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[inaudible conversations] waiting for things to get underway this is the new cnn washington, d.c. going to announce some of the findings in the economic report and expectation are from the president of the league of cities for st. paul minnesota chris coleman. more life programs also asked about o'clock eastern time we will be heading to the cato institute taking a look at self driving cars and how they affect the transportation system and public policy. we will have that discussion

live at noon eastern. more campaign 2014 coverage coming up at 8:00 tonight. waiting for the league of cities needing to come together here at the newseum. ♪

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♪ ♪ >> here in washington, d.c. waiting for the national league of cities needing to get underway here. they are going to announce the findings from their annual canonic report tracking cities into their fiscal health across the u.s.. again we will be hearing from the president of the group only got cities and the mayor from st. paul minnesota chris coleman

and also from houston city comptroller donald green and someone from the white house is joining the group as well, the council of economic advisers, jason furman. live coverage any moment now. an update in the news today from the associated press reporting on the world health organization and an official there who says the death rate from the ebola virus is increasing to 70%. that's ebola to a high mortality disease category and the who says we could see up to 10,000 new cases of ebola per week and a couple of months. previously the world health organization estimated the death rate at around 50%. we've been covering the cbc briefings and hearings on c-span and c-span networks. you can find those at c-span.org. as we wait here for the national league of cities needing to get underway. ♪ ♪

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[background sounds] >> cities are the economic engine of america. with over 80% of americans living in cities it is clear that the economy of cities drive the economy of the nation of america.

again, cities are the economic engine of america. so if the cities are prospering, so does america prosper. like new york, los angeles respectively represents the second and sixth largest growth of domestic product in america. economies represented jobs and present opportunities. it represents talent and it represents tourism and america. that's why the league of cities which represents 19,000 cities and towns in america knows that the economy is one of the most important elements of a community. good morning. i'm clarence anthony, chief executive officer and executive director of the national league of cities. i'm excited to welcome you to the launch event for the city

physical conditions 2014. it's now the 29th edition at the national league of cities has produced the annual report that serves as a critical resource to cities shedding light on national trends and local revenues come in city budgets, municipal workforce and what we should expect in the years to come as americans who live in cities. since the economic downturn in 2008, the impact of the great recession has been the unavoidable, underlining theme in our yearly look at fiscal conditions. as city leaders know how i'm a wide economic my wide economic conditions are the fuel of local government. providing the resources that cities use to shape personnel decisions, infrastructure investments and key services that communities rely on day in

and day out. we also know the decisions at the local level can kickstart that an important economic activity in the nation. the investments cities make enrolled in the transit systems, the services the cities provided to keep communities safe from the works of these do you ensure the availability of affordable housing all provide a strong foundation for economic vitality for america. at today's event will help us better understand the relationship between the city's fiscal health and economic health of communities. we are here on the state of the city's fiscal conditions and what will further power of the innovation and leadership we are seeing across the nation that's occurring in cities daily. this report by the league of

cities will provide an in-depth look at the report findings. our president will bring in the local perspective followed by a panel discussion. but first i'm proud to introduce a special guest and special friend jason furman chairman of the white house council of economic advisers. prior to his old chairman of economic advisers he served as assistant to the president for economic policy and principal deputy director of the national council. great. from 2007 to 2008, furman is a senior fellow at the hamilton project at the brookings institute. furman is was the policy adviser for obama for america. he earned his phd in economics and government at harvard university and economics as well

as ms in economics from the london school of economics. i am so honored today to invite mr. furman here, and he's come to a wide range of research said he is the person who can set the stage for the dialogue today. >> good morning, welcome. >> thank you so much for that introduction and for really putting the cities at the heart of our discussion about the u.s. economy, its economic recovery, and its economic future. we are at a moment right now when the united states economy is the envy of many around the world. while you see trouble in many countries around the world come in the united states we have had 55 months of job growth.

the pace of job growth is picking up. the unemployment rate is falling as merely the fastest rate that it's fallen in 30 years and our growth rate is picking up. at the same time we are seeing some of the first signs of wage growth for typical workers although it is still only just above inflation and not enough to make up for the past losses. if you ask yourself why the recession had such a long-lasting impact on the economy, and why it is that our growth has just started to pick up and strengthen an important part of the answer is our nation's cities. there's a lot of economists have analyzed the questions why this

recovery in the great recession was different from others and a lot of the big conversations you will hear is growing out of the financial crisis is even more difficult than growing out of an ordinary recession because household leverage up, businesses overinvest and in the process of recovery there is a long and painful process as those unwanted. surely that is part of it, but in our analysis, perhaps the single biggest factor that differentiates the current economic recovery from the ones who came before is what has happened at the state and local level. this is the first economic recovery that we have seen where states and localities rather than expanding employment and expanding their output were actually hit so hard by the decline in property values can reduction in property taxes and other aspects of the recession

that they contracted rather than helping us get out of the recession in their own difficulties were contributing to deepening it. if you took the normal economic recovery for the states and if we just had that we would have had a growth rate that was half a point higher per year over the course of the economic recovery but there is good news because this is really turning around and something that you see documented in the city's fiscal conditions report because it's something we just heard about and we will hear a lot more about. the economy, stupid localities have added 10.3 million jobs in the private sector since we have started out adding jobs, but it's only added 9.8 million jobs in total. the reason is come as i said, the same issue that i was

talking about some of the states and localities have subtracted 400,000 jobs. but that is now reversed. and in the last 12 months the states and localities have added 80,000 jobs. the contribution that they made it to growth in the second quarter of this year and we had a 4.6 overall growth rate for the economy as a whole, states and localities made this largest contribution to our growth that they have in five years. that's a contribution that has been positive in size out of the last six quarters, a dramatic reversal from the zero and the negative contributions for 13 straight quarters prior to that. so this turned around and local fiscal conditions has led to a turnaround in local investments. applied it to a turnaround in the employment of teachers and

firefighters and police officers and all of that has made this important contribution to the overall strengthening of our national economy. we are not there yet and rooms of our national economy and we are not all the way there yet in terms of the city's contribution to it. one of the most important steps that we can take that the president president is proposing to put forward is investing more in our nation's infrastructure. it increases the productivity over the media and long run and at the meetings that just concluded between the finance ministers of the world of the international monetary fund that they actually end worse with pretty much every mayor in the

country already know, infrastructure is the centerpiece for countries around the world and that is certainly no less true for the united states. it's continuing to strengthen the position of the cities and one way that it has been eroded is by not collecting taxes that are generally old and having an unlawful playing field for small businesses and competitors over the internet. that's why the president strongly supports the marketplace fairness act because it's something that's not just that for the cities but it's good for the small businesses and jobs. this past in a basis in the senate we would like to see the house act on it. beyond the two specific issues

that get very much to the relationship with the cities of presidents and tiger economic agenda would create the kind of virtuous circles strengthening the cities that would help strengthen the national economy. that includes investing in education, raising the minimum wage, continuing to make vigorous efforts on housing and an overall agenda to strengthen our economic growth and make sure that growth is a shared and we are pleased to have the nation's mayors working together with us to pursue that agenda. thank you very much. my name is books and i'm with

the applied research of the national league of cities. we appreciate you taking the time to answer questions with us this morning and we know that you don't have a lot of times we'll get into it. as you mentioned the jobs numbers are rising by 248,000 private sector payroll employment gaining full aspect i'm hoping they can provide thoughts on how employment in the government sector have spared specifically local government and what does this mean for the recovery cracks to the koufax >> the unemployment is 600,000 below where it was at its peak. and that 600,000, the single largest shortfall is in teacher and class student division has only grown grown the 17th ratio of the teachers and people have moved in the wrong direction. so this isn't something that is just about our jobs today. it's about the future of our

children. and the single most important factors of how the overall economy is doing it with finances of the localities are doing. and that's why it's so important that we strengthen the economy and take steps like infrastructure and marketplace fairness act to put localities in a better position to be, for example, hiring teachers which is just about as win-win an idea that we should all be able to agree a that i can think of. >> despite the gains in employment housing has been slow and and this uncertainty has direct implications for fiscal health particularly tax collections. can you give your perspective -- >> i feel good about the economic outlook right now. you have to see both sides of the ledger and there's always a there is always a set of concerns certainly the situation in the rest of the world as ie

alluded to before. i think it is a concern for the united states and our economy. ideally they would've domestic strength that starts with the american consumer. they were in a difficult position couple of years ago having borrowed a lot in their run-up to the recession. but a lot of that has been worked off. interest rates remain low and so with that process having worked its way through the system that consumers are in a better position to spend. our businesses have very large cash flows and very healthy equity valuations and are also in the position to raise their investment and finally, the housing sector is only about 3% of the economy but it makes a disproportionate contribution both when the economy is going down and then the economy is going up. right now we are building about a million houses a year and i think the study of the sustainable level is more like

