Pennsylvania's state farm bill could serve as a blueprint for other states

Streams flow through farmland on their way to the Susquehanna River, in Union County, Pennsylvania. 
(Photo by Will Parson, Chesapeake Bay Program)

Pennsylvania hasn't been waiting for Washington lawmakers to move the stalled federal farm bill forward. In 2019, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a state farm bill that "provides farm-to-school grants, business development for farms looking to produce higher-value products, and farm workforce development," reports Lisa Held of Civil Eats. "It has been continually funded with bipartisan support — and it could serve as a model for other states."

Instead of passing a new farm bill in 2023, U.S. lawmakers have only reached agreement on repeated extensions of the expired 2018 Farm Bill; then punting, delaying, or otherwise putting the more contentious parts of a new Farm Bill on hold.

Additionally, under the Trump administration, the Department of Agriculture "has also proven willing to cancel contracts with farmers enrolled in programs funded by the federal bill," Held explains. In some cases, farmers enrolled in USDA programs were left on the hook to pay for improvements or farming changes that the USDA committed to covering through grants.

Because of its independent farm bill, Pennsylvania "is building stronger agricultural economies and communities, the kind of work a federal farm bill was designed for," Held reports. "Several other states are considering similar packages or are investing in agriculture one small bill at a time."

Even when a new federal Farm Bill is passed, it may not be what many farmers need. Pennsylvania is a state with highly diversified crops that are often left out of the national farm bill. Pennsylvania's farm bill goes further to address the unique needs of its farming communities.

“Pennsylvania has been trying really hard to create policies that broaden the reach of ag policy and include producers that have traditionally been ignored or left out," Lindsey Shapiro, a vegetable farmer and federal policy organizer for a sustainable farming company, told Held.

Many Pennsylvanians "attribute a good portion of that focus to the state’s secretary of Agriculture, Russell Redding, who has had the job for 13 (non-contiguous) years under three different governors," Held reports. "In Redding’s mind, states should start to think about their own laws as the central tool for agricultural policies, with complementary federal laws— not the other way around." 

Farm-to-prison programs can provide inmates with healthier food, support area farmers and cut some state food costs

Farm-to-prison food can sometimes help states save money.
(Graphic by Adam Dixon, Offrange)

A small but growing number of programs are working to create farm-to-prison pipelines that provide fresher food to inmates while supporting area farmers. "Using nutritious, local ingredients in a prison setting to cook food from scratch is far from the norm," reports Liz Susman Karpfor for Offrange. "A handful of correctional facilities throughout the country are reshaping the unhealthy, tasteless, even toxic diet that has historically been served to people in prison."

In states such as Vermont and Maine where department of corrections are using farm-to-prison and made-from-scratch programs, the objectives are better inmate rehabilitation outcomes, overall inmate health improvements and food cost savings. 

DOC offices that want to begin farm-to-prison initiatives should start by getting support to work through procurement processes. Karpfor explains, "Each state possesses different, often cumbersome, and poorly understood procurement policies."

While some DOC officials may believe farm-to-prison food will be expensive, many times it saves the state money. The Mountain View Correctional Facility in Maine uses flour milled in the Northeast and bakes many of its bread items from scratch. Karpfor reports, "Baking a sub roll in-house costs 5.8 cents, versus 33 cents for one purchased via a state contract."

Kyle Moore, who is the food service manager at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, Vermont, "sometimes purchases seconds or an oversupply at lesser cost," Karpfor writes. "His staff is testing products from Salvation Farms, an enterprise using agricultural surplus to build a resilient food system in Vermont."

Michigan and Oregon have "developed high-quality kitchen and gardening apprenticeships in which participants receive certifications and can sometimes be paid," Karpfor adds. While the list of states using farm-to-prison models is small, over the past five years it has grown "exponentially."

Rural communities need to find affordable child care solutions to support sustainability and growth

The lack of child care stifles rural growth.
(Shutterstock photo)

The lack of child care has plagued many U.S. families, but the gap is more prevalent in rural America. "Data collected before the pandemic shows that more than half of Americans lived in neighborhoods classified as child care deserts, areas that have no child care providers or where there are more than three children in the community for every available licensed care slot," reports Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez of KFF Health News. "Other research shows parents and child care providers in rural areas face unique barriers. Access to quality child care programs and early education is linked to better educational and behavioral outcomes for kids." Programs also help parents connect with additional social services that support healthy families.

