Route Fifty’s Post

Virginia officials broke ground Tuesday on a project to bring a new rail bridge into Washington, D.C., a major milestone for a state that’s been trying to connect all of its regions to passenger rail, even if it means buying or building the tracks itself. The $2.3 billion project would double the number of train tracks crossing the Potomac River from two to four, alleviating a major chokepoint for freight and passenger rail traveling along the East Coast. The federal government agreed to put up $729 million toward the project, which will also include a new bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians to use. The federal money comes from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law that Congress passed in 2021. Construction is expected to be complete by 2030. “Today, freight and passenger rail that share the tracks that cross this bridge—at a time when passenger ridership is on the rise and when capacity is virtually maxed out at peak hours—are depending on a structure that is more than 100 years old,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday. Learn more about Virginia’s passenger rail project here: https://lnkd.in/eqpYjBt5

If there is a silver lining to this summer’s CrowdStrike outage, it might be to show some states that their disaster recovery plans are up to snuff. Several state CIOs recently reported that it took them no more than 24 hours to get their operations back up and running after a faulty July 19 update from the cybersecurity company caused major problems on computers running their software. For those states that didn’t turn things around in 24 hours, the CrowdStrike incident has become a learning moment. The cybersecurity company itself is even using the event as such. Learn how tech leaders from across the U.S. navigated the outage here: https://lnkd.in/ep3SQntz

The Illinois courts system is partnering with local public libraries throughout the state to make it easier for people to navigate the legal system. State residents without representation can visit one of 18 libraries with so-called Court Access Library Centers to use dedicated Chromebooks and other technology to make court appearances remotely, obtain legal information and resources, and access and file court documents online. “We want to change the way we think about courts and the way the public experiences courts,” said Alison Spanner, director of the Access to Justice Division at the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. “We want the courts to be a place where people feel that they can come to resolve legal issues that they have. And one way to do that is to take the courts out of the one building … and take a portion of that to the community through the libraries and trained librarians.” Learn more at Route Fifty: https://lnkd.in/eBt2E8RX

As Florida residents start to recover from the damage wrought by Hurricanes Milton and Helene, the challenge of disaster recovery is particularly acute for renters, who often fall through the cracks of federal assistance and are likely to see increased rent costs in the months and years after a disaster. The post-disaster rent increase is primarily driven by two factors, one expert says. First, there are fewer units available because of the disaster’s destruction, further worsening any housing shortages. Second, there are more people competing for housing. Not only are displaced renters trying to return to their communities, but homeowners of damaged units and aid workers are also seeking rental accommodations. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/ePSh7q8Z

As momentum for guaranteed income programs builds at the state and local level, experts say it could help move the needle toward more supportive programs at the federal level. In early 2024, for instance, U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., introduced the Young Adult Tax Credit Act that would establish a nationwide monthly payment system for people aged 18 to 24 in an effort to help young adults start to build wealth and better afford necessities like housing. And the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act of 2023, introduced last September, would create a three-year nationwide program to provide monthly payments to 20,000 people aged 18 to 65 across the country. “Congress has an exciting opportunity in the years ahead to … take lessons learned from the local and state guaranteed income pilots,”  said Ashley Burnside, senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, “and think about how to implement them in a federal bill.” Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eEJTJTSW

This week Dan Vock looks at preparations for the upcoming elections. Plus, new lead pipe rule, TikTok sued by officials and voters ditch its city government.

For state governments, it may be tempting to roll out generative AI, but leaders urged caution at National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)'s conference in New Orleans last week. Washington CIO William Kehoe said during a session that governments cannot just do “AI for AI’s sake.” One of the biggest stumbling blocks for states looking to use generative AI is making sure the data the technology uses is accurate. In Missouri, for instance, Deputy CIO Paula Peters said training the state’s new chatbot was a challenge because of difficulties indexing all the state’s web pages and documents to provide correct information Not investing ahead of time in data governance but plowing ahead with generative AI anyway could be catastrophic, warned Chris Estes, EY’s US state and local technology leader. He compared it to a decade ago when states suffered high-profile data breaches, and policymakers realized they needed to invest in cybersecurity. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eXNvxsSB

Federal transportation grants can give local governments a big boost in getting needed projects off the drawing board. But the kinds of projects that the federal government picks for that extra money can vary significantly from one presidential administration to the next, according to new research from the Urban Institute. Under President Donald Trump, more than half of the grant program’s money went to building or expanding highways—far higher than what it was under his Democratic predecessor. When President Joe Biden took office, the share of RAISE funds going to road projects never went higher than 20%. “It’s clear that transportation priorities—as shown through funded RAISE projects—do change with administrations, whether that’s coming top-down from the presidents themselves, or if it’s the folks they’re putting in at the DOT,” said Amanda Hermans, MPP, one of the report’s authors and a research analyst at the Urban Institute. “As we look forward to the election in November, it’s clear those priorities change when administrations change, so we can likely expect that again.” Find out more at the link below: https://lnkd.in/etxd6M5h

Hurricane Helene served to highlight the growing role of state technology leaders in natural disasters. It’s a shift that state CIOs are increasingly thinking about as they take on more and more responsibilities in disaster management and preparedness, according to a recent survey by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). NASCIO’s annual State CIO Survey found 80% of state CIOs said they play a role in restoring communications services, while 77% said they are tasked with contracting with third-party, off-premise cloud solutions that can be stood up quickly to provide uninterrupted services. “CIOs continue to see their role as focused on continuity of operations as opposed to provision of new or enhanced services while states recover from a disaster or disruption in business services,” the survey found. https://lnkd.in/e_H-Q_Rq #CIOs #govtech #disasterrecovery #hurricanehelene #digitalservices

Cities across the country are currently finalizing their budgets. But budgeting is just one ingredient in a city's financial success. Budgets are, or should be, the implementation phase of a long-term financial plan, part of a longer, cascading process that engages stakeholders at every level. If you think about city governance as a kind of recipe, there are five key ingredients: 🔹The strategic plan 🔹A long-term financial plan 🔹The budget 🔹An annual financial report 🔹The auditor’s report on internal controls Learn how the ingredients can work together here from Mark Funkhouser, municipal finance expert and president of Funkhouser & Associates, here: https://lnkd.in/exfxKayD #publicfinance #citybudgets #auditing #financialplan