NCLM’s legislative policy process is gearing up as its 65-member committee collects input to set goals for the next biennium, addressing key issues like local infrastructure, funding, and staffing challenges.
As summer merges into fall, NCLM’s legislative policy process will be kicking into high gear.
It’s the time, every two years, when the League Government Affairs Teams uses a variety of means collect input in the formation of the Legislative Goals for the next legislative biennium. And those playing a key role in that process are the members of the Legislative Policy Committee.
That 65-member committee, representing a diverse array of towns and cities from across the state, immerses itself in understanding both the critical policy issues affecting all cities and towns, as well as the political realities facing municipalities as they seek state policy changes.
While some of those policy concerns may change, many of the concerns of locally elected officials remain consistent: local infrastructure including water, sewer and roads; local funding and the ability to control various revenue options; and staffing-related issues. Regardless of how the final wording is structured, those needs are almost certain to be a part of municipal priorities now and into the future. New challenges, though, can arise due to growth, changes in the economy or other societal trends.
To fully consider the full range of challenges and issues, NCLM and the Policy Committee have typically held listening sessions, in person and online, as well as solicited ideas online.
A process that ensures widespread input and involvement of League member cities and towns will again be a part of the process this year.
Consider that in 2022, 111 officials from cities and towns participated in those in-person and virtual discussions. From those meetings and online submissions, 408 separate ideas were considered. From those ideas, the Policy Committee and NCLM Board of Directors ultimately put a set of consensus ideas before members. Then, 155 cities and towns approved a top 10 list of goals, making up NCLM’s final legislative agenda.
While there is no set requirement for the final number of legislative goals, it is expected to roughly mirror that number for the next legislative biennium. Having a manageable number of goals allows NCLM to present a list of focused needs to legislators, and one that it may reasonably seek to achieve.
Meanwhile, it is that widespread involvement—by municipal officials from cities large, small and in-between, from all areas of the state—that gives the policy goals their force. It allows NCLM staff and municipal representatives to make the case that these aims represent the collective desires of all cities and towns, including those within the districts of legislators setting state policy.
And the involvement of so many towns and cities can prove crucial to their success or failure at the General Assembly.
As this policy process continues ahead of the next 2025–26 legislative biennium, we urge you and your colleagues to also be involved, and to then do what you can to make a new set of legislative goals become reality.
