The state-federal tug of war.

• Author: Tubbesing, Carl
• Position: NCSL: The First 25 Years - Includes related articles on nine defining issues and on constitutional federalism

The balance of power between the states and federal government is constantly shifting.

It's the federalism equivalent of "The Twilight Zone." You go to the attic, determined to clean it up. You start with the old New Yorkers, Field and Streams and Reader's Digests. But, what's this? It's a collection of State Legislatures magazines.

You thumb through the first one - the very first one, dated June/July 1975. You hear eerie, familiar music. The first issue is replete with state-federal stories. Here's one on federal no-fault automobile insurance. There's one calling for flexibility in the way states spend federal money. Another points out that the federal deficit has grown too large. Another mentions the need for state legislatures to oversee block grant money, while a later paragraph urges Congress not to bypass states in distributing education funds for disabled students.

What year is it anyway? Have you stepped into a Rod Serling time warp? The cover says 1975, but aren't these turn-of-the-millennium issues? Didn't you just read about a bill that would preempt state no-fault laws? Didn't NCSL just win a major battle to keep the federal government from earmarking tobacco settlement money? Did it really take a quarter century to eliminate the federal budget deficit? When was it, 1995 or 1996, that state legislators made sure that they would be able to appropriate the new welfare reform block grant? Isn't there legislation pending now that would create an education block grant for local school districts?

Is this de-ja vu all over again? Has your attic become the setting for "Yogi Berra Meets the Twilight Zone?"

The first edition of State Legislatures featured an interview with author Neal Peirce who noted: "The whole question of the assignment of responsibilities between the federal and state governments has been talked about for years; yet it remains one of the most important unfinished agenda items for American federalism. It will never be totally solved."

Maybe you're not in "The Twilight Zone" after all. More likely, you've just been reminded of the natural dynamics of the federal system.

The period since NCSL's founding in 1975 has been characterized by repeated efforts to sort out responsibilities, with the federal government in ascendance at times or over some issues, and the states in charge at other times or over other issues.

Over the past 25 years, state legislatures have perfected their techniques and improved their influence over federal issues. New York Senator Jim Lack says legislatures have won respect from Congress. He argues that it was not only because state legislators became better lobbyists, but also because they were taking care of business in their own legislative chambers.

"State legislatures," says Lack, "became more professional and developed more capacity in the past 25 years. Time and again, they demonstrated their ability to innovate." In other words, there was a direct link between the modernization of state legislatures that began in the late 1960s and their successes in Washington, D.C.

NCSL's first quarter century in the nation's capital featured nine defining issues. Each tested the influence of state legislatures with national decision makers and helped move the country toward a sharper definition of federalism at the end of the 20th century.

NCSL's first major state-federal challenge in 1975 was attempting to preserve general revenue sharing. The century is concluding with the organization's efforts to pass a federalism bill that would curtail federal preemption of state authority. In between, state legislatures contended with entitlement programs, several block grant initiatives, unfunded federal mandates, deductibility of state taxes, devolution and protection of state legislative appropriation authority, and the tobacco settlement.

GENERAL REVENUE SHARING

President Richard Nixon made general revenue sharing a centerpiece of his New Federalism initiative. It was in part a reaction to the growth of federal programs and spending during President Johnson's Great Society. The State and Local Assistance Act, passed in 1972, was straightforward. The federal government would turn over a portion of revenues to state and local governments, who would be free to allocate the money to pressing priorities. There were no matching requirements and very few restrictions on how they could spend the money.

Proponents liked it because it decentralized government and placed decisions in the hands of elected officials closer to voters.

Tom Jensen, NCSL's second president, remembers that revenue sharing was linked to formation of the organization. In 1974, Jensen was House minority leader in Tennessee and a strong proponent of creating the National Conference of State Legislatures. During a meeting in Albuquerque intended to ratify the new organization, Jensen and others got a call from President Gerald Ford asking them to come to Washington to meet with him about the first reauthorization of revenue sharing. The legislators declined to go, recalls Jensen, because making sure the new organization was created "was just too important."

President Ford evidently held no hard feelings. In a message at the first NCSL annual meeting in 1975, the president argued, "General revenue sharing in many cases represents the margin of difference in making basic and essential services available. I am convinced it should be continued."

Congressional opponents to renewal, though, raised objections that were echoed in debates throughout the next quarter century...