OK Dem Wants to Eliminate Straight-Party Voting

Oklahoma Sen. J.J. Dossett (D) has filed a bill (SB 9) that would do away with straight-party voting in the state.

 

“I think it is unnecessary to have the straight-party option,” he said. “I think it is something that might have had value in the past when people couldn’t inform themselves on the candidate and vote.”

 

Dossett also said his filing of the bill wasn’t motivated by last month’s election. But 56.4 percent of the state’s voters who went with the straight-party option in the 2012 general election were Republicans, a ratio that increased to 59.7 percent in 2014 and 62 percent on Nov. 8. And University of Oklahoma Political Science Department Chair Keith Gaddie said he doesn’t believe the bill has a chance of being approved by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

 

Oklahoma is one of only 10 states that allow straight-party voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. (TULSA WORLD)

Budgets In Brief - December 19 2016

VMT Tax Still Possibility in MA

Despite MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R) veto in August of a provision in a road funding bill passed by state lawmakers providing for a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax pilot program, the state hasn’t ruled out the possibility of imposing such a tax in the future. In an email sent to staffers at the Executive Office of Administration and Finance at the time of Baker’s veto, Department of Transportation Legislative Director Michael Berry said, “VMT...may be a tool that is needed down the road.” (REPUBLICAN [SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS], LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

 

MO to Consider Eliminating Corporate Income Tax

MISSOURI state Sen. Will Kraus (R) has proposed legislation to phase out the state’s 6.25-percent corporate income tax by 2019. Kraus said President-elect Donald Trump’s support for reducing corporate taxes could give his proposal momentum. (OZARK RADIO NEWS)

 

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK

Sports Betting Blows Past $500M Mark in NJ

About $260 million was wagered in New Jersey on sporting events in October, bringing the total for the four and a half months sports betting has been legal in the state to $597 million.

 

A spokesman for FanDuel, which handles the sports book at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, said there were two and a half times as many bets placed online in October as there were in September, and in-person wagering was continuing to grow at a “double-digit” rate.

 

“The numbers continue to be impressive,” said Joe Asher, CEO of sports bookmaker William Hill US. “It’s important to remember that the New Jersey sports betting industry is just ramping up. We didn’t even have our app in the Apple Store until the end of September, so we are very pleased.”

 

In May the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which had barred sports betting in most states. Since that ruling, legal sports betting operations have been set up in six states, Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island and West Virginia, with Pennsylvania expected to do the same in the coming weeks. The Keystone State will be the first with franchises in each of the nation’s four major professional sports leagues, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and Major League Baseball, offering legal betting. (ASSOCIATED PRESS, ESPN, PROVIDENCE JOURNAL)

Gone To The Dogs

There is clearly no issue on which Maine Gov. Paul LePage won’t weigh in. This week’s example involves a Husky mix named Dakota that twice in the last year has got out of her yard and attacked a neighbor’s dogs, killing one and injuring another. That led to Dakota being removed from the home and subsequently being sentenced to death. Enter LePage, who last week issued Dakota a gubernatorial pardon. Alas, as news station WPXI in Pittsburgh reports, the district attorney handling the case told the governor “down boy,” noting he didn’t have any legal authority to pardon a dog. Alas, Dakota has a new owner who adopted the pooch not knowing of the death sentence hanging over her furry head. As such, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has got involved in an effort to make sure the new owner is afforded proper due process. A new hearing for Dakota has been scheduled. Stay tuned.

 

-- By RICH EHISEN

The Hardest Goodbye

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has had his share of difficult times since taking office, but probably none harder than the task he had last week: saying the final goodbye to Chloe, his family’s 16-year-old Sheltie. Cooper broke the news on the First Pets of North Carolina Facebook page last week. He recounted Chloe’s mischievousness, including how she once scarfed down an entire pizza they had left too close to her reach. Cooper also recalled how she had started to visibly slow down during his brutal gubernatorial campaign last year, and how he had asked her to hang on at least through Election Day. She did, and even made it long enough to get some of that really good chow from the governor’s mansion. The close to his message said it all: “Good girl, Chloe.”