State Revenues Dip in December

Nine of the 10 most populous states with an income tax and available data experienced revenue drops in December. Those declines, due mainly to lower income tax collections, ranged from -3.4 percent in Ohio to -41 percent in California.

 

The drops weren’t entirely unexpected, given the significant bump in last year’s tax collections from the December 2017 federal tax overhaul, which spurred taxpayers to file income and property taxes before the end of that year. But this year’s drops were steeper than last year's gains, according to Lucy Dadayan, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute.

 

“We might continue seeing weak growth in income tax revenues, particularly in these higher tax states, for the rest of the fiscal year,” she said. (GOVERNING)

OK Lawmakers Aim to Deter Future Protests

Oklahoma state Rep. Terry O’Donnell (R) has filed a bill (HB 2094) for the coming session, which begins on Feb. 4, that would make it a misdemeanor crime, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine, to disrupt the Legislature. State Sen. Mark Allen (R) has filed a bill (SB 592) that would require organizers of protests at the state Capitol involving 100 or more people to post a $50,000 bond.

 

The two bills are part of a slew of measures aimed at cracking down on protests like the statewide teacher walkout over education funding last April that kept many of the state’s 500,000 students out of school for two weeks and came even after the Legislature had rushed to pass teacher raises.

 

Some of the legislation targets teachers more explicitly. For example, HB 2214, authored by Rep. Todd Russ (R), would make it illegal for “board of education or school district employees...to strike or threaten to strike or otherwise close schools or interfere with school operations as a means of resolving differences with the board of education, the State Department of Education, the State Board of Education, the Legislature or any other public official or public body.” Striking teachers would not only lose their pay while they were off the job, but also have their state teaching certificate “permanently revoked.”

 

Russ has authored another bill (HB 2208) that would bar the Oklahoma Education Association from representing teachers in local contract bargaining and require local boards of education to hold secret ballot elections “to determine whether the organization retains support of a majority of all employees in the bargaining unit.”

 

Senator Allen has also filed another measure (SB 574) that would provide for the establishment of an ethics code for teachers, prohibiting them from advocating for or against legislation, political issues or candidates “during class time or while otherwise operating within the scope of employment as a teacher.” (TULSA WORLD, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

Governors In Brief - July 24 2017

Dayton Legislative Funding Veto Overruled

A MINNESOTA judge ruled that Gov. Mark Dayton’s (D) May 30 veto of funding for the Gopher State Legislature was unconstitutional. Ramsey County District Court Chief Judge John Guthmann said Dayton had exceeded his executive authority. Dayton said he would appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. (REUTERS)

 

COOPER OPPOSES NC OFFSHORE DRILLING

NORTH CAROLINA Gov. Roy Cooper (D) announced his opposition last week to drilling for natural gas and oil off the Atlantic coast, saying it poses too much of a threat to the state's beaches and tourism economy. Cooper’s announcement came on Thursday, one day before the Friday deadline for comment from elected officials on the Trump administration’s request for companies to perform seismic testing under Atlantic waters. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

 

-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN

Business - December 19 2016

Business In CA

The CALIFORNIA Supreme Court rules that online travel companies are exempt from paying hotel occupancy taxes. The ruling rejects claims by the city of San Diego that companies like Expedia and Priceline are liable for paying the hotel taxes. But some observers say the wording of the ruling could open the door for cities to sue the hotels directly for the tax payments (BLOOMBERG BNA).

Business In MI

MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signs SB 995, which authorizes the operation of autonomous vehicles on Wolverine State public roads. The legislation updates a 2013 law that allowed for the testing of autonomous vehicles in the state, but required a driver to be sitting behind the wheel (GOVTECH.COM).

GA Voter Registration Database Targeted by DHS?

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson this month saying the state had discovered an unsuccessful effort to breach computer systems housing its voter registration database by an IP address linked to the DHS.

 

“At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network,” Kemp wrote. “Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.”

 

The DHS said it was “looking into the matter.”

 

“DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly,” a spokeswoman for the department said.

 

Georgia was one of two states that declined federal government assistance with election security after the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed in August that it was looking into hacking incidents involving elections systems in Arizona and Illinois. (WASHINGTON POST, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION)