During the regular session, Texas lawmakers balanced the state’s 2018-19 budget in part through one time measures and funding shifts - including setting aside $2 billion less than required for Medicaid and deferring funding for transportation -...
CA LAWMAKERS CONSIDERING BILLIONS IN SPENDIND PROPOSALS CALIFORNIANS could vote on billions of dollars in new spending for low-income housing, water projects and parks improvements next year if Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and state lawmakers approve several...
Texas has the best infrastructure in the country, according to CNBC’s 2017 “America’s Top States for Business” rankings . With only 1.7 percent of its bridges deemed “structurally deficient” but a 25.6 minute average...
The U.S. economy is expanding for a ninth consecutive year, unemployment is low, stock indices are near record highs, despite an early August slump, and the Great Recession of 2007-09 is a distant memory. Despite these positives, state budgets for fiscal...
In a world of alumni fundraising, donor research and dabbling in corporate giving databases , we sometimes come across opportunities that seem to knock on our doors, instead of the often painful alternative. For example recently news hit the wires...
What does your public relations agency or department do? What services does it offer? If the menu of publicity offerings hasn't expanded in the past few years, you may be in danger of falling behind. The social-saturated, always-on world is a complicated...
Unified control of Congress and the White House under a single party this year has done little to end the partisan gridlock in Washington. Congress’ repeated failure to come up with the votes to repeal Obamacare has been particularly frustrating...
Since 2000, millions of new residents have poured into Texas, expanding the population of Austin’s Travis County by 350,000, swelling San Antonio’s Bexar County by 500,000 and making three suburbs of those two cities among the fastest-growing...
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo might want to stick to governing and leave the jokes to the professionals. As the Associated Press reports , Cuomo was in Hudson a few weeks ago to announce the city had been awarded $10 million in a state-sponsored downtown...
The odds are good that Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and former president Barack Obama don’t have a lot in common politically. But that didn’t prevent Rauner from recently signing legislation making Obama’s birthday (Aug 4) a commemorative...
Which is exactly what happened recently in the tiny burg of McIntire, Iowa. As the AP reports , not a single one of the town’s 70 registered voters bothered to vote in the election which was to determine whether terms for the mayor and city council...
A decision in 2011 to take away California lawmakers’ state-sponsored cars drew howls of protest from the Legislature and claims it would raise the already-high cost of their transportation even higher. Alas, that was total hooey. As the Sacramento...
New Jersey Signs AB 3896 NEW JERSEY Gov. Chris Christie (R) signs AB 3896 , which makes it illegal to sell unsafe used tires in the Garden State. Violators face a fine of $500 (NEW BRUNSWICK TODAY). Oregon Signs SB 828 OREGON Gov. Kate Brown...
California Signs SB 725 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 725 , which clarifies that current and former military members who suffer from service-related mental health issues may be diverted to a treatment court in lieu of jail when charged with...
California Signs AB 990 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs AB 990 , which requires the California State University system to post estimates of the specific cost of off campus housing for students. Many universities estimate the cost of living off...
Alaska Signs SB 83 ALASKA Gov. Bill Walker (I) signs SB 83 , which allows the state’s Adult Protective Services agency to use videoconferencing technology in rural communities to serve adults. Walker also signs HB 108 , which allows fiduciaries...
Texas Approves HB 214 The TEXAS House approves HB 214 , which requires women to pay an additional insurance premium if they want their health plan to cover abortions performed outside of medical emergencies. The bill, which does not contain exceptions...
Illinois Signs HB 1805 ILLINOIS Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signs HB 1805 , which allows 16- and 17-year olds to sign up with the First Person Consent Organ and Tissue donor registry when they receive their driver's licenses or state ID cards. Parents...
Wisconsin lawmakers have given initial approval to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) nearly $3 billon proposal to lure Chinese electronics company Foxconn to build its first U.S. manufacturing plant in the Badger State. But if successful, he might not be...
CUOMO GIVES NY COLLEGES MILLIONS FOR PRISON EDUCATION NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has awarded $7 million in grants to colleges around the Empire State to offer courses to prisoners. Cuomo initially proposed the grants in 2014, but backed off in...
JUDGE GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR AZ LAW RESTRICTING CITIZEN INITIATIVES Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens ruled last week that a new ARIZONA law making it more difficult for citizen initiatives to qualify for the state ballot can take effect...
Not long from now, fleets of self-driving cars could be transporting passengers all over America’s cities. The resulting reduction in the need for privately owned vehicles poses a significant problem for those cities’ governments. “Municipalities...
LOTTERY REVENUES DOWN IN NM Lottery proceeds for the 2017 fiscal year in NEW MEXICO were down $8.5 million, or about 18 percent, from last fiscal year. The decline is believed to be due in part to a reduction in prize payouts resulting from legislative...
As of January of this year, 21 states had enacted legislation or regulations providing at least some direct consumer protection from balance billing, the practice among out-of-network healthcare providers of billing patients when the patients’ insurance...
The practice among out-of-network healthcare providers of billing patients when the patients’ insurance carriers don’t cover the full cost of the providers’ services - known as “balance billing” - isn’t the healthcare...