such effort that lawmakers were hopeful would succeed given its bipartisan support. Since recreational marijuana is still illegal under federal law, banks cannot do business with regulated cannabis firms without risking prosecution for violating laws against "aiding and abetting" federal crimes or money laundering. Those laws force cannabis companies to operate on a cash basis, making them robbery targets. But it was not meant to be: The bill is still pending in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Threat of a Government Shutdown

In the new year, Congress will face two shutdown deadlines: one in mid-January and a second one in early February. The threat comes just two months after the body averted a government shutdown in November. And don’t forget about the one they avoided at the end of September. It was a banner year for drama in Congress, and also—unsurprisingly—a hot topic on the website. Senior reporter Kery Murakami, who covers the federal government for Route Fifty, wrote at least a dozen stories about what a government shutdown would mean for states and localities, and tracked critical proposals leading up to the negotiations. He’ll be back at it in the new year. Stay tuned.

Flags

This month, Minnesota unveiled a new state flag design to replace one that some say is racist. Months before in the spring, Utah adopted a new flag, which features a mountain landscape, a beehive, and a five-pointed star to represent both hope and 1896, the year Utah became a state. There has been a wave of flag redesigns across the country, which Executive Editor Elizabeth Daigneau covered in February when a group of vexillologists—those who study flags—and flag enthusiasts released a ranking of the best and worst city flags. Apparently, good flag design is shared by Route Fifty’s readership, as it was one of the top stories of 2023.