Then and now.

• Author: Lays, Julie
• Position: NCSL: The First 25 Years - National Conference of State Legislatures

For 25 years NCSL has served the states. Some things have changed, others haven't.

In some ways it was a different world in 1975 when NCSL was founded. America was in a terrible recession. Unemployment reached an average national high of 9.2 percent. Six million Americans were drawing unemployment compensation. Spending for social services reached an all-time high. Five of the 10 largest bankruptcies in U.S. history occurred. Transportation, railroads, airlines, truckers and banking were in bad shape.

Educational systems were plagued by inflation, teacher strikes and resistance to desegregation. Mortgage rates rarely dipped under 9 percent. The median income of American families was $12,840. Twenty-two states established new taxes or raised existing ones.

With OPEC controlling much of the world's oil, gas prices rising and air pollution a concern, Americans were buying small cars: popular were the Ford Pinto, Chevy Chevette, AMC Pacer and Plymouth Volare.

A federal campaign, Whip Inflation Now (WIN), was catching the public's attention.

And IBM came out with a new 50-pound computer that sold for less than $9,000, as compared with the previous low of $35,000.

But in some ways the world was all too familiar. Americans were debating many of the same issues in 1975 as we are today, with a slightly different twist.

* What to do about a rise in crime in the nation's schools.

* Whether to further control the spread of guns, especially "Saturday night specials."

* How to protect the environment and ozone from strip mining and fluorocarbon propellant aerosols.

* How to better track down deadbeat parents.

* What to do about prison overcrowding and rioting, especially in the South.

* How to reform social services, particularly food stamps.

* How to stop the rise in bombings, arson and suburban crimes.

* How to eradicate the leading causes of death: heart disease and cancer.

* How involved to get in the conflicts around the world (Vietnam was still fresh on our minds): There was fighting in Eritrea, Israel, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Rhodesia, Cyprus; coups in Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, Bangladesh, Chad; independence declared in Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Angola.

Although many of the issues remain the same, state legislatures were different places in 1975. Democrats had a majority in both houses of 37 state legislatures; today that number is down to 20. (Republicans have 17, and 12 are split.) There were 5,100 Democratic state lawmakers and...