Without access to affordable child care, rural families will continue to face tough choices that "threaten the sustainability and longevity of rural communities," Rodriguez writes. "The dearth of child care exacerbates workforce shortages by forcing parents, including those who work in health care locally, to stay home as full-time caregivers, and by preventing younger workers and families from putting down roots there."

Affordable child care directly increases family incomes and supplies local businesses with a larger labor pool. Rodriguez adds, "A rural health advisory committee report shows that when center-based care is readily available in a community, the percentage of mothers who use that type of care and are employed doubles from 11% to 22%."

Pandemic-era grants helped rural child care providers stay afloat, but that money has dried up, leaving providers struggling to maintain pandemic-level wages. "The Biden administration requested congressional approval of $16 billion to extend the pandemic-era child care stabilization program," Rodriguez reports. "But it doesn't have enough support to continue the funding, despite nearly 80% of voters supporting increasing federal funding for states to expand their child care programs,"

Without federal dollars, state and local governments are working to support child care policy and funding. "In Alabama, lawmakers approved $42 million last year in the state budget for child care. The Missouri state legislature approved $160 million for child care," Rodriguez notes. "Voters in rural Warren, Minnesota, narrowly approved a half-percent sales tax to support a child care center struggling to stay open."

GOP-led N.C. legislature expands Medicaid, still may dicker with Democratic governor; other states seeing action

State Rep. James Roberson takes a picture with fellow House Democrats on the chamber floor after the House gave final approval to a Medicaid expansion agreement in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, March 23. (AP photo by Gary Robertson)

"The North Carolina legislature sent Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday its proposal to expand Medicaid for an estimated 600,000 adults, a move cheered by Medicaid advocates who hope the movement could spread to the remaining 10 states" that haven't expanded, reports Dorothy Mills-Gregg of Inside Health Policy. Cooper, a Democrat with a Republican legislature, said he would sign the bill.

The expansion is expected to have a big impact in rural North Carolina. The state had almost 3.5 million rural residents in the 2020 census, one-third of its total but second only to Texas' 4.74 million.

The bill does not set a date for the expansion, but "It can’t happen until after a state budget is approved," notes Gary D. Robertson of The Associated Press. "This usually happens in the early summer. Cooper panned that provision, which could give GOP leaders leverage to include unrelated items he may strongly oppose. . . . North Carolina is one of several Republican-led states that have begun considering expanding Medicaid after years of steadfast opposition. Voters in South Dakota approved expansion in a referendum in November."

Republicans in North Carolina and many other states have tried to require work of "able-bodied" Medicaid beneficiaries, but the Biden administration has resisted that. North Carolina's bill requires the state "to work with a workforce development case manager that assesses Medicaid beneficiaries’ employment status and barriers to employment," Mills-Gregg reports.

The bill also directs the state to work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to add work requirements to the program, but the Biden administration has "managed to revoke all Trump-era work requirement waivers except for Georgia’s requirement, which survived after a federal judge ruled CMS failed to recognize that Georgians would actually gain coverage under the state’s partial Medicaid expansion," Mills-Gregg notes. "The Biden administration decided not to appeal the ruling." Georgia's expansion takes effect in July.

UPDATE, March 24: Politico Pulse reports on other holdout states: "Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, continues to press for Medicaid expansion this year and included funding for the policy in her budget. The state’s GOP-controlled legislature, however, remains skeptical. Expansion proponents in Wyoming were hopeful they’d be able to pass the policy this year. A bill passed out of committee in January, but the proposal died on the House floor without a vote. And expansion advocates had their hopes crushed in Mississippi on Thursday after a bill that would have restored the state’s ballot measure process — thereby giving Medicaid expansion a shot at the ballot box — died amid disagreements between the House and Senate." Most holdouts are in the South.

When teachers miss school, finding substitute teachers is an increasing challenge that needs a closer look by journalists

Image generated by artificial intelligence system DALL.E 2,
with directions from Carmen Nobel of Journalist's Resource

Sub vacation: Term used by students when a substitute teacher is present instead of the "real teacher."