1.5 million a year and is that it is more potential home building sector as well. >> although national unemployment has been on the rise for some time now the fast growth for the downward pressure on the pages and is helping to increase inequality. can you tell your thoughts how this might impact local economy is going forward >> we need to strengthen the position of workers and raise wages and that's why raising the minimum wage is so important. the president proposed it in his state of the union address at the beginning of 2013 and we are really gratified that since that date the states and cities all around the country have raised their minimum wage and as a result the minimum wage is going to -- they are going to raise to 8 million workers but there is more than 24 million workers would get a raise from the

president higher proposal so we would love to see congress move forward with that. overall bringing down the unemployment rate and investing in infrastructure for example is another important step. we can take and then also although the discussion about education and teachers, that isn't going to raise the page for students tomorrow, it's going to raise than ten or 20 years from now when the student graduates and enters the workforce and that's important, to make. >> before we close, we see the federal aid is decreasing while and dates are increasing. can you tell what the administration is doing to improve the lives of people and cities? >> we've been doing a lot doing a lot of the title by doing a lot but i don't i just talked respectively. first of all, we try to be as flexible as possible. and there's a number of places we've showed that type of flexibility. but going going forward, the fiscal health of the cities really does depend on what

you're doing in federal budget. we had an agreement that brought back a portion of the sequester in the 2014 fiscal year 2015. but it didn't in fiscal year 2016 which is why that debate over how much we are going to invest in infrastructure and teachers and research and programs like the cops program, all of these things are contingent on the broader debate over what to do about the spending levels in the sequester in 2016. that's going to be an important debate is going to push quite vigorously and one that we think is on the side of the nation cities. >> thank you for taking the time to join us. [applause] next my colleague kristine

mcfarland at the leaue of cities was going to walk through the state fiscal conditions survey. >> i'm pleased to share the results of the 2014 fiscal survey of think my co-author doctor michael for being with you today who will speak shortly on the panel session. i would also like to think the mcarthur foundation for their financial support of the survey. as many of you know the fiscal condition surveys the annual survey of the finance officers and i mentioned this because it is the only source of annual finance data for the municipal sector. as we've been discussing today the growth from the recovery has been slow. our survey allows us a little bit of a unique window into the perspective to see how these recoveries have impacted city finances. and in turn, how the cities have fared how the budgets they are coming out of the recession.

i will be discussing this in terms of the key vital signs or the ways that we understand the conditions of the nation's cities. the outlook of the city finance officers, general fund revenues, workforce and personnel and ending balances. i will also discuss the most impactful factors on the budget as well as how the cities are responding. without further ado, it is not too much of a surprise at this point the survey reveals that the worst is behind them, the city finances have not yet fully recovered following the great recession. and here's how we know. looking at the city finance officers, we gauged the informed opinion of the city finance officers and it's really important to understand that we know the city finance officers are dealing with their budget day in and day out and they see the impact on the residents every day. so, gauging their opinion is critical to the city finances nationwide. specifically, we ask is there a city budget better able or less

able than last year to meet the financial needs of your community clinics. could this chart shows better able, less able, a blue bar is less able. in 2014 a staggering 80% of the finance officers report that they are better able to meet the financial need of their community than this time last year. more city finance officers in fact report a positive outlook this year than in the 29 year history of the survey. now, generally speaking, i tend to be the glass half-full kind of person that i think we need to look at both sides of the story. if you think about the 80%% the prophecy that prophecy that means 80% were worse off last year. it is indicative of the magnitude of the recession and what they think during the revisionary period. like so much of what you're going to be discussing today the trends unfortunately are tempered when we take a closer

look at the reality and the kind of relative context of economic recovery. the next vital sign that we will be looking at is a general revenue fund activity. this is critical, the general fund revenues provided funding for general said the operations comprised of taxes as well as user fees for services and development and some intergovernmental aid as well. the general fund revenues are highly responsive to economic conditions and really provide and serve as a barometer for what he can expect in the years to come. we examined the amount of change in the revenues year-over-year and the constant dollars. the blue line in the chart is revenue, the green line expenditures. again they could news and bad news story. good news, general fund revenues grew by almost 3%, 2.8% in 2013 compared with 2012. this is the first post-recession

year-over-year growth in revenue that we've seen. the bad news, revenue is projected to stagnate as the cities across the country "-close-quotes on 2014. to gain further perspective into the activity and to see how well general fund revenues are faring pre- and post recession, he took a closer look. we used the 2006 which was pre- recession peaked in the revenues as the case here so we said that as 100% and create an index and you will note that in 2012 it was the low general fund revenue. they were 88% of 2006 revenues in constant dollars. the first post recession increased didn't come until 2013 but in 2014 which is predicted because not all closed their books by the time we had the survey we are projecting that the revenues are still at 90% of

2006 levels. revenues are not yet fully recovered, and that growth in the rodeo appear to be stagnating. i will say that again the growth appears to be stagnating. yet another window with a general funding revenue to take a closer look at the main drivers of the fund. property sales and income taxes. similar to the revenue expenditure charged that i showed you earlier this shows the constant dollar change on property income sales tax. what is the growth in the various sources? the blue line as property tax. statistically bad taxes respond more quickly to economic conditions whereas property taxes, the bold of the general fund revenues for most of the cities have economic conditions and take longer to recover. this is why the mix is ideal for any city. during the economic downturn, however, as you know here and around the 2010 mark all of the

resources of the tax revenues declined a together it together show the severity of the recession. the property tax are anticipated to increase slightly in 2014 as collections catch up with improvements in the overall real estate market. this will be the first increase in property taxes that we are seeing coming out of the recession. sales of income tax revenues continue to grow in 2013 that are projected to close the books on 2014. this is indicative not only of the harsh winter but also the types of employment recovery that we are seeing dominating. speaking of jobs, workforce and personnel throughout the recession many cities implemented a combination of the workforce personnel cuts whether it be hiring or layoffs in the effort to reduce their cost. the results, the loss of hundreds of thousands of the

midrange jobs and public safety and public works complex and recreations among others. so the good news for the first time since the post recession more cities are increasing rather than decreasing the size of their municipal workforces. the gray line indicates the percentage reporting that they are decreasing their workforce and the blue line is increasing. the bad news as we heard earlier this morning in the context of returning to the full recovery there are still have a million fewer local government jobs today than there were in 2008. this is particularly troublesome given the state of the native age and the mid-skill jobs crisis that we are experiencing today in this country. the last indicator or the ending balances. any balances or reserves to read the financial person b. is pretty important indicator of the fiscal capacity primarily because the cities use reserves to help the balanced budget during difficult economic times and they also use reserves to

help planned expenses down the road. additionally they know that underwriters look at the indicator of how likely the city is to make good on some of their debt and to decrease the cost of borrowing. we measure them as a percentage of the general funding expenditures and we ask for both the actual ending balances in the blue line as well as a budgeted ending balance for the next year in gray. the good news or the better news as the case may be ending balances on a positive trajectory. they are still not there yet. a strategic vital physical sign we are starting to see the finances to the corner coming out of the great recession but as the revenues workforce and

ending balances indicate they haven't returned to full recovery. so what is holding back the recovery? there's a particular insights that we ask the officers we want to know what are the factors that are most impacting and a bunch of? topping the list for the negative impacts on infrastructure needs be no infrastructure maintenance as well as new infrastructure has been built up during the great recession and the cost of health benefits and pensions, we know that as a looming challenge and the cost in particular of infrastructure pensions and health care and ones that are likely to persist and hold back local budgets for years to come. the health of the local economy and the value of the tax basis in the city finance officers as several of the positive impact is on the city budget. turning to the policy actions,

we have a pc as an overall health of the budgets they have the factors that are playing a role on a daily basis and as many of you know the local government of mike federal government needs to balance every year. this means throughout the year they are accepting not only those factors but the needs of the residence and residents and adjusting the policy choices accordingly. so what do the choices look like on the expenditure side the majority of the cities report that they are reinvesting in public safety, capital infrastructure projects and employees wages. to boost the revenue they continue to turn to the user fees as they have over the past 30 years or so and to a lesser degree increases in property tax rates as well. in closing we are cautiously optimistic about the state's fiscal city conditions.

