Expanded approach for advocacy initiatives in the 2015 session

It’s just a few weeks until the General Assembly reconvenes for the beginning of a new session. With elections in the House and new leadership in both bodies, changes at the State House are inevitable.

And change is good. For the upcoming session, the Municipal Association has made some changes to expand how we approach our work with the legislature with the goal of helping local officials in cities and towns better solve problems common to them.

The Regional Advocacy Meetings each fall give the Association’s staff more insight into the challenges facing cities and towns. Typically we have tried to address many of those challenges through a change in state law by initiating new legislation or supporting changes to existing state law that would help solve a problem.

This year, however, we have expanded that approach. Our advocacy initiatives for 2015 include more than just changes to state law or new legislation. In many cases the problems raised by local officials made us realize more training may also be needed on a particular topic…or maybe there are “best practices” in other states we could research that could solve a problem…or maybe we could collaborate with other organizations that face similar challenges.

The 2015 advocacy initiatives are

•    Clear blight
•    Open government
•    Increase efficiency
•    Fund services
•    Fix roads

So as you look at the 2015 advocacy initiatives you will see an expansion of efforts beyond only a legislative agenda listing of bills to support or oppose. This new, more comprehensive, approach will better serve our local officials. At the same time, this approach will give our staff more opportunities to collaborate internally and with other organizations to meet the challenges all cities and towns face.

Read last week’s From the Dome to Your Home to get the latest update on progress related to these initiatives over the past several months.