Unfunded Mandates: A Balancing State and National Needs

Unfunded federal mandates are, by any reasonable standards, a problem for state and local governments. New legislation limiting Congress' ability to impose future mandates and calling for a full accounting of the impact of already existing mandates is a reasonable compromise between the occasional need for national standards and the legitimate concerns of state and local officials. Federal officials, however, should not interpret the apparent consensus as meaning that unfunded mandates are somehow illegitimate. When the benefits of various spending programs accrue outside the borders of state or local jurisdictions, it may be necessary to require state and local officials to meet appropriate national standards. So long as federal officials are willing to acknowledge in a separate vote that hey are imposing an unfunded mandate intentionally, the public will be able to judge the legitimacy of their actions. At the same time, state and local officials should not focus so single-mindedly on eliminating unfunded mandates that they ignore fiscal problems that are within their purview to solve.