for the first time since the recent recession the general funding revenues are increasing or also projected to stagnate as the cities close in 2014. more cities are hiring hoping to close the midrange mid-skills gap that we know we still have a long way to go. we are still half million jobs from the previous session levels and ending balances are showing positive signs began still have not caught up. at the bottom line is that these are at the forefront of the great recession and are making their way back back through tough choices, innovation, partnerships and the private sector, nonprofits and others. given persistent constraints on the city budget having state and federal partners at the table is critical to the full every coverage of the nation's cities. i would like to welcome to this page the president and the mayor of st. paul minnesota. mayor coleman will reflect on his time as mayor in regards to

the fiscal condition survey as well as to discuss the vision for the city federal partnerships. [applause] >> thank you christy and for that report. i want to thank the staff and all those that have participated in putting this report together. all the city financial although city financial officers that responded to the survey online and over the phone surveys and however we got that information. because it is critically important that we do understand what the fiscal health of the cities are right now. as christy reported 80% of the finance officers across the country are reporting a positive direction and they are more optimistic about the future of the financial situation in the cities and that is a good thing. these have been very difficult years for the city and the economy has been particularly challenging as the resources and the various finance sources have

dwindled and we are starting to see recovery on that and we are starting to see a little bit of hiring in the city particularly in the public safety arena and other areas that is also noted by veteran and christy that we are still down a very substantial number of jobs from where we were at the peak of the employment. while we are very optimistic about the future, it is not without a cause on the horizon. we know there are long-term challenges facing the cities that will need a national commitment. if the cities are going to succeed we need a partnership of federal government side with the state government and all of the residents of the city's that hopefully are going to benefit from the recovery as it goes forward. the survey indicates officers were concerned over the cost associated with infrastructure spending in particular and i can give you example after example across the country about personal and close to home is the recent discovery of the major bridge heading to downtown

st. paul was unsound and has been severely restricted. he closed the lanes downtown making it more difficult for residents to get in and people to spend money that has a long-term impact on the city's financial health so infrastructure continues to be a key issue going forward and we know that much is in the need of repair and upgrade and they repeatedly received engineers and are falling behind the rest of the world. as the survey shows many are being forced to maintain their infrastructure on their own is less resources are coming down from state and federal sources. we see the city's lead and do what is best for the residents. in st. paul who just opened the union depot which is a multimodal transit system that will provide access to the cities and is the central stop on the train, central stop on the buses etc. but if you look

of the project came together it was a combination of sources it wasn't just the vocal it was private sources, federal was a perfect public-private partnership and those are the type of things the cities are going to need if they are going to sustain their well-being going into the future. it's that type of cooperation that we need to chat to -- tackle. to move the goods and people to their jobs. local governments own and operate four out of every 5 miles of the highway as well as a majority of produced, ports -- airport and transition systems. -- the project selection process recognizes the central role of transportation transportation for metropolitan and regional economies. by enjoying a strong voice in the decision-making process, the nation will see a return on

innovation and the concept investments in transportation infrastructure that is the hallmark of what makes the nation so great. the cities and businesses agree on the need for transportation programs that are stable and reliable and supports long-term planning. you cannot plan for infrastructure projects six months at a time to time. we need a long-term plan for the nation's infrastructure. in addition to the transportation program, local economies and are then he should economic engines and to support the economic growth in the congress to allow the cities to have the flexibility to make the decisions that work best for their committees this includes ensuring the governments of the flexibility to decide how to best raise revenue to support the delivery of services to the residents. one way for the congress to do this is level the playing field between online and brick and mortar retailers by voting for the marketplace fairness. this has been a priority of the cities for many years and will continue to be and is the chairman furman indicated it is

a priority of the white house and we are very hopeful we can get some action to this fall. giving seems to enforce the law means more money for basic services such as police officers without costing the federal government a penny. the leaders of the closest are the closest to the ground and the residents. we are not hundreds of thousands of miles away or hundreds or thousands of miles away we are there in with them every day and we have experience in frustrations and challenges they do everyday and the great thing about the mayor is when the resident complaints about a possible driven it over and you know what they are going through. if you know what is best for the communities and what they need in order to grow and prosper. the items we thought went today are simple. we are asking congress to give us the opportunity to do what they say they want to do. make investments investments to strengthen the communities come up with them on a path for greater growth and make a nation more competitive. the league of cities hopes to

build better communities and most importantly places the residents can thrive. we do this by building partnerships across the business sectors across the party lines and across neighborhood divides. this is why the cities are intended to the priorities -- attuned to the priorities for their community. we are asking for the tools and resources to make it happen and we are optimistic about local level become to a very dark time in the city's history, but though we are optimistic we know that unless we continue to invest, unless we continue to provide resources and continue to provide for the local control and local authority decision-making the future of the cities could be very, very tenuous and so we are optimistic and we are very hopeful and we hope we can give the congress, the white house and the state department in all levels of government to work together for the future prosperity of the cities. thank you very much. [applause] thank you mayor.

at this time we will take a few questions from the audience before we move onto the panel. if the requested by the leave if you want to come down to the microphone. if you could come down to the microphone please. i was interested in the cities like detroit. some of them have investment managers and they've gone way beyond what they can afford to do and they've got to come out of it. the key for those types of cities and others that might fall into the same type of situation is what is the next alternative, will there be more cities having to go through the similar restructurings as you said some might not be able to

gets done quicklto get the basic services as he said we have the police force. how would you envision that's taking place. although we presented a better news, not so good news, cautiously optimistic we know that the overall are are very much more strongly coming out of the great recession ended in the instances of the bankruptcy are extremely rare on the municipalities. so although that is concerned the feel for them and again the vast majority are in a better fiscal position now than they have been. it's an example of the fiscal condition that has turned sour as a result of the number of factors that really are outside of the purview of the report.

the report speaks to the broad conditions any city might have a problem with respect to the pension issues and the liabilities and challenges and even in detroit while it has been a struggle if you are starting to see detroit really coming back making some tough decisions and making some changes by no means it is a result of the situation but the fact of the matter is that cities across the country particularly the larger metropolitan areas were becoming revitalized and vibrant because people are investing. but we are going to continue to see that and continue the people back into the communities you have to invest in a kind of things that were talked about including transportation infrastructure lives farmer from

the magazine. i know that not every city is required to have one and the carryover is that there is an average of 22%. but i imagine that kerry is greatly depending on the city that we are talking about. can you talk about whether the cities should have a mandated rainy day fund of like a lot of the states do and especially looking in the future looks at the future looks like the revenues are stagnating. so in the face of the increasing expenses, can you talk about the whole picture and with the cities should be doing? >> generally speaking and balances in the 25% just before the recession that came down and we are looking at the 22%. generally speaking and this is the most important in the realm

of the bond underwriters they are looking for the cities to have on hand to months of personnel pages. that gets you to around 22%. so in that context they are there right now. it is important to have a policy with respect to how they would use it and under what circumstances. some city use it as a cash flow accounts and to use the short-term obligations coming in but if you want to work with the rating agencies and what they are going to require i think they are very clear they want a stable fund policy of minimal threshold of what it would look like in order to receive the higher ratings we have a

specific policy and it allows us to god go god's love is 15% in terms of our overall reserve of important the important factors wasn't using the find operations so for the emergency situations and in some cases as the cash flow accounts at the end of the day if you are budgeting your permanent expenditures out of the fund balance that isn't a good fiscal policy. so what i am hopeful of is that the cities have stabilized. the cities that don't have a funding balance policy in place would be able to -- it is easier to govern when you're not in the crisis and you get those long-term structures in place.

