The End of Federalism: COPS Edition
Conn Carroll /
Earlier this week, the USA Today reported that for the first time in the history of the United States, states and local governments are now dependent on the federal government for the majority of their revenues. While Medicaid is the driving force behind this growing dependency, it is not the only federal program that undermines state and local accountability. The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in particular encourages fiscally irresponsible behavior. Heritage fellow David B. Muhlhausen details:
Boston illustrates how COPS encourages fiscal irresponsibility by local governments. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has blamed his inability to properly staff the Boston Police Department on a lack of COPS funding. During the 1990s, Boston accepted millions of dollars in COPS grants to hire additional police officers. When accepting these grants, Boston promised to retain these officers and maintain the same staffing levels after the federal contributions expired. Instead of developing a plan to retain the officers, Mayor Menino decided to downsize officer staffing after the grants expired, in violation of the federal grant rules. (more…)