The Latest

This fact sheet summarizes this emerging threat to state and local public health authority and identifies some of the possible outcomes.

COVID & efforts to confront racial injustice and white supremacy highlight the urgent need to center the voices of the people hurt most by preemption

This report investigates arguments that justify state preemption of local lawmaking on the basis that local laws produce a harmful “patchwork” of regulations within a state. We examine the use and merits of the patchwork argument across 10 policy areas.

There has already been significant differences between state and local governments over the imposition of mandatory shelter in place orders, the need for social distancing and the definition of “essential” and “non- essential” businesses and workers. This resource takes a look at how states and cities are responding to the pandemic.

In this report, 14 authors worked as advocate-researcher co-authors to produce short articles highlighting recent research findings, emerging issues, and data and research needs across seven policy fields: Public Health; Local Fiscal Authority; Labor Policy; Environmental Policy; Civil Rights and Discrimination; Housing Policy; and Emerging Technologies.

This model tenant protection ordinance provides essential terms that local governments should consider adopting to respond in their communities.

As advocates plan for the 2021 legislative sessions, it will be important to identify and counter new efforts to undermine the power and vision of black communities and allies at the local level.

This fact sheet provides an overview of state and local government authority to regulate and potentially require vaccination.

As the definition of “public health” expands, so could the ability of public health agencies and officials to address the SDOH and combat a greater variety of public ills.

This resource from ChangeLab Solutions and the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) provides advocates with the research and data they need to document the harmful consequences of preemption and advocate for repealing inequitable preemption laws.

In recent years the Local Solutions Support Center has partnered repeatedly with The Campaign Workshop to create message-tested digital advertising toolkits for local partners.

A new report, Preempting Progress, examines how state interference in local policymaking prevents people of color, women, and low-income workers from making ends meet in the South.

As you plan for 2021 state legislative sessions, please be aware of the following anti-protest policy trends that may impact local authority and communities’ ability to exercise local democracy.

These new documents provide a summary of local authority and preemption in several key states that can inform advocates’ efforts to adopt new policies at the city or county level.

One chapter in the resource, “Preemption, Public Health, and Equity in the Time of COVID-19,” was written by Kim Haddow of Local Solutions Support Center; Derek Carr of ChangeLab Solutions; Benjamin D. Winig of ThinkForward Strategies; and Sabrina Adler of ChangeLab Solutions.

Preemption of municipal broadband is complicated – even states that have a concise statute to bar telecommunications services are complicated by questions about whether the definition of such services includes broadband.

This guide from the Local Solutions Support Center and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance – The Digital Divide – highlights the scale of the broadband problem (before and during the pandemic) and important policies that local governments can consider in the short and long-term to increase access to broadband. It also explains why efforts to expand broadband must center racial equity in order to be effective.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads and states reopen, local elected officials and advocates are asking what power they have to help their communities across a range of policies, including those that respond to pressing housing and homelessness needs. This model resolution is geared towards helping local officials and advocates push their legislature and governor toward housing solutions.