we have time for one more. >> you have mentioned your support for the marketplace and the best that can get past this fall. do you see that being passed along with the internet tax freedom act and do you support the pairing of the two bills back >> we are hopeful because there's been broad bipartisan support resulted in the senate where it passed the seabed in the house and we meet with individual members on both sides of the aisle. it is a question of getting it done and so while we don't have a specific vehicle that we want to get attached to come come out and do feel like this is the time to do it during the

lame-duck session coming up. and as a combatant has been some talk about connecting it to the interact bill, but whether that is the vehicle they will be supported however we can get this fairness passed because it just means it is too significant for the revenue for the communities to be living around the table table into the way forward for the local government to get that additional revenue without it costing the federal government one time. it's about time that i start we start collecting for the local communities. [applause] >> thank you >> next we will have a panel session. >> after hearing from jermaine furman,, chairman and the car when we put together a group of

experts to discuss the national league of cities fiscal condition reports. since i left i asked the dr. he's the dean of the college planning and public affairs at the university of illinois in chicago. mike is the cities fiscal co-author and has led to a survey on the the survey on the report since the conception of 1986. to his left we have ron green who is the city comptroller and the the second highest elected official in the city government it is the chief financial officer. the comptroller green is on the city's board of directors and brings the key local perspective to the conversations in the cities cso viewpoint. next to him we have daniel rice is a senior economist under these analytics. responsible for covering state and local government fiscal issues. he can barely focus on workforce, wages, pensions and infrastructure issues. so to begin, can you give us the context of this years cities fiscal conditions report putting it it into context with previous reports? >> this year as we learned from

the presentations this is the first year that he started to see the city is beginning to generate a little more revenue than they had in the past. what we have seen over the last number of years is going into and out of recessions there are -- there tend to be a moderating effect of property tax collections because property tax collections usually lag for the session by one, two, three, sometimes five years based on the assessment practices of the municipalities. in the strong fiscal effects of the recession immediately and the economic recession until at year or two or three out. in the last several years with the great recession we have seen a decline in the tax base is for the first time probably since the first time since the great depression in which sales tax, income tax and property tax decline year-over-year for a long number of years again

typically they overlap each other in the income and sales sales taxes and will drop immediately during the recession property taxes and don't and as the economy improves the rebound as the property taxes begin to decline as they are lagging the economy. this is the first time that we have seen that 13 and 14 rebounds and i think the caviar for a little bit of a rebound is to note that it's if the rebound from a much lower base. so the increase in tax collections property sales and income tax is over a at year-over-year decline for almost five years. given what's happening in houston putting it into the context for the fiscal commission. stick the city of houston is the largest cities. we are seeing the sales taxes are up, property taxes were up from below in 2011 and for us,

because we are in a very unique position in that there's a lot of oil and gas activity going on in the southern region prc in an uptick in employment. we had a playoffs back in 2010, 2011 all over the city not just in the municipal government but have recovered about 2.4 jobs. ..

>> we are starting to realize savis there. we are investing in infrastructure. we have been able to refinance municipal bonds which is very important for us all across the country, so we've realized some savings there. and we've certainly been able to just kind of start reinvesting in technology. so for us, we are -- expenditures are up, but also we're cautiously optimistic. >> wonderful. thank you, ron. and, dan, can you put this into the context of what you all are seeing at moody's? >> sure. we have kind of a unique view of things from some of the people in this room in that we look at the way citifies call conditions affect the overall economy. just some, a brief story. when we have new economists join us, one of the first things we do, we have a training on every section of the economy, housing, finance, state and local government. when i bring the new economists in for state and local government, i say, you know, as

economists, why do we care what state and local governments dosome why do we care what the citifies call conditions are? and they always come up with a wide variety of answers, they make the housing policy, the laws, the tax policy. they forget about the fact that state and local governments and cities make up a huge part of the economy. if you look at the percentage of the overall economy, it's between 10-15%. if you look at the jobs numbers, you're looking at 12-14% in terms of the overall economy. so it's -- if local government were an industry, it would be a huge industry that everybody would track. and it's one of the reasons why we've had such a sluggish recovery up to this point in the business cycle. if you look at past recoveries, state and local governments five years after the end of a recession have never been as poor in terms of number of jobs lost or gained since as back far as we have record, to the great recession, which we don't have great records on. but one of the things going forward that we're going to see

is we're going to continue to see sluggishness in the mid-wage tier job recovery. so if you look at the number of jobs lost since the great recession, the low wage jobs are back to way above pre-recession levelings. even the high wage jobs, they are actually above the pre-recession levels. but if you look at the mid-wage tier, it is well below previous level, and an overwhelming majority of that, 500,000 jobs in local government have not come back since the end of the recession. just to put that in context, the federal government is only about 100,000 jobs below where it is and states are only about 100,000 jobs before the recession. that's five times as many jobs are still not back in local governments as everywhere else. so we're tracking this very closely. and i think going forward, as

everyone has said today, we're cautiously optimistic. but at the same time, i don't think that we will see cities, states or counties, any other type of local government, really spend to the degree they've spent in the past coming out of a recovery. pensions are too big of a weight on their budgets, health care -- to a lesser extent at the city level because the city really didn't have to worry about medicaid like states do, but this terms of health care costs for their actual employees, that's going to continue being a pressure going forward. so i would expect this to be around for quite some time. so even though cities in particular are going to be coming back, they won't be as big of a boost to the overall economy. but we're very happy as economists and part of our economic forecast to see that 80% of cities feel that they're in a better fiscal position than they were last year. i think the national league of cities report does a really good job of explaining sort of the lag in terms of why that's happening, but i think that's

going to continue for a couple of years. >> thank you. and, mike, picking up on something you said earlier, what kind of variations are you seeing across the country? >> yeah. so the report identifies the average year to year change in revenues and expenditures from the general fund, also year-to-year changes in property tax receipts, year-to-year changes in sales tax receipts and income tax receipts. and it's important information to understand what a mythical city might look like, but there is no such thing as a city that matches all those measures we've identified. in fact, only somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 or 10%, 10 or 15% of all municipalities even have access to the income tax. so if the medium income wage earners are not coming back, it's going to have a differential effect across the country. sales taxes, excuse me, sales taxes also are only available a

little more than half, somewhere around 55% of all cities have access to the sales tax. so as the economy or consumer confidence rebounds and the economy as well, people are buying, presumably buying more goods for which your retail sales tax can be applied which, of course, excludes a lot of services. as that increases, then the receipt of sales tax collections will increase during that period of time. again, not all municipalities have access to that. there are quite a few, almost all cities do have access to the property tax, and the property tax depends on the collection of the property tax receipts depends on a variety of things across the country, depends on what the allowable tax rate is or core tax levy, it depends on if there are expend cur or -- expenditure that can hold down property tax receipt even if the real estate industry is growing. and same thing with cities that

operate under expenditure limitations where they can't grow any faster than either the rate of inflation or population growth. so if you look at the 19 plus thousand municipalities across the municipalities, they don't all fit that one model that we present in the report that they vary depending on a host of circumstances including the constraints that the state imposes on municipalities because they can only tax what the states allow them to tax. as well as the mix of the economic and industrial mix of the municipality. if it's highly, if there's a strong real estate industry, real estate sector in the municipality and it doesn't have access to the real estate tax or the property tax or it becomes a minor part of the revenue portfolio, then the growth in the property values won't have a huge impact on the budgets of municipalities. so we need to think about municipalities as being almost

like people. we're very different, and we have different characteristics and attributes. we have different possibilities and interests, and we have an electorate that demands more or less in certain areas. what i'd, i guess, like to underscore ant this report, it's a good report about an average municipality of which there isn't one because there is such variation in the 19,000 municipalities. >> thank you. that's very helpful. and, ron, one of things we've been hearing this morning is there's a cautious optimism for the economy, and, i mean, we know that your city has been doing quite well over the last few years, but now you're preparing for the future, what are you seeing on the horizon? >> houston is a city where we do have revenue caps in place, so when we talk about bumping up against our caps, that will cause any elected official some pause to decide -- you want to grow your city. but if your revenues are not growing, you're bringing in, for us, about 125 people per day move to the city of houston, so we are clearly growing.