By Heather Close

Institute for Rural Journalism

I was a substitute teacher in Monroe County, Indiana, from 1998 to 2000. I covered K-12. Here are some items to consider: Students stole the TV remote, so initially I struggled to start their physics video; once I manually turned the TV on, they kept changing the channel. More than one student went to the bathroom and never returned. A middle-school boy climbed wall shelving filled with Bunsen burners. I sent Spider Boy to the principal. She sent him back with a note to me that read, "I don't have time for this." I did not return to that school, ever. That's why this resonated with me:

"Last school year, almost 3 out of 4 public schools reported higher rates of chronic teacher absenteeism, or teachers missing 10 or more days of work, according to the U.S. Department of Education," reports Denise-Marie Ordway of The Jounalist's Resource, a free academic research group from Harvard Kennedy School. "At the same time, 77% of schools reported having more difficulty finding substitutes to fill in while regular teachers were out, with 61% saying it was 'much more difficult' than it had been before Covid-19 began to spread. . . . As kids make their way from kindergarten through their senior year of high school, they spend an estimated total of almost a whole academic year being taught by subs, on average."

Some areas are going to extremes. "In 2022, staffing shortages were so severe, some public schools closed temporarily and the governor of New Mexico called on National Guard troops to help cover classrooms," Orway reports. In 2022, "The federal government provided $122 billion in emergency relief to elementary, middle and high schools to 'to keep schools safely open, tackle learning loss and mental health.' Since then, many school districts have raised substitute pay or considered it. To expand their pool of applicants, districts in several states have lowered their educational requirements notes a January 2022 report for the National Council on Teacher Quality."

Filling instruction time with adequately trained substitutes needs attention. Orway writes: "Jing Liu, an assistant professor in education policy at the University of Maryland, warned that increasing pay will not, on its own, improve the overall supply of substitute teachers. He urged journalists to investigate the issue more closely." Liu told Ordway, "Similar to regular teaching jobs, substitute teachers care about their earnings as well as working conditions. Some consistent factors that affect substitute teachers’ willingness to teach I consistently find in my study are the challenge of managing student behavior and the lack of support from school administrators and staff members.”

Ordway writes: "To help journalists better understand and cover this topic, we’ve summarized several academic papers and reports that examine teacher absenteeism patterns, substitute recruitment and substitute teachers’ job preferences. You’ll find those summaries below."

• School district leaders expect the demand for substitute teachers will grow over the next few years. One big reason: As Baby Boomer educators retire, they are replaced by younger educators, many of whom will start families, requiring them to sometimes take parental leave and time off to care for sick children.
• There are significant differences in teacher absentee rates across school districts. For example, teachers in the District of Columbia missed an average of 6.9 days of school in 2016-17. In Newark, New Jersey, teachers were out an average of 16.7 days.
• Even before Covid-19, children spent considerable time with substitutes. As kids make their way from kindergarten through their senior year of high school, they spend an estimated total of almost a whole academic year being taught by subs, on average.
• Veteran educators miss class more often than less experienced ones. High school teachers tend to have higher absence rates than elementary school teachers.
• In addition to student misbehavior and a lack of support from other school employees, a long commute is another reason subs don’t take jobs at certain schools. The perceived safety of the neighborhood around a school is another factor.
• Teacher absences are most detrimental to students during the weeks leading up to end-of-year exams and on exam days.
• When teachers leave their jobs mid-year, their students show smaller gains in math and language arts than kids whose teachers stayed the whole academic year. Teacher departures are more harmful to elementary school students than middle school students.

Teacher shortage leaves many rural and minority students without teachers, as administrators struggle to fill positions

Teacher shortages leave students learning via software or on their
own in Rosedale, Miss. (Photo by Rory Doyle, The Washington Post)

To raise educated citizens, the U.S. needs good teachers, but from state to state, the system is falling short with rural and minority students, and "rural and Southern states face a crisis," reports The Washington Post.

"The nature and the severity of the teacher crisis differ radically from state to state, district to district and even school to school," Moriah Balingit writes. "Some districts have only recently started experiencing teacher shortages, but in many Southern states, the problem has been long-standing and only gotten worse. . . . In rural Mississippi, the geometry teacher is a recording. The chemistry students often teach themselves."

