The Legislature has its work cut out for it during the remaining three weeks of session. Many bills await votes and the final budgets need negotiating. Understandably, after 12 solid weeks of virtual work (remember they are often on the clock weekends and holidays), legislators may be tired – which makes the final weeks even more stressful. Furthermore, with light at the end of the tunnel, it’s easy to get a little spring fever, especially when we see glimpses of the sun and warmer weather.

With that in mind, now is a good time to reach out to your legislators and say, “Thanks for your service” and “Hang in there; you’re almost finished.” Of course, while you’re expressing thanks, make sure to remind them of important city issues that remain before the Legislature. Feel free to share this week’s Hot Sheet as well as AWC’s budget comparison hot sheet. Both are great communication tools to make your own advocacy efforts a little easier.

It’s also not too early to start planning post-session follow up. Consider inviting your legislators to give a session recap at a city council meeting in May or June. Because we all know that advocacy is a year-round job that doesn’t wrap up when the session ends.

Budgets focus

As we mentioned last week, the positive revenue forecast and federal American Rescue Plan funds alleviated many of the concerns we had about lack of funding in the proposed budgets. However, there are still varying funding approaches in the budgets on programs important to cities. What’s more, there are also areas where more funding is needed.

AWC asks city leaders to sign on to this letter to budget leaders requesting they retain important city funding and revisit areas where more funding is needed. If you would like to sign on, please add your name and title here.

If you need help understanding the legislative process or have additional questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Government Relations team.