so that is a big issue for us which will cause a deficit down the road. so we are preparing, one, like any other city, we're looking at user fees. that's, you know, one of those average things, i guess, that people can look at. we're also looking at what we do when it comes to all of the expenditures. what are core services. that's the big talk around houston and around our city council is what are core services. and i think that anybody would argue if a city's doing it, it's probably a core service. it's typically those things that you can't do yourself. we also have an issue with pensions, and i think every city across the country has a pension issue. but one of the things i've been tracking is our number of active employees versus retirees, and that number of activities is going down as we have an older work force, and that number of retirees is going up. so that will put another drag, another drain on who pays into the pensions. so that's going to be a major issue for us, i think, down the road. and i don't want to buy into

this whole idea that pensions are the whole reason why cities, you know, should be all -- should be concerned because people, as mike said, people, cities are like people, you know? we buy gas. when people think that we make our own paper, we make our own pens. we are subjected to the same forces that everyone else is as a consumer as well. so for us, cautious optimism is the word of the day, but certainly you have to build a city for the future. so that is the biggest balancing act, is how do do you remain cautious, but how do you remain optimistic. >> and, dan, in the national league of cities' citifies call condition survey, we see infrastructure as a continually pressing issue. can you talk about what you're seeing across the country? >> sure, brooks. well, infrastructure's an enormously important topic right now, and i think it's important to talk about this as a state and local issue because there's so much overrap that goes on

between the state -- overlap that goes on in terms of infrastructure. be you look at the amount of money that's being spent by governments, so nipa accounts, if you look through and see state and local government investment in structures, you see that we're actually in terms of real gdp, we're at a lower percentage as a share of total gdp than we've been at any point since world war ii. and one of the main issues we keep running into is that, you know, the cities say they need more cooperation from the state, the states say they need more cooperation from the federal government. i think everybody is at least coming to the realization that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. it's nice to hear jason talking this morning about how this has come on the white house's radar, obviously, the mayor talk about it as well. so i think all three layers of government are on this in order

to get this improved over the next couple of years. even if we were just to come up to what the average amount of state and local government spending on infrastructure was over the last 20 years as a share of gdp, there'd be an increase of about $800 billion relative to what we have in our baseline forecast. so if we were just able to get back to what the average was over the last 20 years, it would have huge economic consequences down the line. >> [inaudible] >> at this point we have time for some audience questions, so if anybody has a question, could you please come down to the microphone here. [inaudible conversations] >> i think she may have. [laughter] well, if we don't have any questions from the audience, i'd send it over to you three and ask if you have any closing comments today. start with you, mike. >> sure. to pick up on the question that was raised at the end of the last q&a part, ending balances are, two comments on ending

balances. ending balances are different from state rainy day funds in that state rainy day funds typically are set aside with a trigger mechanism that allows spending to happen only if unemployment reaches a certain point or revenues don't meet a target. for municipalities, what we refer to as the ending balances, it's very much like the end of your month with your checking account and your own household, and that that is, it's what you haven't spent. and that gets rolled over into the next fiscal year as cash that can be pent to cover -- spent to cover whatever services. and typically, municipalities hold on to those for reserves, as mayor said, and sometimes to build up the reserves so they can make a cash investment in a capital infrastructure, to build a city hall or something like that, and also to keep the bond rating agencies happy to demonstrate that they are good stewards of the fiscal resources. so if you noticed the trend over

time, it was much less than what we are now at about 22% of expenditures. some 25, 30 years ago it was much less. what cities have done over the last 25 and 30 be years is they've realized several things, one, you can't predict future. as we all witnessed this last winter when salt reserves ran out very early, and they had to dig into their reserves to buy more salt and snowplowing services. so preparing for these unexpected emergencies is one of the reasons that reserves tend to grow over time. the other is that between the time we started monitoring ending balances in the general fund to the present is that the federal government has become a much smaller actor or player in the finances of municipalities. in the late 1970s, around 14, 15% of all general revenues of municipalities came from the federal government, today it's around 3-4%. so cities have to rely on their

own resources, their own understanding of what's financially smart for them to do, and that means holding on to more and more resources in case there is an emergency to demonstrate to the emergency -- whether it's mother nature related or emergencies that come about because of other things such as water main breaks and those sort of things you can't always anticipate -- as well as holding up their bond rating so they can demonstrate they can borrow because they have the cash reserves in hand as well as being, collecting funds more investment in a capital asset that they could, they wouldn't have to borrow for, that they could use the cash. so i think what we're seeing over time is cities are adjusting to those changes of what's required of them and being much better stewards of their own financial resources much the same way that households are stewards of their own resources. >> mike provides a great segway. there's a saying those of us who

are in elected office at the municipal level is the federal government has all the money, state government has all the power, and the local government gets all the problems. at the end of the day, we have to get it done. there's no one to pass that on to. these unfunded mandates that trickle down for us whether we are in good economic times or bad economic times, the trash has to get picked up, the health departments have to be open, the police and fire have to be able to respond. and so for us, we are going to manage it one way or the other, but i think when we are doing better -- which we are doing now -- now is the time to plan for the cities to grow, to make those capital investments. and i'm a huge proponent of keeping our municipal bonds tax-free because it is the opportunity for us to make those major investments. money is cheap right now, so i think all cities across the country recognize that. as it relates to really saving and carrying over our fund balances, very important to us.

and thankfully, most cities, especially houston, we had a hefty balance so when it really got tight on us, we were able to draw down on those. and i will agree as the cfo of the city, that is not a good thing to do all the time. but it's always good to have a rainy day fund because it rained a lot for many cities across the country over the last few years. i think a balanced approach is the order of the day. when you are at the municipal level, you have to remember that you represent people. these are, you know, we can -- we're not like general motors, we can't raise the price of a cadillac when we need more money. we have to be very cognizant of, one, people who pay into the tax base and how it's affecting them because it's all interrelated. if people don't have more money to spend, they can't buy more washers and dryer. if we overtax them, it's just all a vicious cycle.

but at the end the the day, cities, i think, will persevere, will continue to provide services at the level people expect, but we'll also be fiscally responsible. and i think everybody knows the taxpayer expects us to be fiscally responsible. >> well, at risk of beating a dead horse, i'm going to do it anyway. one of the cutting edge things really in terms of state and local government finances right now is reserve balances. and not just the fact that they need more of, because everybody can just say, well, they need more. as ron said, it's not just they need more, they need to know exactly how much they need to have without being too conservative and choking off those vital city services. we've done a lot of research in terms of stress testing state balance sheets and state fiscal conditions. i know there are a lot of people who are working way down to the local government level as well. pew's done some really good work on it, for example. it's something that's going to have to be done now while we are

cautiously optimistic while we're coming off now, because if we wait a few more years down the line, we're going to get caught flat-footed again. one of the biggest problems going into the great recession and why, again, we're so sluggish coming out was state and local governments in general didn't have enough reserve money put away n. the past, the local governments have been able to depend on the state governments, and the state governments didn't have enough reserve, so a lot of times the cities, townships and school districts kind of got left out. both levels of government need to be taking a better look at what their reserve policies are and maybe implementing certain statutory requirements in place because as we talked about earlier, states, local government, it all rolls downhill. and without being able to take care of themselves, cities are really going to have to keep an eye out on the future because there's no guarantee that that help will be there. >> thank you. to close us out today, i would add that fiscal conditions are

strengthening. the economic downturn was so deep and the b rept of the rekiver -- length of the recovery so drawn out that it's till on the horizon. positive indicators can be seen, though, from property to sales and income tax collectionings. at the same time, these are tempered by with challenges from increase costs of services, ongoing pension and health care costs, long-term infrastructure needs and decreased levels of state and federal aid. overall, with economic recovery in the centrality of our cities to the nation's economy, we will see solid fiscal growth well into the future. thank you all for joining us here today. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> and if you missed any of this briefing about the economic status of cities across the u.s., or we'll have it up on our web site, c-span.org. just check the video library. also live today in about 40 minutes, we're going to be taking you to the cato institute for a look at self-driving cars and how they might affect the u.s. transportation system and public policy. we'll have that discussion live at noon eastern right here on c-span2. and then more live campaign 2014 coverage coming up tonight with the debate for louisiana's next u.s. senator. we'll have that at 8:00 eastern. democratic incumbent mary landrieu faces two republican challengers, congressman tom cassidy and rob maness.

also join us online, share your thoughts about it as it's happening, facebook.com/c-span or send us a tweet @c-span. and while the candidates debate in louisiana, here on c-span2, over on c-span we're taking you to the arkansas senate debate tonight between mark pryor and congressman tom cotton. live at 8:00 eastern. here's a look at yesterday's arkansas debate. >> before i go on with my closing statement, i have to go back for just a minute because congressman cotton just told a whopper. when he said that i have voted for every single one of barack obama's taxes, it's not even close. in fact, i voted against every budget that president obama has offered. my real record on taxes is i voted to cut taxes by $5.5 trillion since i've been in the senate. cut taxes by $5.5 trillion, and i'm a big believer in tax

reform. we need to simplify the tax code, we need to lower the rates. but this is more of fog of misinformation -- of this fog of misinformation and rhetoric that congressman cotton has gotten so good at doing over the course of this campaign. again, if you look at his real voting record what you see in his voting record is these investors, these people who are investing in him, that's who he's listening to. that's who he's carrying the water for since he's been in the house, and that's exactly what he's going to do if he gets elected to the senate. listen, he is not listening to you, he's listening to those out-of-state billionaires who are writing those checks, paying for his campaign. in my office i have a plaque on my desk, and many of you all have been there. it says, "arkansas comes first." this is what i mean. i listen to the people of the state of arkansas, i work hard year after year, i'm ranked as one of the most independent

