Virus Brings States to a Standstill: Sessions Halt, Budgets Crater, Plans Wait

The Legislature’s stance so irritated The Idaho Statesman, the state’s largest newspaper, that an editorial advised the lawmakers: “Coronavirus Can Kill You. Just Go Home Already.” The lawmakers adjourned not long ago.

In recent years, with federal leaders and parties clashing in Washington, D.C., states have often been the crucibles for policy innovation. As the virus sweeps through the nation, some of those policies may serve as a shield for Americans struggling to recover.

Eight states — Alaska, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — have passed minimum wages for restaurant servers. As the virus has forced restaurants across the nation to shutter and lay off thousands of servers and staff members, these laws will mean larger unemployment checks for the jobless.

Similarly, over the years, 26 states have adopted a policy known as short-term compensation, which allows employers to reduce workers’ hours rather than resort to layoffs.

“There have been years now of strong state creativity and that won’t get totally swept away in this crisis,” said Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution’s metropolitan policy program. He saw reason to hope that more such innovation — needed now more than ever — may lay ahead. “If we’re lucky and we get the right kind of federal stimulus bill, some of this innovation,” he said, “will likely not just survive but be accelerated.”

For now, many state houses reflect the nation’s ideological divisions and preoccupations, and the virus has not changed that. “It’s sort of like the lens you look through before coronavirus is the same lens you look through to solve issues related to coronavirus,” said Mr. Gazelka, the Republican state senator in Minnesota.

Republicans favor easing mandates and pushing back tax deadlines, he said. And Democrats, according to Melissa Hortman, the Democratic House Speaker, want to find ways to provide more direct aid to working-class residents.