Adelia Rattray

Climate change related sector strategies appear to have some folks engaged in a definitional dialogue at the #jffhorizons conference. My colleague and I (Wendy Brors) wonder how you are labeling these efforts in your state? Climate change jobs? Green Jobs? Clean energy jobs? Or, as some have come to understand, are most jobs going to have a theme of climate change running through them in the next ten years? What are your thoughts? #air #climatechange #workforce

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THIS TUESDAY, April 30, from 12:30-1:30 PT, SPUR will be hosting a special digital discourse on how New York City designed its congestion pricing policy, the process for moving it through approvals, and how it can serve as a model for the Bay Area. Register today! Congestion pricing could be a game-changer for transportation planning in San Francisco. By charging drivers a fee for driving on specific roads at peak times, the city can reduce the incentive to drive. Reduced vehicle volumes allow buses to travel faster and more reliably. The revenues from the program can then be used to support transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. While international cities like London, Stockholm, and Singapore have operated road pricing programs for years, this type of program has faced resistance in the U.S. Congestion pricing has been studied for downtown San Francisco, but never progressed into implementation. But starting later this year, New York City will begin implementing a brand new congestion pricing program that will charge a toll on drivers entering downtown Manhattan. What can San Francisco learn from these cities? Could congestion pricing be the key to meeting our mobility and sustainability goals? Most importantly, could it help create a more equitable transportation system? What can San Francisco learn from these cities? Could congestion pricing be the key to meeting our mobility and sustainability goals? Most importantly, could it help create a more equitable transportation system? Joining us will be Carl Weisbrod from the MTA Traffic Mobility Review Board and Tilly Chang from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA.) https://lnkd.in/gFpY6KGq

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Amid the nation's experiment with "place-based" economic development do check out our big The Brookings Institution look at how it's going, how it can be optimized. Joe Parilla Glencora Haskins and myself offer takeaways from 7 case studies culled from early implementation of local initiatives supported by the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge https://lnkd.in/eDrR2Tsn These case studies and our takeaways are important as they reveal critical early successes and challenges associated with operating a complex and ambitious program and implementing cutting-edge economic strategies in regional ecosystems. Ultimately we distill out seven lessons for regional practitioners and five implications for the future of place-based economic policy (aimed primarily at policymakers and investors). Do let us know what you think U.S. Economic Development Administration Alejandra Y. Castillo Jon Cardinal Rob Atkinson Elisabeth Reynolds Erin Raftery Walter Frick Mike Egan Daniel Goetzel Rachel Lipson Alex Jones Scott Andes Peter Coy David Leonhardt Pam Lewis Danny Yagan Heather Boushey

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We’re thrilled to introduce the AmeriCorps Research Grantee Story Map! Curious about civic engagement, volunteering, and national service? Look no further! Our Story Map is your gateway to a wealth of information and data on AmeriCorps Research Grantees. These dedicated researchers are funded to conduct studies on civic engagement. We’ve designed this map to make it easier for our agency staff, partners, researchers, and the general public to access information about the funded studies. Dive into the AmeriCorps Research Grantee dataset, which includes data from each research grantee cohort (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023). With this data, you can extract actionable insights, spot trends, and identify patterns related to civic engagement both locally and nationally. #AmeriCorps #CivicEngagement #DataDrivenInsights https://lnkd.in/ePKq9Grr

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I am honored to have worked with Kayley McGrath on this piece. If you have a moment please check out this blog post we wrote on the recent guidance from the IRS regarding domestic content and energy community bonus credits!

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Hot off the presses! Two New York City Independent Budget Office reports are out today: 📊 IBO’s analysis of the Mayor’s Executive Budget and economic and revenue forecasts show that the City’s fiscal health looks good for this fiscal year and next: IBO’s projected surplus for this year is $5 billion and for next year is $1 billion. The Administration’s tax revenue forecast, which was much more dire back in November, have come up substantially to match IBO’s levels all along (check out page 5). Check out the full report: https://bit.ly/3K2N1Kk 🌎 IBO’s updated cost scenarios for asylum seeker services remain lower than the Administration’s estimates due to differences in population estimates, partly as a result of the City’s exit requirements out of shelter for adults. New in this report, are estimates of the negative consequences of these exit policies that may be felt by not only the individuals forced to exit but also the larger NYC community, shifting the narrative from the Administration’s presentation of the policies as pure cost savers. Some negative consequences IBO includes are: 1. 💵 The opportunity cost of not receiving work authorizations. 2. 🏥 The potential healthcare costs associated with street homelessness 3. 🚌 The additional cost of busing students to their school from potentially farther locations. Check out the full report: https://bit.ly/4anGlRZ