senators in washington. i would very much appreciate your vote. early voting starts on october 20th, and election day is november 4th. let's go out and win one, and let's keep this seat for the people of arkansas. thank you. >> moderator: mr. pryor, thank you. mr. cotton. cotton: i was blessed to grow up in neil county and very blessed now that ann that and i are expecting our first child, a baby boy. we want our baby to have the same opportunities we did, and i want you and your families to have those as well, to have a chance for a better life. barack obama's policies are making that harder though. president obama said his policies are on the ballot, every single one of them. in arkansas, the name of those policies is mark pryor because he votes with barack obama 93% of the time. and that's why a vote for mark pryor is a vote for barack obama's failed policies. he supported barack obama's failed economic policies which are costing jobs in arkansas and driving down wagings. mark pi europe cost -- pryor cast the decisive vote for

obamacare. mark pryor has voted for every single penny of new debt, a trillion dollars on average every year under barack obama's six years. even while cutting a trillion dollars from our military. mark pryor's a rubber stamp for barack obama's failed foreign policy of weakness, hesitation and indecision. and senator pryor won't even hold president obama accountable for not protecting our country and our families from ebola. there's a different way. there's the arkansas way. let's get our economy moving again. let's put people back to work so we can have people achieving their dreams. let's repeal obamacare and start over on health care reform, trusting arkansas conditions, patients, doctors, families. let's balance our budget, quit stealing from our kids, rebuild our military and keep your family safe and secure whether the threat is terrorism or disease. this is the choice you face. barack obama said his policies are on the ballot, and they are. here in arkansas they go by the

name of mark pryor. if you're happy with barack obama's policies, with the status quo, then your vote for mark pryor will be a vote for barack obama. but if you want change, if you want a new direction for arkansas and for our country, then i would appreciate your vote. >> that's some of yesterday's debate in arkansas. you can watch it right now on our companion network, c-span, or anytime online at our video library. and join us live tonight in arkansas for the next u.s. senate debate, 8:00 eastern, also on c-span. >> be part of c-span's 2014 campaign coverage. follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to get debate schedules, video clips of key moments, debate previews from our politics team. c-span is bringing you over 100 senate, house and governor debates, and you can instantly share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. the battle for control of congress, stay in touch and engage by following us on twitter @c-span be and liking us on facebook at

facebook.com/c-span. >> now taking you live to the cato institute in just a little over half an hour for a discussion about self-driving cars. until then, we're going to take a look at the impact of issues important to women on the midterm elections from today's "washington journal." >> host: turn our attention to campaign 2014, joining us is elise hogue, welcome, thanks for being here. >> guest: thank you for having me, greta. >> host: what's your role you're playing in this election cycle? [laughter] >> guest: you know, i think we are very, very focused on making sure we have a majority in the senate. we've seen so much terrible anti-choice legislation be introduced into the house. but we're also very, very focused on the governors' races. there are 36 seats up at the statehouses and those are really where we're seeing a lot of the damage be done to women across this country. so i've been in a half dozen states in the last month, and there's a lot of energy out

there. >> host: where are you, why specifically the governors? what's happening on the state level? >> guest: so since 2010 we've had record number of laws passed through statehouses that are restricting legal abortion, restricting contraception, restricting a woman's right to choose when and how and with whom she has a family. and the bulk of these are coming at the state level through statehouses. you know, despite the fact that polling shows -- our own polling, but also "wall street journal" and nbc -- that 7 in 10 americans support legal access to abortion. we only have 3 in 10 governors who support full legal access to abortion, so we're just seeing that constitutional right shrink and shrink at the state level. so we're watching really key races, for example, i was in wisconsin this weekend, and i think all eyes are kind of on wisconsin because not only what it represents nationally on all of these issues, but also what it means for 2016. >> host: so what sort of

resources do you have at pro-choice america? how many people, and where do you -- is it money? how do you play the game? is it money? ground game? how do you do it? [laughter] >> guest: we contribute to campaigns where the candidates or elected officials carry our values forward into legislation. but, you know, in the hyperinflated world of post-citizens united politics, i think we have a lot to contribute to our membership and people power. you know, i was on the doors this weekend canvassing, i've done it in colorado, in wisconsin, i've done it in minnesota, i think that one of the things that we see is when the air wars become so crazy, people start to crowd the ads out, and what matters is who's going to take enough time to talk about the differences in these candidates, make sure the truth gets out will about their record on women's issues, but on the issues generally. >> host: so if open secrets has your total receipts from 2014 from your pac, a little oh 300,000 -- over 300,000.

>> guest: yeah. not smuch, definitely not much. >> host: so how do you get your message across? because, you know, people obviously spend money for a reason, because it works. >> guest: well, absolutely. i mean, i think we've seen we have been able to run very sophisticated problems that go right to the voters that we know make a difference in these elections. there's an enormous number of voters who actually believe that these senators in some cases, these governors are focusedded on the -- focused on the wrong priorities when they're spending their energy and political capital restricting women's choices rather than, actually -- for example, job creation in the state of wisconsin. so we've done very sophisticated doors, mail programs, we're on the phones every day, we're funneling members into these campaigns to make sure that, you know, it's a good old game of retail politics. we're going door to door making sure that these politicians' records are exposed, they can't hide from the issues, and they have to answer the question.

that doesn't mean we don't ever do advertising, we do. in fact, we just went up in wisconsin over the weekend with an ad setting the record straight as scott walker tries to back off his very strong anti-choice record where he's done more to restrict legal access to abortion than many of the governors in this country. he's actually trying to back away from that. he went up on an ad saying, no, no, it's okay really, i'm going the let you choose. and we had one of our members in wisconsin, a great woman named miranda, who wanted to set the record straight, we went up with that ad yesterday. >> host: what about ballot measures this november, and what are you doing to -- because there are a number of ballot measures dealing with personhood, etc. explain what they are and what states and how you're trying to push back against that. >> guest: yeah. so there are three ballot measures about personhood on state ballots, one in tennessee, one in north dakota and one in colorado. these are extreme, extreme anti-choice legislation

essentially granting fertilized eggs the same legal rights as a full human sitting here like you and me. many of these measures, if not most of these measures, outline forms of contraception, outlaw abortion entirely x in some cases interfere with ivf, invitro fertilization decisions for families and end-of-life decisions. we're actually trying to get the truth information to voters, particularly voters who might be motivated to go to the polls in an off-year election if they know what's at stake. some of this is television advertising, but a lot of it is door to door. it explains a little while to explain -- it takes a little while to explain to voters. >> host: are you concerned that president obama's popularity is a drag, and also in an off year like this, republicans tend to vote more than democrats do. >> guest: you know, i am not so

concerned about president obama specifically as i am about the overall confidence ratings in congress as a whole. you've got the lowest confidence in congress, and i think since they've been recording -- >> host: for both parties. >> guest: for both parties, and i think that does make it a bit of a challenge to get people to go to polls and vote. then you've got the voter suppression laws which, even though the court has overturned them, you have to go back to people and say, no, no, it's okay, you'll be able to vote now which is an added layer of complication. but i do think people are engaging more at the state level, that's been my feeling, people actually understand the level that their governor has. that's heightened now, i believe, so i think that's a motivating factor. but one of things we know is that the issues we work on -- the fundamental right of women to make decisions about how we have families and when we do that -- those are driving issues. we know that when e get those -- we get those issues in front of voters, when they know what's at

stake, they go to the polls. we do it through mail, through phone calls, through door to door, and that's how we incentivize people to get to the polls. >> host: here's a headline, naral's new campaign goes after politicians obsessed with abortion, you say, pointing to governors in wisconsin, florida and kansas. >> guest: absolutely. >> host: others have said the same about senator tom udall, democrat in colorado, but his campaign is a one-note strategy, he just keeps talking about women's access to birth control and access to abortion. >> guest: yeah. i think governor -- sorry, senator udall -- governor hickenlooper, senator udall is actually on the right side of the public on this one. there's a couple issues with that narrative that we're seeing more, actually, in the national press than being in colorado. one is that women's access to our own health care decisions is not a single issue.

