University of Wisconsin–Madison
Progressive Local Government
For the 21st Century

ProGov21 Policy Library

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Year
Our Deepening Democracy: How Localities Can Expand Voting Rights
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2018
Level County
State(s) All States
Source The Center for Popular Democracy
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
American democracy is at a crossroads. To deliver on the promise of a representative inclusive democracy our electoral system must provide every American the opportunity to meaningfully participate and make their voice heard in our democracy. That starts by guaranteeing that every...
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Seattle Executive Order 2014-03: Equity in City Contracting
Type Executive Order
Year 2014
Level City or Town
State(s) Washington
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Environment & Natural Resources, Children & Families, Democracy & Governance
An Executive Order to affirm Seattle's commitment to equity in City contracting and to advance the City's mission to promote race and gender equity in contracting. This Executive Order directs City departments and offices to increase the opportunities for women and minority owned...
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San Francisco Local Hiring Policy for Construction Fact Sheet
Type Fact Sheet or Infographic
Year 2011
Level City or Town
State(s) California
Source San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights
This fact sheet briefly summarized San Francisco's Local Hiring Policy for Construction. It requires 30% of all project hours within each trade to be performed by local residents, and no less than 15% of all project work hours within each trade to be performed by disadvantaged workers....
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Exploring Targeted Hire: An Assessment of Best Practices in the Construction Industry
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Children & Families, Democracy & Governance
Public construction projects are an expenditure of public tax dollars; as such, public agencies have an opportunity to develop policies for public construction projects to benefit taxpayers with employment and business opportunities. Targeted hire initiatives create institutional...
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Key Elements of a Targeted Hiring Program
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Children & Families
Most targeted hiring programs include mechanisms that do two things: 1) Maximize the chances that workers from the targeted category who are already in the construction industry will get called to work on that job. 2) Create opportunities for new workers - aspiring apprentices who...
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Ranked Choice Voting and Civility: New Evidence from American Cities
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level City or Town, County
State(s) -
Source FairVote
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance
Highlights from two recent studies suggest that ranked choice voting (RCV) has been embraced by voters and candidates alike, who see it as a means of reducing divisive politics and fostering more positive, inclusive, and informative campaigns. One key finding: Candidates who participated...
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Shortchanging Small Businesses: How Big Businesses Dominate State Economic Development Incentives
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2015
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Community Development, Public Spaces, Democracy & Governance
An analysis of more than 4,200 economic development incentive awards in 14 states finds that large companies received dominant shares, ranging between 80 and 96 percent of their dollar values. The deals, worth more than $3.2 billion, were granted in recent years by programs that,...
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Contracting for Equity: Best Local Government Practices that Advance Racial Equity in Government Contracting and Procurement
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2015
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Housing, Public Safety
Inclusive contracting refers to the process of creating the environment for businesses owned by people of color and/or women to participate in a governmental procurement and contracting process. Inclusive business participation in local government procurement and contracting is an...
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Automatic Voter Registration
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2017
Level County
State(s) All States
Source SiX Action
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
Our registration and voting system generally works well, but in the age of computers, modernizing our outdated, paper-based voter registration system is just common sense. A system of automatic voter registration (AVR) is a small but important change that would replace our current...
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Local Law No. 5 of 2014: “Pay-To-Play Local Law”
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level City or Town
State(s) New York, Wyoming
Source Orange County Legislature
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance
This ordinance amends local law to limit campaign contributions from businesses that contract with the county to members of the county legislature, or candidates for county legislature, and requires entities receiving contracts to issue a sworn statement that they have not previously...
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2014 Independent Business Survey
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Community Development, Public Spaces, Finance & Procurement, Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance's 7th annual Independent Business Survey gathered data from 2,602 independent, locally owned businesses across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The respondents encompass a range of business types. A little over half are retailers. The...
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Expanding Voting Rights
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2017
Level City or Town, County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
A wide array of policies to increase voter participation should be adopted by state governments, including automatic voter registration, same-day registration, expansion of early voting and no-fault absentee and vote by mail statutes, voter registration modernization, and restoration...
