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State and Local Policy

As the federal government devolved over the first years of this century, state and local governments found themselves in the position of taking on more responsibility even as their budgets dwindled. That situation spurred innovation in state and local “laboratories of democracy.” COWS supports this recent renaissance of state and local innovation, and is working with state and local leaders to spread its lessons and advance it. In order to help identify and support the high-road for state and local policy, COWS is helping build networks in both.

For cities, working closely with Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, COWS helped spearhead  the Mayors Innovation Project, a policy learning network of mayors from around the country who want to make progressive changes to improve the lives of their citizens.

Similarly for states, COWS created the Center for State Innovation. CSI is geared to elected state officials and policy leaders interested in putting their states on the high road. It provides policy toolkits for those executives and sponsors forums where they can both brainstorm ideas and learn from each other. 

A particular recent focus of policy work, applicable to states and cities, is job-enhancing policies in clean energy and energy efficiency.

Among other projects in Wisconsin, COWS was involved in the Governor's Consortium on Biobased Industry. The Consortium was formed in May 2005 to recommend state goals and policies for the development of a Wisconsin bioeconomy, based on turning feedstocks such as crops, animal waste, and forest products into energy, fuel, and other marketable products. Learn more about this project.