National Unfunded Mandates Day: an idea whose time has come.

• Author: Esser, Jeffrey L.

The Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations recently identified 27 federal statutes enacted during the 1980s that impose significant new regulatory burdens on state or local governments. Moreover, a number of these new federal mandates have placed costly financial burdens on those governments. No one knows what the total cumulative costs of these programs will be, but one analysis estimated the costs imposed by these statutes in FY1991 alone to range from $2.2 billion to $3.6 billion.

The issue of unfunded federal mandates--Washington's practice of imposing, but not funding, a costly program or requirement that state or local governments are directed to carry out--has been a sore point with state and local governments for several years, which has been exacerbated as the level of federal financial assistance to local governments in particular has declined. According to the General Accounting Office, between 1985 and 1991 federal intergovernmental aid to cities has declined on average each year by 8.3 percent, while the figure for counties is a 10.3 percent decline. In addition, in the past several years those local governments have faced severe fiscal and budgetary constraints.

Four national organizations representing local government officials have determined that the time has come to raise the nation's consciousness about unfunded federal mandates. On August 12 of this year, leaders of the National Association of Counties (NACo), the National League of Cities (NLC), the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce that Wednesday, October 27, is to mark the first observance of "National Unfunded Mandates Day." That day would be the official kick-off for the organizations' campaign to raise public awareness and understanding of mandates. Local government officials across the nation will hold news conferences and public forums to call attention to the impact of mandates on local operations and budgets.

Efforts also will be undertaken to urge Congress to enact legislation that relieves local governments of the burdens of mandated programs unless federal funding reimburses them for the costs. Two such bills have been introduced in the present Congress. S. 993 introduced by Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) has 22 co-sponsors, while H.R. 140 introduced by Representative Gary Condit (D-CA) has 87 cosponsors.

One dramatic event of...