Balingit uses West Bolivar High School in Mississippi as an example: "The school is 98 percent Black, and 100 percent of children qualify for free or reduced-price meals," and keeping the school staffed is a "high-wire balancing act that relies on long-term substitutes, virtual classes and hiring educators to teach subjects they have no training in. Before Supt. Will Smith arrived, the district had hired so many uncertified educators that it risked losing accreditation." Will Smith asked Balingit, “It’s not fair, but what else do we have?”

Balingit writes: "The importance of teachers cannot be underestimated. Research suggests that they matter more to a child’s learning than any other school-based factor, including the condition of the school building or the principal. Teachers not only affect academic achievement, they can also influence the likelihood a child will graduate from high school and how much they’ll learn over the course of their lives, researchers found. For children whose teachers are underqualified, inexperienced or nonexistent, the stakes are high. . . . Researchers have found that schools that serve high percentages of minority students and students in poverty have more difficulty finding and retaining qualified educators than whiter, more affluent schools."

The national teacher shortage began after the "2008 Great Recession, when the nation’s public education system lost more than 120,000 teachers," Belingit reports. "When the economy rebounded and schools started hiring again, they found that many of those who had left were reluctant to return. There have been other factors, too: The number of people entering teacher training programs dropped by about one-third between 2008 and 2019."

Rosedale, Mississippi (Wikipedia map)

A teacher shortage meant states needed to offer greater salaries; however, "Two years ago, Mississippi came in dead last in average teacher pay, according to a National Education Association report, at a little less than $47,000 a year," Balingit reports. And schools like West Bolivar became "like a lot of communities in the region, the county is rich in culture, history and community pride but economically poor, having lost population when manufacturing jobs left and agriculture became more automated. Those who remain send their children to deteriorating schools that their districts struggle to run because of a dwindling tax base and a state legislature reluctant to fund schools at the per-student rate the law is supposed to guarantee."

For school administrators, teacher recruitment and student achievement are ongoing stressors. Smith told Balingit: “When you get that email, you’re jumping. You have to quickly call the candidate and have a talk before they get hired by somebody else. . . . At the end of the day, you’re still expected to produce the results. None of the excuses are going to matter.”

Maine has ambitious broadband plan for fiber-optic internet service for 'everyone who wants it' by the end of 2024

Josh Landry installs fiber-optic cable in Dedham, Maine.
(Photo by Carolyn Campbell, The Daily Yonder)

Just because Maine is the second most rural state (61.4% the 2020 census, second only to Vermont's 65%) doesn't mean it can't be the most connected. Gov. Janet Mills "has pledged that everyone in the state who wants high-speed internet will be able to get it by the end of 2024, whether they live in more populous areas around Portland or in the state’s extensive rural regions, where more than half the state’s population resides," reports Carolyn Campbell of The Daily Yonder.

Campbell uses the northeastern Maine town of Dedham, pop. 1,700, as an example of the lengths the state has gone to: "Laying fiber cable to remote regions is the first phase . . . . Moore Fiber Solutions completed installing 60 miles of fiber optic cable as part of Dedham’s broadband infrastructure build-out. . . . Many internet service providers have avoided this last stretch of connectivity, termed the 'last mile,' between the ISP network and the users in homes and businesses. The reasoning is that the cost of laying and maintaining fiber-optic cable in remote regions is too expensive."

The project is already over budget, and its expense has drawn criticism, but Downeast Broadband Utility President Danny Sullivan told Campbell: “Fiber is the only platform that provides equal download and upload speeds. Whether you’re a content creator, a business, a health entity, or even a retired person receiving telehealth care, fast upload speed is a fundamental necessity. It’s time to stop reinventing this wheel and get fiber installed to businesses and homes in all communities, no matter how rural.” John Moore, a fiber-optic installer who worked on Dedham's project, told Campbell, “Last year as we were laying cable, kids would be sitting on their porch without the ability to connect to school online. Getting fiber’s gonna change their life.”