you're talking about 52% of the population, and you're talking abou an issue that if we can't make our own choices, there is no such thing as economic equality, there is no such thing as job security if we can't actually have access to full family planning. so i think what senator udall understands and what the voters of colorado understand is that this is a fundamental issue which is different than a single issue. now, what our ads seek to point out is that you've got governors like governor brownback in kansas who has literally spent his entire tenure pursuing an ideological agenda which is to outlaw those choices for women at the expense of other priorities in the state like the education system, like job creation. and to the extreme that he has actually spent over a million dollars in taxpayer money defending his laws which are at odds with most people in kansas. >> host: we're talking about women's issues in campaign 2014 with elise hogue, president of naral pro-choice america and the role that they're playing in

this election cycle. let's go back to colorado, in "the washington post" morning, colorado senate race tests the democrats' playbook to focus on these issues of women's access. and they note in here that cory gardner's becoming a new type of republican and almost creating an example of how republicans need to run in the future when it comes to women's issues. >> caller: you know, i think cory gardner is mostly, to me, the oldest kind of politician which is that he'll say whatever to get into office, right? this is a man who still has his name on federal legislation that is the legislation we discussed earlier in the show and yet which would outlaw contraception. and yet on the flip side he's going to say, oh, we're going to make contraception available over the counter which, by the way, fda has not even said is plausible yet.

i think he's trying to confuse voters and not discuss the fact that if he could even reconcile those views, he's still asking women to pay twice. there's still an economic penalty for women who would have to buy birth control over the counter when, in fact, it's part of basic health care and should be covered by our insurance. so i actually see that as a very old style of politics, to pander on both sides to get elected and then pursue your own agenda. i'm not sure -- [inaudible] >> host: washington post this morning: the washington post this morning -- - can he? >> guest: yeah, i think he can. i think he can. you know, again, i think that it's a challenge, it's a challenge to make people feel like their vote matters, but i think he really will, and i

think that point that women make the difference in colorado is something that we see all over this country which goes back to this problem with defining our fundamental health care issues, our fundamental decisions about family rearing to be a single issue. it's not a single issue. it affects over half of the population in a way that actually links to everything else in our life. >> is this strategy, though, working, to focus on women. when you've got a tight race in colorado, a tight race in wisconsin for the governor's race, it's tight in kansas as well. and in florida the republican is up in the polls a little bit. >> guest: a little bit. yeah. >> host: is it a strategy that's working? >> guest: i think we won't know until election day. what everyone knows is you cannot win without women because we're more than half of the population, and driving women to the polls means appealing to the fundamental things that matter to us in daily life, and that does mean family planning, that does mean legal is access to

abortion, but, of course, that's not all it means. we cannot have economic security without reproductive health. >> host: let's get to calls. robert's been waiting from maryland, an independent. hi, robert, you're on the air. good morning to you. >> caller: good morning, ladies. what do you guys have to say that the liberal policies that have given us an open border have brought ebola here? i mean, you look at -- >> host: you know what, robert? that's not our topic here this morning. darren in alexandria, virginia, jeremy, go ahead. >> caller: hi, thanks for taking my call, thanks for c-span. i just want to tell you i really support women. i feel so terribly sorry for women who are pregnant and didn't want to be pregnant, and yet so sometime times everybodys told the easy answer is just to have an abortion. and i know naral and planned parenthood supports that, and i wish those organizations would really start spreading the truth that there's really no such

thing as having sex, even protected sex, without consequences. they are dire ones. i will ask you when was the last time a woman gave birth to a toaster oven or to a cactus plant? never. the it's always been a human being -- it's always been a human being. some live longer than others, some are smarter than others, it's also from the moment of conception a human being. now, unfortunately or, you know, it's the way that things go that the woman, in order for that to survive, the woman must be willing to carry that life for a time, and that is quite a burden. i recognize that. >> host: okay, jump in. >> guest: yeah, thank you for your question. there's a couple pieces to what you said. i think our organization absolutely fights not only for legal access to abortion, but contraception, accurate sex education so that young people can make informed choices. all of the studies show that

abstinence-only sex education does not work, it actually increases unintended pregnancy rates. but i think robert feel the way many people feel, and that's totally legitimate. lots of people have feelings about sex outside procreation. i think what most people agree on which is really critical in terms of talking about this is they would rather their family retain that decision in conjunction with their own faith and their doctor and not have politicians sitting in washington or a statehouse somewhere telling their families what to do. >> host: our phone lines are open, we're talking about the role of women's issues in campaign 2014. so dial in with your comments or questions. charles, a republican in tennessee. go ahead, charles. >> caller: hey, there, c-span. >> host: morning. >> caller: nice to hear from you. the republicans, we don't really care, i mean, i don't understand is there women out there that -- let 'em call in they haven't

been able to get an abortion. is there children out there running around that were supposed to be aborted, and, i don't know, the women have to take care of them? >> host: okay, so access. >> guest: yeah, access is a very, very big problem right now. my home state of texas has seen almost all of the clinics close overnight with legislation that came through the statehouse under governor rick perry and a court decision last week. so we are certainly seeing women all over the this country being prevented from easy access to health clinics generally and abortion more specifically. and by easy, i mean some of them have to travel 400 miles round trip just to get basic health care and access to abortion services. what we've seen in texas, unfortunately, is that means that 7% of women who need abortion care are attempting to self-abort. and, you know, this underscores a point that we know from global data all over the world which is that when abortion is illegal or difficult to access, the number

of abortions don't go down, the number of injuries to women and deaths do go up. and so we are really on the precipice of that in our country. we've seen more restrictions on abortion in the last three years than we have since the early '70s. >> if democrats retain control of the senate, what is your priority list for them? >> >> guest: you know, right now, as i said, we've got legislation both introduced into both houses that is modeled on the civil rights act, the voting rights act, actually, which would address some of these state attacks on reproductive health and reproductive freedom. it would say that no woman should be punished because of her zip code, because of where she lives in terms of access to abox, contraception -- abortion, contraception. so that would be our federal priority. we are just seeing too much damage done at the state level and, you know, the will as i said of american people is not being served by these extreme governors and extreme statehouses. so the women's health protection act is certainly a very big

prior the city for us. but as i said, we're really focused in the states on undoing some of the damage that's been done over the last few years. >> host: legally, do you see another route at the hobby lobby decision? >> guest: you know, legally, i don't know. we are definitely pursuing the sort of state-based versions of the not my boss' business bill. in a number of different states, it's certainly still alive in both chambers and at the federal level. i do think we're going to see more court cases. i think we're going to see cases coming up from the states exactly about what your caller asked about, which is access. the constitution guarantees access without undue burden. and certainly most people, including myself, believe there is significant undue burden on women seeking their constitutional rights right now. >> host: let's go to louis, georgia. republican. you're on the air. >> guest: i just wondered what

the lady felt about male birth control? >> guest: i think male birth control is fabulous. [laughter] i think anyone who has any ability to access any family planning tool means that every child is a wanted child, that every life's being lived, is empowered which is what we care about, that if you have is access to family planning, men and women around the world, we see that not only do they individually thrive, but families thrive, communities thrive, even countries thrive with better family planning access and programs, entire countries' gdps go up. >> host: fort collins, colorado, james, independent caller. james, what do you make of this nat fight in your state -- senate fight in your state and the issue of access to birth control, personhood amendments and etc. >> caller: well, what i wanted to say is all of the races, the governor race, the senator race and the congressman, it's working for 'em, it appears to

be. >> host: why do you say that? >> caller: because i saw the debate that c-span aired, and when the comment came up or the issue of corey gardener's a mushtive in congress -- initiative in congress, it's h. r. 182 or 1082, he denied the whole thing. but i've read the issue or the bill that he brought up, and he wanted to criminalize, and he, you know, he just -- he lies about everything. and people know it. and it's hurting him. and so i agree with mark udall and hickenlooper and roam november in the congressional race. so, james, you're an independent. have you voted for republicans before? >> guest: i have. >> host: okay. >> guest: i have. when i was in the army, when i

was in the army, when nixon -- [laughter] promised to end the draft, i actually voted for him. and i don't mind saying that. i'm a true independent, have been all my life. >> host: so is this enough of an issue as an independent, this issue of access and personhood, is it enough of an issue to sway you towards the democrats? >> guest: i have a wife, daughter and two granddaughters, so i know what this means to women. it's not just abortion. >> host: okay. >> caller: it's other women's issues that pertain to them. >> host: okay, all right. >> guest: yeah. i think that the caller is resonating a feeling that i really encountered being in colorado knocking on doors, which is as we talked about before, this is not a single issue, it's pervasive for, you know, women and people who have women in their lives that they care about. but i think the important thing about what that caller said is that it goes to character. it goes to character of cory

