KEARNEY — Tune into 1340 KGFW during the morning of Friday, Jan. 24 for a discussion with Buffalo County officials regarding unfunded mandates.
The hour-long discussion will begin at 10 a.m. and involve different elected officials and county employees with Buffalo County. The recorded discussion will be posted online later.
An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires any entity to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements.
This can be imposed on state or local government, The key distinction is that the statute or regulation is not accompanied by funding to fulfill the requirement.
Federal unfunded mandates can be traced back to the post-World War II years, when the federal government initiated national programs in education, mental health services, and environmental protection.
The first wave of major mandates occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, concerning civil rights, education, and the environment.
Critics argue that unfunded mandates are inefficient and are an unfair imposition of the national government on the smaller governments. While many scholars do not object to the goals of the mandates, the way they are enforced and written is criticized for their ineffectiveness.