The funding for Maine's expansion is ongoing and includes money from both state and federal coffers. "Maine’s 2020 Broadband Plan estimated the total cost to build out 17,502 miles currently unserved by fiber-optic or coax cable would be at least $600 million," Campbell reports. "To advance digital equity for all Mainers, regardless of ZIP code, in 2021 the state created the Maine Connectivity Authority, a quasi-public agency, to leverage state and federal investment in broadband infrastructure through partnerships with private providers and rural communities."

States' cuts in higher-education budgets wind up limiting rural students' opportunities at small-town universities

Emporia, Kansas, was once a busy railroad and cattle hub. Many residents today work in beef-packing or pet-food plants or the commercial bakery. The local university is suffering. (Photo by Ji Stribling, The Hechinger Report)

Four-year educational institutions that have served rural students are cutting and downgrading programs citing low enrollment and state budget cuts, reports Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report. His object example: Aida Witherspoon of southwest Kansas discovered computer coding at Emporia State University, which then said, "because of budget and enrollment problems, it was canceling her program and cutting, merging or downgrading" lots of other programs. “If I was still a high school senior,” Witherspoon told Marcus, “I wouldn’t come here.”

Marcus cites another example: "Henderson State University in Arkansas in May dropped 25 degree programs in disciplines including geography, history, political science, public administration, criminal justice, biology, studio art, communication, theater arts, English and Spanish. Several states are merging universities, many of which serve rural students."

For generations, the path out of rural poverty has been through higher education, but fewer rural young people attend college compared to their counterparts, Marcus notes. "That means the already limited options available to rural students are being squeezed still further, forcing them to travel even greater distances to college than they already do or give up on it altogether."

Andrew Koricich, an associate professor of higher education at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, told Marcus, “This is just the next in a long line of issues where rural folks are told by people who are not rural what they’re going to have and not have."

Many states with large rural populations "have steadily reduced their higher education funding. Spending on higher education fell in 16 of the 20 most rural states between 2008 and 2018 when adjusted for inflation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities," Marcus reports. "Higher-education funding per student declined by more than 30 percent in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. In Kansas, it went down by nearly 23 percent."

Many institutional leaders claim "they’re trying to preserve and even expand choice, mostly by creating majors that rural students can take fully or partly online — including many that were never available on their local campuses," Marcus reports. However, "Advocates for rural students are critical of this trend — most notably Koricich, who called it 'cover' for deep program cuts. Another problem: Nearly 1 in 5 people in rural places don’t have access to high-speed internet, compared with about 1 percent in cities, according to the Federal Communications Commission."

Pandemic roundup: Shots could have prevented 234K Covid-19 deaths; decade of public preschool gains erased

Here's a roundup of recent news stories about the pandemic and vaccination efforts:

Before the Omicron surge began in December 2021, about one-third of Americans had been infected with the coronavirus at least once. By the time the Omicron surge had died down, that number had almost doubled, with 58% of Americans in a randomized sample showing antibodies indicating a prior infection, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. Among children ages 11 and under, 75% had infection-related antibodies, up from 44% before the surge. Read more here.

The deaths of about 234,000 American adults since June 2021 could have been prevented by timely vaccination against the coronavirus, according to a new CDC study. Nearly 1 million Americans have died from Covid-19. Read more here.

The pandemic erased a decade of gains in enrollment and state funding of public preschools, according to an annual review from Rutgers University's National Institute for Early Education Research. However, the report found that federal relief money filled the hole left by states' spending cuts during the 2020-2021 school year. Read more here.

For the past two years, Covid-19 has been the leading cause of death for American law enforcement officers. One police sergeant tells a reporter what it was like to spend 49 days in the hospital with Covid-19 and why he didn't get vaccinated. Read more here.

Pandemic may have skewed census recounts; towns that stand to lose funding can request recount starting this week

Some communities are complaining that they will lose state and federal funding because the pandemic skewed their decennial census counts. Nelsonville, Ohio, faced a host of issues: "Renters and older people who were hard to reach, college students who left town during the pandemic and widespread distrust of government questions," Tim Henderson reports for Stateline. "The initial results showed that Nelsonville’s population had dropped below 5,000, which under Ohio law would have made it a village instead of a city. The change in status might have cost it millions of matching state and federal dollars for water, sewer and road projects granted under a program exclusively for small cities. It also hurt Nelsonville’s pride."