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Seattle Priority Hire on City Construction Projects
Type Fact Sheet or Infographic
Year 2015
Level City or Town
State(s) Washington
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Environment & Natural Resources, Democracy & Governance, Children & Families
The City of Seattle supports construction jobs and meaningful employment for those in our community through programs that prepare and train workers for careers with family-sustaining wages. In early 2015, the Seattle City Council adopted a new City law, proposed by Mayor Ed Murray,...
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Building America While Building Our Middle Class: Best Practices for P3 Infrastructure Projects
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2016
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
Policymakers have long understood the job creation opportunities that public infrastructure projects provide. To enhance these jobs' economic and social impact and lift families out of poverty, many cities and states have incorporated job quality and equity policies into public infrastructure...
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Evaluating Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2020
Level City or Town
State(s) Pennsylvania, Washington
Source Fels Institute of Government
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance
This report reviews the history and impact of Seattle's Democracy Voucher Program and considers its applicability to Philadelphia. While Seattle's project has successfully increased participation rates, voucher users are not representative of the community, and are more likely to...
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Election Finance Roadmap
Type Roadmap
Year 2022
Level City or Town, County
State(s) All States
Source ProGov21
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Finance & Procurement
The influence of big money on politics has undermined American Democracy at the national, state, and local level. Today, wealthy elites and businesses have a disproportionate impact on who runs, who is elected, and what issues are debated. ProGov21's updated Election Finance Roadmap...
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Minneapolis Tenant Voter Welcome
Type Fact Sheet or Infographic
Year 2018
Level City or Town
State(s) Minnesota
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Housing, Public Safety, Democracy & Governance
A notice to new tenants summarizing key voting information including election dates and registration options....
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Integrated Voter Engagement Research Report
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2015
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source Faith in Action
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance
The goal of Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) is to build year-round organizations in cities and states that have an organized constituency of people who register to vote, turnout to vote, mobilize others into political activity, and hold their elected officials accountable through...
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Modern and Secure Elections
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2018
Level County
State(s) All States
Source SiX Action
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
Now, more than ever, the strength of our democracy is not something we can take for granted. Our democracy works only as long as people participate and believe in our election systems. To that end, we need to ensure that our system of registration and voting is modern, secure, and...
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The Contribution of Large and Small Employers to Job Creation in Times of High and Low Unemployment
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2012
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Community Development, Public Spaces, Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
We document a negative correlation, at business cycle frequencies, between the net job creation rate of large employers and the level of aggregate unemployment that is much stronger than for small employers. The differential growth rate of employment between initially large and small...
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Fair Elections Program Contribution Limitations and Requirements
Type Ordinance
Year 2022
Level City or Town
State(s) District of Columbia
Source City of Washington, D.C.
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance
This ordinance limits campaign contributions from non-resident donors to an aggregate dollar amount and requires campaigns to maintain identification records for non-resident donors. ...
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Ensuring Racial Equity in Public Contracting
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2013
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Community Development, Public Spaces, Democracy & Governance
Businesses owned by people of color create jobs and build wealth in communities of color. Yet despite rapid growth of entrepreneurship among people of color - and women of color in particular - these businesses face significant barriers to growth and success. Government spending on...
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Uncompetitive and Unrepresented: Voters Locked Out of Representation
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2020
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source FairVote
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance
Safe districts are the electoral districts which are regarded as “secure” for a certain political party or candidate to win. In a winner-take-all system, the votes of people who have a mix of political viewpoints or prefer a different political party are insufficient to elect anyone....
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Issue One Explainer: Tax Credits and Rebates for Small-Dollar Contributors
Type Fact Sheet or Infographic
Year 2017
Level National, State
State(s) All States
Source Issue One
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Finance & Procurement
Most of the campaign funding in the United States come from an incredibly small group of people, and trust in this system is near record lows. This report recommends incentivizing greater participation in the political system through a tax credit and rebate system that would make...
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Supporting Entrepreneurs and Small Business
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level County
State(s) All States
Source Mayors Innovation Project
Policy Areas Community Development, Public Spaces, Finance & Procurement, Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance
Local leaders recognize and often publicly tout the importance of a strong, growing entrepreneurial and small business community. Yet, when it comes to supporting entrepreneurs in practice, many local leaders are unsure how they can make a real impact. Experts suggest that one essential...
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