gardner, right? and people want to be able to trust their elected officials, and this guy has twisted himself in knots and, you know, straight out lied in order to back pedal from his extreme positions because he knows they're outside of the mainstream. he knows most people want their reproductive health care left alone, family planning to be a family decision, and in order to sort of get out of the extreme positions he's taken, he's flat out lied, and that really undercuts trust with the voters. >> host: what about this recent debate between the two where cory gardner asked senator udall if he opposed making contraception available over the counter, and udall wouldn't answer the question? >> guest: yeah. i'm not sure what happened with senator udall there. you know, there is a very big challenge because it's not that it doesn't sound great, and we care very much about expanding access for contraception. it is the fundamental problem

with that is that because the affordable care act for the first time ever meant women don't have to be punished more getting that prescription because their insurance will cover it, what cory gardner is trying to do is say, a, we'll make it over the counter. well, he can't snap his fingers and make it accepted over the counter, but, b, he's suggesting that women should have to pay twice for it. i know that senator udall has been a huge proponent of making, you know, as we say, being a woman not a pre-existing condition through the affordable care act and simply saying let's make this over the counter is, women, you're being punished again for billion a woman, you have to -- for being a woman. this is what congress worked so hard to eliminate through the affordable care act. >> host: we'll go to mark next, clearwater, florida. democratic caller. >> caller: good morning. >> host: you're on the our.

morning. >> caller: just a quick statement and a question, please. first of all, it's not, it's abortion is what we're discussing here this morning. and when the democrats had both parties and the presidency, they didn't discuss this issue or pass one single law to help this issue. it only comes up during campaigns as they go towards the heartstrings of the american people. but she made a comment that she stated that women are getting hurt more, and i'd like to know where she got that information so i can look it up and see if women are being hurt more because they don't have access to birth control which is at every cvs, wall green's in the world. >> host: okay. >> caller: thank you. >> host: okay, mark. >> guest: there's a number of different studies that show when abortion is made illegal, injuries and deaths go up. the world health organization has one, the u.n. has one. but the one i was specifically citing in texas was done by dan grossman at ibis reproductive

health care, health care, and you can look that up. but i would actually challenge the caller's premise because we are not just talking about abortion access, although that would be enough since 7 in 10 americans believe that abortion should be legal and that the decision should remain with women and our families. what we are seeing with people like cory gardner is that abortion is a piece of a very extreme agenda, right? and that extreme agenda includes granting same rights to women, to fertilized eggs as they do to women which, again, would result in outlawing certain kinds of contraception, having a domino effect on end-of-life decisions, invitro fertilization. there is a particular ideological agenda that drives people like cory gardner, sam brownback in kansas that is really out of step with mainstream values. it's about legislating a kind of morality around family life that fundamentally americans believe is part of why we live in a free

country, so that we get to define what family is for ourselves. >> host: we'll go to texas, tom is a republican watching us there. hi, tom, you're on the air. >> caller: morning, c-span, thanks for taking my call. i was just wondering, if a test is created that can determine if a child in the womb is a homosexual, would your guest and other fringe abortion enthusiast object, and if so, on what basisesome. >> guest: you know, i don't think that that exists, and i'm not particularly interested in dealing in the hypotheticals. i am from texas as well, hi, tom. i'm a fourth generation texan, and i think those hypotheticals that are not actually grounded in reality is the kind of things that drive the extreme legislation that we've seen take over my home state in texas and is hurting women. most women, um, facing unintended pregnancies have very valid and personal decisions, reasons that drive them to make

that decision, and what the government has ruled, what the court has ruled is that that's a private decision making process and that the supreme court has said the state has no business many regulating that, and that's what we're about. >> host: judy's next, pauline, new york, republican. hi, judy, you're on the air. >> caller: hi, greta. well, i have two statements i want to make. why is there the need to play on women's emotions for money and the push for pro-abortion during elections when abortion's legal in the united states? and why can't women buy condoms if they want to have sexual relations? they're the least expensive form of birth control and the most needed to prevent social diseases. >> guest: i think that the question about abortion remaining legal contraception being accessible are very fundamental questions that do have a very clear place in our public discourse and

particularly around our elections. like i said, we've seen a slew of restrictions pass at the state level. there have been a number of bills introduced in the house at the federal level that would restrict a woman's right to choose her own family planning method, restrict her access to have a safe and legal abortion. so i think these are legitimate issues that people want discussed alongside many other issues in determining who they want to vote for. lots of women do buy condoms. the question is why shouldn't women have access to the broadest range of effective tools to support our reproductive health care, and that is something that i believe deeply every woman should have access to as much health care as we need, as much family planning as we need so that we can live healthy lives and make every pregnancy an intended one. >> host: vivian is next in texas, democratic caller. >> caller: good morning. you know, what bothers me the

most, you know, i have friends that are republicans and everything, and they're post women, police well, and even the reporters i see, none of them got there by themself, but they are angry at the '60s protesters and they think protesters of and that -- none of them got there by himself. it was women thrown in jail for vote ising and spit on and -- voting and spit on and force fed, it was women protesting more their rights and things like that that got 'em there. they didn't get there by themself, and yet they belittle people that helped to get them there. i mean, there are women that burned their bras, as silly as that may sound today, it got them where they are today. >> guest: yeah. i mean, there's no doubt there's been a long fight for civil rights in this country for women, and anyone who's not sort of traditionally holding power. and i couldn't agree more with

the caller that, you know, whether you have chosen to become a postwoman, as she said, or whether you're on the pathway to be a corporate ceo, certainly those who came before us fought for the right to vote, fought for access to the marketplace, deserve a lot of the credit. but underlying all of that which these women knew is our ability to control our own reproductive health. if we can't choose when we have children and with whom, all other choices are actually closed off to us. and by the way, this has not traditionally been a democratic issue. in fact, back to colorado, the very first state to liberalize abortion in 1969 before roe was colorado, republican governors. so this has been traditionally a bipartisan issue because it's one of fundamental human rightings. what we see is when you still go

out and ask people when they identify and how they feel about legal access to abortion, this is still a bipartisan issue, it's only at the elected official level it's become so polarized. >> host: we have a few minutes left with elise hogue, prochoiceamerica.org for more information about their group. we'll go to sonya next in florida, independent caller: you're on the air, good morning. >> caller: hi, good morning. can you hear me okay? >> host: we can. >> caller: great. listen, thank you more c-span, paris, and i appreciate the guest you have on air right now. i am a retired air force vet, you know, more dominantly, basically work more in a male-dominated career field. and i guess my -- are you still there? >> host: yeah, we're listening, sonya. >> caller: okay. i do appreciate the previous caller that was discussing, you know, the women's activism from

previous decades because without them i don't get -- i didn't get where i was at throughout my military career. on women's issues though, i do appreciate, i'm kind of a more libertarian type view, say out of it, i don't like the government in my business at all. but sometimes i do have, you know, your guest was going on about this is a bipartisan issue. i do differ on that. it's not a bipartisan issue, it's a human issue. and i just, i just want to make the point it's, there's a lot of, you know, democrat against republican back and forth, and i can tell you a lot of us independents or more libertarian, we're basically tired of that because it's not one way or other. these are issues that are facing everybody. >> host: okay. i'm going to have to leave it there and have our guest jump

in. >> guest: you know, i couldn't agree more. i think these are fundamental human issues and where people agree, 7 in 10 americans agree is as fundamental human issues, they belong with us as individuals, with us as families and not with politicians somewhere in a statehouse or a federal capital. >> host: jack is in providence, rhode island, a democrat. go ahead, jack. >> caller: yeah, good morning. i'd like to discuss with your guest something that's in the shadows. it's conservative women. like, for example, she seems to be a very strong candidate, joni ernst out of iowa. i don't really believe your organization is supporting her, you know? and other conservative women like in the past sarah palin, michele bachmann, who i think is retiring. but -- >> host: jack, are you, are you wondering why they don't support republican women? >> guest: no, no, no, i'm not wondering about that, i'm wondering why overall it's not

really more prevalent in the news cycle. this is my concern. like joni ernst, for example, that woman is a patriot, okay? she's smart, she's a patriot, and she's got guts, all right? and she's totally honest, and i just don't understand why she doesn't get more support. i believe she's going to win that election, i sincerely hope so. but god almighty, smarten up. [laughter] >> host: okay. >> guest: yeah. we, we actually support as candidates both men and women, and as long as they share all values and the values of most americans, which is to make reproductive health care accessible, keep decision making with women, families and our doctors, they've got our support. .. thank you for talking to viewers. go to