Community leaders were approved for a recount, and in October "mounted a whirlwind 10-day volunteer effort, with hundreds of people gathering names at parks and churches and going door to door to find missing addresses. The revised tally was 5,373 residents, and Ohio certified the count, preserving Nelsonville’s city status," Henderson reports. "Many communities across the country argue that pandemic-related chaos made it impossible for census workers to get an accurate count of their populations. But unlike Nelsonville, which benefited from Ohio’s unusually flexible recount law, they are unlikely to get satisfaction from federal officials. As a result, they could miss out on state and federal aid tied to population."

Starting this week, communities that think they were undercounted can file a challenge with the U.S. Census Bureau, but the process only allows challenges on the grounds that people were mistakenly placed outside of city limits. Also, "In an acknowledgement of pandemic-related disruptions, the census bureau recently announced it would review its count of people living in institutions such as college dormitories, prisons and nursing homes," Henderson reports. "But cities and the organizations supporting them want the bureau to expand that review to include apartment buildings."

See how far American Rescue Plan aid goes in your state

How ARPA aid compares with the size of states' budgets (Pew Charitable Trusts map; click the image to enlarge it.)

States are starting to receive some of the funds from the $193.5 billion in state aid in the American Rescue Plan Act. But the money isn't split equally, nor will it affect states equally: States with higher unemployment rates are getting more aid, and the aid makes up a larger share of some states' budgets, Barb Rosewicz, Mike Maciag, and Melissa Maynard report for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"For states such as South Dakota and Wyoming, the federal aid represents a huge boost for their budgets—about one-fifth of what they spent in fiscal year 2020," Pew reports. "In states where the aid equates to a low of about 5% of state spending, such as Oregon and Wisconsin, the infusion of federal cash is still significant, enough to offset most pandemic-driven general fund revenue declines so far. Plus, the money positions some states to make investments with large price tags, such as broadband, water system, and sewer upgrades, or to address issues such as depleted unemployment insurance accounts."

When calculated as a share of state budgets, it becomes clear that "ARPA provides critical breathing room that was rare in the slimmed-down budgets that lingered after the Great Recession, which started at the end of 2007," Pew reports. "For states that entered the pandemic-driven downturn with robust reserves or otherwise escaped significant budget squeezes, the aid offers even more: an unexpected one-time investment opportunity."

However, the funding doesn't take revenue losses into account, so the states getting the most funding as a share of state spending aren't necessarily the ones hurting most, Pew notes.

After legislature balks, Mo. governor breaks promise to back Medicaid expansion approved by 53% of voters last year

"The battle over Medicaid expansion in Missouri reached a new boiling point Thursday as Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, announced that the state will not implement expansion, in defiance of a ballot measure passed by voters last year," Becky Sullivan reports for NPR. "The decision stems from Republican state lawmakers' refusal to appropriate funds for the expansion to the state's Medicaid program, called MO HealthNet, in the state budget bill passed last week."

Parson had promised to support the Medicaid measure if it passed, though he never personally supported it. This week he said he couldn't approve expansion without a way to fund it. He acknowledged that his decision would likely face legal challenges.

Last August, 53% of voters "approved a ballot measure to raise the limit to 138% of the federal poverty level, roughly $17,774 for a single adult and $37,570 for a family of four," Sullivan reports. "It would have made Missouri the 38th state to expand Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act."

Wyoming budget hammered by coal decline, pandemic-spurred drop in oil and gas production and prices

Coal production and jobs have been declining for years, hurting local economies that depend on it. Meanwhile, the pandemic triggered a worldwide drop in energy demand, which meant bottoming out oil and gas production and prices. At the epicenter of both trends sits Wyoming.

"The state, one of the nation’s least populated and most politically conservative, is bracing for a sharp drop in revenues over the coming two years as the coronavirus continues to disrupt the nation’s economy and as oil and gas production and coal mining in the state falter. Wyoming depends heavily on those industrial and energy sectors to fuel the state’s budget," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "Wyoming’s financial health has for years been deeply intertwined with how the mining and oil and gas industries are performing. The state collects not only severance taxes on fossil fuel production, but also revenues like mineral royalties from production on in-state federal lands and sales and use taxes that flow from the energy sector."

