State officials are trying to address voters’ concerns about rising costs of living, including housing and everyday items such as groceries, utilities and child care.
As governors deliver their annual State of the State addresses, many tailor their messages to speak to voters Concerns about affordability.
Since the issue is so broad, there are a lot of things the judges can try. But for the same reason, there is no single policy that will bridge the gap between stagnant wages and expenses that are rising for many people.
For example, Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine, wants to send $300 relief checks to 725,000 residents. Others impose caps on utility rates or call for easier ways to build more housing.
The idea was to improve affordability in the heart of New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani’s campaign Last year, it resonated at the national level.
About half of U.S. adults — 54% — said the cost of groceries was a “major source” of stress in their lives, according to an October AP-NORC poll. At least 4 in 10 said the cost of housing, their savings, paychecks and the cost of health care were “major” sources of stress in this survey.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in December found that about 9 in 10 American adults said they had faced higher-than-usual grocery store prices in recent months, and about 7 in 10 said that for electricity.
The government’s main measure of inflation shows that average annual prices rose less than 3% from 2012 until 2021, when prices rose sharply. Since mid-2023, annual increases have hovered around 3%, but prices are higher than they were before the boom. Some costs – including electricity and housing – rose faster than average.
Republicans have long prioritized tax cuts as a way to give some people relief. Officials in states including Florida, Georgia and North Dakota aim to do just that Eliminate estate taxes For homeowners over time. Kentucky and Mississippi are on long-term paths to achieving this Eliminate income taxes. Critics of such approaches warn that such moves could increase states’ reliance on sales taxes, which disproportionately affect low-income people.
When President Donald Trump was seeking to return to the White House in 2024, he promised to “make America affordable again,” and he recently made the announcement. He returned to the topic.
But he criticized the way his political opponents talk about affordability, repeatedly calling it “affordability.” Hoax or fraud by DemocratsWhich he blames for the high prices.
This has opened the way for Democratic governors to criticize the president as out of touch with ordinary Americans without speaking his name.
“There are those who have called affordability a sham or a sham,” Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, said in her speech. “And I would invite them to come to Virginia and connect with the families and business leaders that I’ve met…because the facts tell a different story.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, all Democrats, have called for a multi-pronged approach to affordability with a focus on housing.
In her State of the Commonwealth address last month, Haley called for empty offices to be converted into apartments and for government-owned property to be used to build housing. Hobbs proposed charging nightly fees on vacation rentals and using the money they generate to help families with housing and utility costs. Newsom told lawmakers they should pass a law to prevent institutional investors from buying homes in bulk.
Some of the more sweeping measures don’t immediately create new housing, said Francis Torres, director of housing and infrastructure projects at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He said: “There is a difference between legalizing housing on paper and housing that is actually built.” That’s why officials are also trying to provide support through down payments and other ways meant to help in the meantime.
Trump has argued for policies Maintain high housing value – which protects current homeowners but hurts many renters and people looking to buy their first home.
In New Jersey, utility rates were a big part of the conversation in the governor’s race last year. When Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill was sworn in in January, she immediately signed two executive orders: one to freeze utility rates and another aimed at increasing electricity production, including solar and nuclear.
Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun supports a measure that would not allow investor-owned utilities to increase their profit margins unless they provide customers with affordable power.
Haley, who is running for re-election this year, announced in her State of the State address in January that all customers’ electric bills would be reduced by 25% and gas bills by 10% in February and March. Part of the reduction in electricity would come from a fund that would have paid for clean energy and efficiency projects. The utilities agreed to the rest of the cuts.
And in Washington state, Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson is calling for an income tax on those who earn more than $1 million a year — in a state that now has no income tax.
He frames it as a way to help other Washingtonians make ends meet — by using some of the revenue to pay for an expanded tax credit for working families and giving small business owners a tax break.
Indiana’s Brown said the key to affordability is attracting more higher-paying jobs to the state, something he said is already happening, noting that hourly earnings rose faster than the national average last year.
And in Rhode Island, Democratic Gov. Daniel McKee this month unveiled what he called an “affordability for all” agenda that relies heavily on tax policy and includes creating a refundable child tax credit, cutting gasoline taxes and eliminating them from Social Security, as most states have already done.
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Associated Press journalists Michael Casey and Lynley Sanders contributed to this article.