State and local governments, frustrated over the failure of the White House and Congress to do more to address affordability, are increasingly taking steps themselves to address cost of living concerns.
Democrats and Republican leaders across the country have proposed a series of measures to counter high costs, including pausing taxes, increasing the minimum wage and fast tracking housing projects.
While many of the proposed solutions have sparked intense partisan debates in legislatures and city halls, there’s bipartisan agreement that there isn’t enough support coming from Washington. Both parties see affordability as one of the driving concerns ahead of the midterms.
Read more: BGOV OnPoint: Affordability Drives Governors’ Agendas for 2026
“It is a tough issue,” said Gov.
Kemp is considering pausing the state gas tax in Georgia, with prices at the pump spiking due to the Iran war. The Georgia House passed a bill this week to halt the gas tax for two-months, and the measure will now head to the state Senate for consideration.
In California, Gov.
The governor, widely viewed as a 2028 Democratic hopeful, also increased the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 last year. Newsom upped the standard state minimum wage to $20 an hour in 2023.
Newsom’s office also flagged several other affordability programs the governor has carried out while in office, including increasing access to college savings plans for low-income families and expanding retirement plan access for those without one sponsored by an employer.
“Governor Newsom was focused on improving affordability for California families long before it became the word du jour in Washington,” said Tara Gallegos, Newsom spokesperson.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who ran a successful campaign focused on affordability, launched a pilot program for free schooling for 2-year-olds at the start of the year. The mayor also signed executive orders to ban junk fees and subscription traps as part of his crackdown on deceptive business practices.
Mamdani, who has strategically navigated an unexpectedly warm relationship with Trump, is also advocating for a $30 minimum wage by 2030.
“The Mamdani Administration is confronting New York City’s affordability crisis by taking on its biggest cost drivers and delivering real relief to working people,” said Cassio Mendoza, a spokesperson for the mayor.
Democrats in Washington state passed a bill this week to impose a 9.9% tax on those making more than $1 million per year, vowing to use those funds for social programs such as universal pre-K and health care.
John Braun, a GOP state senator running against Rep.
“Affordability is so far ahead in terms of the things we’ll think about when we get up each day,” Braun said.
In Florida, state Republicans are considering an elimination of property taxes for homeowners.
Housing shortages remain an issue nationwide, as well as the rising costs for renters and potential home buyers, Thom Amdur, executive vice president for policy and impact at affordable housing developer Lincoln Avenue Communities, said.
“Housing expenses are, typically speaking, the biggest single expense that a household will have, and it’s one of the most rapidly increasing expenses in terms of home price appreciation and in terms of rent increases over the last three to five years, so it’s a really significant issue,” Amdur said.
Trump’s Messaging Mixed
The White House pointed to Trump’s recent executive orders to expand home construction as an example of Trump wanting to coordinate with state and local governments.
At the same time, White House spokesperson Kush Desai criticized blue states on their proposals.
“The Administration can only help states, however, that are willing to help themselves by embracing policies that actually work – the federal government cannot and will not simply bail out Democrat-run states who are running with boneheaded policies instead of embracing the President’s commonsense agenda,” Desai said.
Trump and Republicans are also telling voters they will see the benefit of last year’s tax and spending bill as they file their taxes this year.
But Trump hasn’t always been consistent.
The president declared he “won” affordability during a campaign stop in Georgia earlier this month, after previously calling the issue “a hoax” made up by Democrats.
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy for progressive group Groundwork Collaborative who served in the on Biden White House, said he expects the administration to find ways to tie more of its policies to affordability.
“People package their existing proposals and existing tools and levers and reframe it to be about prices,” Jacquez said. “Certainly in the Biden administration, we did quite a bit of this, the Inflation Reduction Act and things like that.”
White House officials have already sought to rename last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill the “Working Families Tax Cut Act.”
Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist, said, “Cost of living is a very powerful issue, and it was the cost of living issue that put Trump back in the White House, along with the border.”
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