On Aug. 7, 2019, Governing magazine’s parent company announced it was closing down the magazine at the end of the month. September 2019, which was already in the can, was to be our last issue. It was heartbreaking to find out so abruptly that after 32 years, a publication that state and local policymakers relied upon for nonpartisan coverage of the issues that mattered to their jobs would suddenly be gone. The staff — half of whom received the news via conference call — was shocked. What helped soften the blow, however, was the immediate outpouring of love and support from hundreds of readers and fans.
Governing changed my career. In a recent post, a version of which was first published by Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, I got to reflect upon my time at the magazine and pay tribute to the people who made it great.
Governing may be gone – but it was invaluable to me
By Liz Farmer
Liz Farmer interviews art gallery owner Ricco Wright in Tulsa, Okla., in September, 2018.
After seven years at Governing magazine writing about state and local finances -- from obscure accounting rules to more clickable topics like public golf courses -- I’m regarded as an expert by many (and I’d like to think they’re right). But here’s my dirty secret: I barely knew anything about public finance policy when I started at the magazine.
I stumbled into the beat almost by accident. In the fall of 2012, there were two job openings posted at Governing. One was for a staff writer and the other was for a public finance writer. Not knowing what a public finance writer really was, I applied for the former. I had more than five years of professional reporting under my belt at the time and had covered state government in Maryland, the local business beat in Baltimore and local government in Washington, D.C. Even so, I had focused on politics and final results -- not policy and process.
After I interviewed for the staff writer job, however, I received a call from editor Zach Patton asking if I would like to also be considered for the public finance writing job. Double my chances of getting hired? That was a no brainer.
But during my first week there, as I sat down with the magazine’s associate publisher of public finance to learn about things like why pensions were so controversial, I wondered what exactly I’d gotten myself into. This stuff was complicated. Governing, however, was a place that allowed reporters to discover their inner wonk. Public finance touches all our lives, but many people don’t understand how. One of the best ways to learn a subject is to explain it -- repeatedly -- to others and that's what happened for me. My editors at the magazine gave me full freedom to learn by meeting with people and going to events without expectation that I would return with a story in-hand. And the stories I did write and was assigned, especially during those first two years, were often with the goal of explaining something to readers.
I did a lot of writing during my first year about pensions and municipal distress, two hot topics in 2013. Retirement systems were still reeling from the losses during the Great Recession and in my piece about the politics behind pensions, I learned that while the financial crash of 2008 made a great scapegoat, it was only part of the reason so many systems now suffered so greatly. In my magazine feature about municipal bankruptcies (“The ‘B’ Word), I learned that there are many ways a city or county can wind up at rock-bottom. And it’s usually never just one reason. Meanwhile the decisions that set things in motion were often made by people who have long left office and aren’t around to be accountable for their poor judgment.
During my second year at Governing, we launched our Finance 101 series for which I wrote more than two dozen stories that all focused on the “how” and “why” things are the way they are in fiscal policy. My sources were instrumental in developing this series. One analyst spent an hour on the phone with me explaining credit default swaps, talking me through drawing a diagram on a notepad of how they work. Through a rudimentary version of crowdsourcing, we came up with what later became oft-assigned reading from public policy professors: The Seven Deadly Sins of Public Finance.
With a solid foundation after those first two years, I felt more qualified to tackle meaty topics like public school finance and tax breaks. With some luck and a great deal of exploration, I dove into these topics before they started making national headlines. A year before teachers went on strike in Oklahoma, I wrote a magazine feature detailing the poor state of the nation’s then-worst-funded schools. I began writing in earnest about tax breaks as accounting rules on those government gifts were set to change. By the time Amazon’s hunt for a second headquarters captivated reporters and officials across the country, I could easily find the angles nobody was considering, such as whether cities could even afford their Amazon bids, or “The Unexpected Cost of Trying to Land Amazon's HQ2.”
Those who have read me regularly probably know that one of my favorite topics is the government financing of sports. It was a well I dipped into any chance I could justify it. One of the first few stories I pitched for the magazine was about states and cities turning away from financing sports stadiums. In 2018, I finally had a great story hook for that issue when the NFL’s Rams left St. Louis for glitzy Los Angeles. I got to write about sports again for the magazine in the summer of 2019 for what turned out to be the last issue of Governing. My feature story on struggling municipal golf courses was the perfect swan song for me as it blended my love of sports business with public policy. And I even found an excuse to feature my now-former city of residence, the Washington, D.C. suburb of Rockville, Maryland.
Being a part of the Governing legacy is easily the proudest time in my career. I was surrounded by smart people -- in the office, at our policy conferences and online with my readers. I cherished the relationships I developed with my coworkers and my editors have always brought out the best in me. But I owe my expertise and ability to stay on top of the news to the sources and the readers who would regularly send me feedback, tips, and article links. Governing attracted thoughtful readers who cared about government and policy and we all played a part in making the magazine great.
I received many thank you notes from these folks after our parent company announced it was shutting down the magazine. Among them, Virginia Beach budget analyst Alex Gottschalk wrote me that he “eagerly awaited Fridays” when my Week in Public Finance newsletter would drop in his inbox. “Through your coverage, I have been able to consume and reference numerous interesting studies, and been able to be kept abreast of vital trends in this sector, especially when it comes to bonds, pensions, and novel new attempts at taxation throughout this nation,” Alex continued. “I sincerely appreciate all you have done, and I wanted to express to you that your work has been a key contributor to my on-going education.”
Readers, the gratitude is mutual.
NOTE FROM B&G: After nearly seven years at Governing magazine, Liz will continue to use her fiscal policy know-how to help others through independent writing and consulting. In September, she joined the Rockefeller Institute's new Future of Labor Research Center as a research fellow. She is also involved in several other projects, including freelance writing and editing, commentary, and research.