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I wrote a report in 2022 with my friends Ted Boling and Laura Smith Morton on federal policy actions needed for #offshorewind. Re-reading many of the policy ideas, they are still relevant today. We wrote the playbook on what is needed -- some are now in the BOEM Modernization Rule and others still need to be implemented. https://lnkd.in/eWqpDuuA

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If you are a company or organization currently paying or looking for government relations, public affairs, or lobbying help in the Washington, DC area, don't pay the additional premium for the firm with the unnecessary office image in DC to support. Doing so is like Jim Croce continuing to put dimes into a pay phone to keep the connection going with the operator while a growing digital era takes hold. Instead look at smaller firms, like Avison Strategies, LLC, with similar experience, a much smaller fee structure and a business model focused on results, the latest AI and ML technology, and personal attention to reach people where they are and when it is needed. Retainers average $4,000-$5,000/month for firms like mine compared to $10,000-$15,000/month for firms like those. Office costs and the impact through association fallacy will make you overpay and results will frequently under deliver. Support a small business instead and see the difference.

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Does the state have a role in moving us away from extractive racial capitalism and toward an abolitionist future? Andrea Ritchie and Mariame Kaba's response for the Boston Review’s “Climate, State, and Utopia” forum. "The immediate task, then, is assessing what work needs to be done to create the conditions for something new to emerge. This requires that we grapple with practical questions, such as how to organize at the community level at a scale necessary to meet collective needs in a global society in ways that do not replicate the policing functions of the state. What liberatory mechanisms of individual and mutual accountability can we imagine and practice within these projects? How might we preserve collective resources for the common good against those who would seek to accumulate them for private gain or put personal preference above collective goals? How do we navigate strategic questions focused on limiting the state’s power to do harm and maximizing its capacity to meet collective needs while practicing and fighting for more participatory forms of governance?"

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Hey #SNAP advocates and funders! 👋 Check out my latest blog highlighting some of the important commitments made in recent years to protect and strengthen SNAP in challenging political environments, including from Feeding America, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Food Research & Action Center, and Center for Law and Social Policy. We can and do #win in #red states, but it requires long-term #investment in #advocacy capacity! 🌟

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I am so excited to share a big release: Today, Results for America has released “The Evaluation Policy Guide”, a new resource containing the best elements and key lessons learned from federal, state and local government policies that encourage and shape the use of evidence to improve the impact of government spending. Any government policymaker can use this resource to make better decisions and deliver faster results. No matter where you are in building your evaluation capacity, the Guide has everything you need to facilitate your team’s evaluation journey from start to finish, including: ✔ Resources on how to build support for an evaluation policy ✔ Free tools such as frameworks, practical exercises and examples ✔ Best practices to engage community members and deliver better outcomes for all residents Join the wave of government leaders investing in policies that make lives better, building trust with residents, and strengthening communities. Download the free guide today 👉 results4america.co/3KbIaqx

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It’s about time. “As of June 2023, the Department of Budget and Management reported 205 laws with funding deficiencies, 159 of which do not have a specified budgetary requirement. The accumulation of unfunded measures places pressure on the government to increase its deficits and hampers the intended provision of better services to beneficiaries. House bills on budget modernization seek to address this issue by requiring a Financial and Budgetary Information Sheet for each bill that adds to government expenditure. Hence, for the Philippines to successfully adopt policy costing, it is important to clearly define the purpose, scope, and institutional arrangements when preparing policy cost estimates.”

