The Evolution of Devolution to Local Government

The American Heritage® Dictionary defines High Road as:

NOUN:  1a. The easiest or surest path or course: the high road to happiness.   b. The most positive, diplomatic, or ethical course.

The American Legislative Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE) defines High Road as high-wage, low-waste, worker-friendly, publicly-accountable economic development.  

There are over 3000 counties and 20,000 municipalities across the country, and when you add townships, school districts and other special districts, the United States has over 87,000 local units of government.

Whether it’s a City in Maine or Mississippi, our mayors, county executives, city council and county board leaders are all struggling with similar problems.  ALICE is committed to finding the best progressive practices in worker-friendly high road economic development and putting them all in one place. 

Unusual partners often unite behind high road development. Cities and inner-ring suburbs, workers and environmentalists, central city people of color and working class whites, organized labor and urban-based business owners:  These groups don’t always agree, but they should all support this new approach. Why?

1.  It’s metropolitan – locating employment and production in cities and inner-ring suburbs where people, skills and infrastructure are already densely packed. This combats poverty by placing jobs closer to low-income people who need them. It also helps the inner city stay vibrant and remain a place where people work as well as live.

2.  It’s green – reducing sprawl by emphasizing downtown and inner ring development and renovation over ex-urban development of park, farm and forest land. This approach uses existing buildings instead of letting them turn into board-ups. It rewards environmentally-conscious firms that use green technologies and produce goods in sustainable ways.

3.  It promotes quality – emphasizing high-quality, high-wage, high-skill, high value-added jobs over the opposite. These jobs are better for workers. Plus, firms providing them are more committed to the community, because they’ve spent resources training their high-skill workforce.

4.  It's efficient – targeting subsidies and tax dollars carefully, instead of wasting precious resources on bad business and sprawl. Putting infrastructure demands where infrastructure already exists is also efficient.  This approach is good government and good for the economy.

5.  It’s sustainable – thinking about the future, focusing on retention and upgrading, seeking to cooperate instead of compete with neighbors. At its best, it can promote good jobs that will survive the next decade and the next generation.

There is a choice.  Start the Journey.

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