13D ago
HOT
17 sources
Across multiple states in 2025, legislators and governors from both parties killed or watered down reforms on gift limits, conflict disclosures, and lobbyist transparency, while some legislatures curtailed ethics commissions’ powers. The trend suggests a coordinated, if decentralized, retreat from accountability mechanisms amid already eroding national ethics norms. Experts warn tactics are getting more creative, making enforcement harder.
— A bipartisan, multi‑state rollback of ethics rules reshapes how corruption is deterred and enforced, undermining public trust and the credibility of democratic institutions.
Sources: Lawmakers Across the Country This Year Blocked Ethics Reforms Meant to Increase Public Trust, Rachel Reeves should resign., Minnesota’s long road to restitution (+14 more)
16D ago
3 sources
A mayor’s first budget functions as a concrete litmus test that forces campaign promises into line‑item arithmetic, revealing whether an incoming leader is prepared to negotiate, prioritize, and staff delivery rather than govern by rhetoric. Rapid deadlines (e.g., NYC’s one‑month charter requirement) amplify this constraint and make the budget the earliest and most reliable indicator of governing style.
— If treated as a general heuristic, a 'first‑budget test' reframes how voters, reporters, and city councils evaluate new executives across municipalities and focuses public scrutiny where it most predictably constrains policy ambition.
Sources: Mamdani Meets Budget Reality, Eric Adams Just Blew His Chance to Delay Mamdani’s Rent Freeze, Voices of Sanity
16D ago
2 sources
In very large urban school systems, centralized mayoral control can function as an operational capacity lever: concentrating responsibility (mayor + chancellor) enables sustained, large‑scale reforms and clear accountability that diffuse, board‑governed models often cannot deliver. The choice to retain or reform mayoral control is therefore less ideological and more a question of administrative credibility, statutory design, and legislative tradeoffs.
— How a state chooses to structure K–12 governance in major cities determines whether reforms persist or dissolve with each leadership change, affecting millions of students and the politics of state renewals and oversight.
Sources: Mamdani Does an About-Face on Mayoral Control, Voices of Sanity