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I helped work on New York's historic congestion pricing legislation in 2019. Here is why it's good for New Yorkers, good for the climate—and why New York's congestion program must start on June 30. Over her time in office, Governor Hochul has been a steadfast advocate for the implementation of congestion pricing, a vital policy that stands to reduce congestion, alleviate pollution in overburdened communities and provide dedicated financial support to public transportation. The Governor’s decision to postpone this critical policy is incredibly disappointing. It’s imperative we recommit to swift implementation of the 2019 law. After so much work has been done to secure stakeholder support and federal approvals that were years in the making, we must begin this initiative as soon as possible. We know from analysis conducted by the business community and your own transportation agencies that congestion pricing is perfectly compatible with a strong New York economy and affordability agenda. It’s also an important part of New York’s leadership on climate. We also know from examples overseas in cities like London, Milan, Stockholm, and Singapore that congestion pricing can improve air quality, ease commute times and increase affordable and clean travel options for people.

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Opportunity to nominate committee members for a new National Academies study on the influence of human-caused climate change on specific weather and climate events! This study will update and expand on the 2016 National Academies report, Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change, by considering current scientific understanding and capabilities for extreme event attribution. The committee will identify research priorities to advance event attribution capabilities, consider ways to extend attribution science to data-limited regions, and provide guidance for engaging stakeholders with the findings of attribution science. The team is looking for expertise particularly in the following areas: Extreme weather and climate events and attribution Climate variability and change Climate and Earth system modeling Meteorology Data analysis and statistics Machine learning and artificial intelligence Science/risk communication Hazard/risk management Environmental law and/or economics International capacity building Application of attribution science

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Here's the summary of our new paper calling for greater effort at dismantling inequity: DC’s Local Fund budget (the portion of the budget that reflects spending supported through our three broad based taxes—income, sales, and property) has been steady for decades when taken as a share of the economy (a key measure of our fiscal capacity). In other words, we’ve largely just kept pace with growth in the economy and that’s a good thing—we have to be able to keep up with growing needs for public services broadly and also specific things like competitive public sector wages and parts of the budget that grow faster than others or serve populations with higher cost needs. Our spending as a share of the economy has at times been higher than it is now—in fact it is actually lower now than it was in the very last year of the Control Board era. We’ve made some really important investments for racial and economic equity with that spending, especially in the last decade or so (we share a few examples that are not meant to be an exhaustive list). Revenue is projected to decline as a share of the economy in the coming years, which could cause us to backtrack when we really should be pushing forward toward more progress on tackling longstanding racial and economic inequity. More progress would strengthen our economy as a whole. To move forward and achieve more transformative change, we will need to raise revenue and increase our collective effort (we offer just a handful of examples where we should fulfill commitments already made and forge ahead with additional public investments).

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check out this excellent primer - I learned a lot, and it made me think more about the constraints any one set of tools, like watermarking, are dealing with if we ask them to solve for an underlying concept - like "trust".

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In our recent analysis, Tomi Rajninger and I found that competitive federal infrastructure grants in FY22 were more likely go to cities and counties with higher bureaucratic capacity. This could signal a potentially concerning inequity, where places with fewer resources are unable to access important funds for their communities -- possibly because they don't know the funding opportunities exist, or because the application processes are too difficult or time-consuming.

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Earlier in the year, I was a Lead Fellow leading the Next Generation Politics Criminal Justice Civic Action Project that partnered with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and Young New Yorkers. For our project, we decided on the topic of providing a platform for young people impacted by the criminal legal system and people who work within the story to share their experiences--their side of the story. Our project is named Repainting the Narrative and is inspired by the Strangers Project that is showcased in New York City's World Trade Center at the Oculus. Young people who have been involved with the system often face societal stigma for their criminal records, having society automatically paint them to be "terrible people" before understanding who they truly are. Through this project, our group hoped that this would be a further step in criminal justice reform. Criminal justice reform isn't always about allocating time and money to change the system; it can be as simple as listening--listening to other people and what they've been through. The stories we have received have recently been published on the Next Generations Politics website in the Blog section (https://lnkd.in/eAbfmJ62). Please read the stories that have been published. If you know anyone who has been impacted by the system and/or works in the system, please contribute to our never-ending project by asking them to fill out the form attached to this post in the comment section, in which the story will be published afterward. Thank you everyone for the help and cooperation! Before I end, I want to make sure that it is clear that my intentions are genuine. In no way is this post a "bragging post" about my projects or achievements, but instead a post to spread information to more people and to make the world a better place. Criminal justice reform is an area of advocacy that I've always been passionate about, and I am always working on spreading that passion to other people.

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