The Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Shale boom communities built schools and infrastructure to accommodate rapid growth. Now, as the energy transition unfolds, the debt behind that infrastructure could become a long-term burden. Learn more in this new Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs policy brief:

How Shale Boom-Era Municipal Debt Could Undermine Community Resilience During the Energy Transition Local governments in oil and gas-producing regions took on significant municipal debt during the U.S. shale boom to build schools, water systems, and other infrastructure to accommodate rapid population growth. This brief uses Mergent municipal bond issuance data and interviews with local government...

The CDC's National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) will see its funding cut from around $125 million a year to about $25 million. With these cuts, CPR Senior Research Associate David Larsen told Newsweek that $25 million would only be enough to fund wastewater surveillance in a few states, and mean only seasonal epidemic pathogens like influenza, RSV and COVID-19 could be tracked.

"But we would lose wastewater surveillance as a tool to respond to outbreaks such as hantavirus, Ebola, measles or polio," he said. "And we would lose the national coverage that the current wastewater surveillance system has."

Learn more:

Worrying COVID 'cicada' variant spreads as US maps go dark Cuts to one of America's major disease surveillance programs could threaten public health, experts say, as COVID 'cicada variant spreads.

CPR Senior Research Associates John Cawley and Monica Deza are presenting at today! Dr. Cawley will be presenting research on the new tax on sugary beverages in Santa Cruz, CA, and Dr. Deza will be presenting research on what makes the public safety system vulnerable to micro-shocks.

Check out their sessions below!

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

What happens to property values and local tax revenue in the wake of a natural disaster?

A new study co-authored by CPR Senior Research Associate Yilin Hou examines how Hurricane Harvey reshaped property assessments and local government finance across Harris County, Texas. The authors find a 1.5% decline in assessed property values, averaging $4,927 per property and a $2.6 billion reduction in the local tax base.

Read the full article in the Journal of Housing Economics: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2026.102145

Congratulations to CPR Research Affiliate Jennifer Karas Montez on being named the next Editor-in-Chief of the American Sociological Association's Journal of Health and Social Behavior!

Read the full announcement, authored by CPR Director Shannon Monnat:

Jennifer Karas Montez Named Editor of Journal of Health and Social Behavior | American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) has appointed Jennifer Karas Montez, professor of sociology at Syracuse University, as the next editor of the

“You can’t gut an agency then expect it to do a job,” says CPR Senior Research Associate David Larsen in Rolling Stone. “The CDC has a clear mission: to protect the American people from infectious disease threats. A huge component of that mission is to understand where the infectious disease threats are and then be able to respond to those.”

Learn more:

How Worried Should We Be About the Hantavirus Outbreak? A spate of hantavirus cases on an Arctic cruise has left the public scrambling for information on the rare but deadly virus.

In Science, Research Links Genetic Variations in Virus from Wastewater with Community Transmission New findings have wide-ranging implications for improvements in the detection and monitoring of a host of communicable diseases. 

“These large state drops in SNAP caseloads represent a fundamental restructuring of the food-assistance safety net,” says CPR Senior Research Associate Colleen Heflin in The Wall Street Journal. “We should expect to see a surge in food insecurity and its related negative consequences at new levels.”

Learn more:

More Than Three Million People Have Lost Federal Food Aid The number of food-stamp recipients is dropping sharply as states start implementing new Trump administration rules on who qualifies for SNAP benefits.

Congratulations to CPR Research Affiliate Ethan Coffel, who received the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research! This award is the school's highest honor for untenured faculty. Coffel accepted the award and spoke at the Maxwell School's Graduate Convocation on Friday, May 8th.

Learn more:

Climate Researcher Ethan Coffel Receives Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research The assistant professor of geography and the environment will speak at the Maxwell School Graduate Convocation on Friday, May 8.

Wrapping up ! Today at 11:30am, CPR Senior Research Associates Iliya Gutin and Colleen Heflin will be participating in the session "State Policies and Demographic Outcomes." Gutin will serve as session chair and Heflin will be presenting her work, "Child Care Subsidy Policy Changes and Parental Employment and Earnings Outcomes.”

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Population Association of America