Right now, minerals are directly responsible for about two-thirds of the state's revenue. The state's Republican governor, Mark Gordon, said at a press conference Wednesday that one-third of the state's income is gone, that he has no way to raise revenue, and that he must make cuts in order to balance the budget, Lucia reports. He rejected a suggestion that the state could dip into its rainy day fund: "That might last for about a year, and then we have nothing to fall back on."

Coronavirus slams state budgets; it's unclear how much federal stimulus will help offset reduced revenue

"Governors nationwide have ordered businesses to close and people to stay home in order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. But the public-health measures have created an economic crisis that will, in turn, hit state and city budgets," Sophie Quinton reports for Stateline. "Now policymakers are scrambling to figure out how much spending power they’re losing at a moment when they need money to fight the pandemic and help laid-off workers and struggling businesses."

It's impossible to know at this point how much the pandemic will impact state budgets, but early estimates look troubling, said Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers. The drop-off in tax collections "could be more severe than the Great Recession," Sigritz told Quinton.

Sigritz said the $150 billion in coronavirus relief for states and cities in the federal stimulus package could help stabilize state budgets, but it's unclear how much it will help. "The budget outlook has worsened for states as it’s become clear that social distancing restrictions will need to be in place for months, not weeks, to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with coronavirus patients," Quinton reports.

An aging America could present problems for rural areas

"The nation’s population is growing older, posing financial and economic challenges for states around the U.S. in the years ahead, a credit rating agency cautioned this week," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "S&P Global Ratings notes in a brief that by 2035 the Census Bureau projects the number of people aged 65 and older will outnumber those under 18 for the first time in the nation’s history."

Too many seniors who need Medicare, Social Security, and sometimes Medicaid, combined with not enough younger working people to pay into those systems, could cause a lot of pain for state and federal budgets, Lucia reports. The problem will be especially acute for rural areas, which already have older populations.

"More births and greater in-migration of young people from foreign countries could act as counterweights to the aging population, but are not on pace to do so at current levels," Lucia reports.

Rural and poorest states depend most on census counts for federal funding; census awareness campaigns may help

"West Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky rely the most on census population counts for federal funding, according to a George Washington University study released today. That’s because they have more high-poverty and rural areas that tend to get the most funding," Tim Henderson reports for Stateline. According to the Counting for Dollars 2020 study, "Census-guided federal funding made up almost 17 percent of personal income in West Virginia in 2017, the year covered by the study, and more than 12% in Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Vermont, Delaware, Maine and Montana."

The study calculated how much states depend on federal funds by creating a ratio of funding to income. Most of the funding comes from Medicare, which makes up about 4% of personal income nationwide but about 8% in Mississippi and West Virginia, Henderson reports. In contrast, federal funds made up 7% or less of personal income in faster-growing, more prosperous states like Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.

The largest states got the most funding overall, but census awareness efforts may have improved some states' results. California was the most populous state in 2016 with 39.2 million people, followed by Texas with 27.8 million, Florida with 20.6 million, and New York with 19.7 million. But Texas received less federal funding than New York. "California and New York have launched census awareness campaigns with tens of millions of dollars in state funding, while Texas has had only a roundtable discussion on census coordination," Henderson reports.

Wildfires inspire idea: charge rural folks more for electricity

"The cost of preventing power-line wildfires could rise so high that California’s top utility regulator recently suggested a new way to pay for it — charge residents of high-risk areas more money for electricity," David Baker reports for the San Francisco Chronicle. "Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, floated the idea during a Jan. 31 meeting on fire safety for utility companies. With more Californians moving into rural areas prone to fires, he questioned the fairness of forcing all utility customers to pay the costs of preventing rural wildfires sparked by utility lines."

Though state investigators haven't figured out what caused last year's fires, power lines tossed about in harsh winds are a likely culprit. Such fires have repeatedly ravaged California, but it's expensive to preventing them with measures like tree trimming or burying lines underground. Picker said it's unfair to charge everyone for upgrading and protecting the grid in areas that only a few residents would benefit from. Read more here.

Amid bumper soybean and corn crops, some Iowa farmers are looking at fourth straight year of losses

Roger Zylstra harvested soybeans on one of his fields near Kellogg, Iowa, Oct. 18.
(Des Moines Register drone photo by Rodney White and Michael Zamora)

Many Iowa farmers are looking at the fourth consecutive year of losses on their crops, Donnelle Eller reports for The Des Moines Register: "Here are some numbers worrying Nodaway farmer Bill Shipley: He could get $8.96 for each bushel of soybeans he brings to his southeast Iowa elevator. But the statewide average cost is over $9 a bushel. Corn prices are even more grim: Iowa farmers could potentially lose 30 to 40 cents per bushel, with prices around $3 at Iowa elevators, based on estimates from Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economist."

Iowa's soybean and corn crops, respectively, are expected to be the second and third largest ever, part of the largest-ever soybean crop and second-largest corn crop in the U.S. as a whole. "U.S. farmers are expected to see a 3.1 percent increase in profits this year, thanks largely to improved pig, cattle and other livestock returns," Eller reports. "But Hart says Iowa farms will be lucky to see a 1 to 1.5 percent increase, given the state's large grain production." He told Eller, "For a good number of Iowa farmers, it will be a fourth year of losses."

The downturn, which cascades to farm equipment, crop insurers, fertilizer and seed companies, has created a shortfall in the state budget. "Since 2013, Iowa farm income has dropped $5.72 billion to $2.6 billion in 2016, U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows. Corn and soybean prices have dropped between 50 and 60 percent from highs in 2012, when the nation was gripped in a widespread drought," Eller reports. Her story is accompanied by photos and video from drones.

Expensive wildfire season triggers proposed budget cuts that would hurt rural Montana

Proposed cuts to Montana's budget would cripple safety net services in rural Montana, Oscar Peña writes in an opinion column for the Montana Standard. Peña is the public policy coordinator of the Montana Food Bank Network.

After an expensive wildfire season, state legislators now have two choices: "accept nearly 10% cuts to every state agency, or have a special session and attempt to pass revenue-generating legislation to defray some of the cuts," Peña writes. Some rural areas are already reeling after the fires caused a reduction in recreation and tourism spending.

One proposal is to close 19 of the state's 37 Offices of Public Assistance, which provide in-person help for people applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or Medicaid. All 19 affected offices serve rural Montana, where resources are already scarce. "Despite being rural communities, these offices serve a significant number of Montanans with nearly 19,500 SNAP participants in these counties alone," Peña writes.

If the offices are closed, seniors, the poor, and rural residents would lose a critical resource, and remaining offices would be overwhelmed, he says.

Wildfires hit recreation spending in rural areas

Rangers keep track of a fire in Glacier National Park. (Photo by Lisa Jones)

The 2017 wildfire season is already the most expensive in history due to the cost of fire suppression. Meanwhile, reduced recreation spending is also hurting state and local budgets, and probably the federal budget in a small way. Recreation and adventure tourism accounts for $887 billion in the U.S. economy each year, and some rural communities depend on that money.

"Across the Northwest, businesses that rely on recreation and tourism dollars have faced one of the most disruptive wildfire seasons on record. For Cycle Oregon alone . . . 2,000 cyclists either changed plans or canceled their trips altogether because fire and smoke made conditions hazardous and unhealthy. Disruptions like that can have a big cumulative impact on recreation-dependent communities," Bryce Oates and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder.

For example, visits at Glacier National Park were down 14 percent in August from last year, while the main attraction, Going-to-the-Sun Road, was closed. The nearby town of Whitefish depends heavily on hotel revenues from park visitors; this summer "was the first time that lodging tax collections decreased during the summer since the economic recession of 2009," said Dylan Boyle, the executive director of the Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau.

But Whitefish recreation promoter Lisa Jones told the Yonder that it's not all bad news: The park had a record high number of visitors this summer. Part of that is because of social media, she says. Nervous would-be tourists can find out quickly whether conditions are clear at the park and plan accordingly. "In 2015, I sent a letter to all of the local media, and some national media, telling them basically to not scare people away. The wildfires are not going to shut down the whole region. We’ve built a community infrastructure of diverse activities in diverse places," Jones said.