In 2004 California voters approved Proposition 63, imposing a tax on residents with annual earnings of $1 million or more to help counties provide services for the mentally ill. Nearly 15 years later, a huge sum of the money generated by the Mental Health...
Responding to Medicaid expansion advocates who are urging eligible Mainers to sign up for the insurance plan, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said he will reject those applications until lawmakers fund the program to his satisfaction. Expansion supporters...
There’s been a lot of talk about the “blue wave” that may sweep Democrats into control of the U.S. House in November. But the seas are also looking pretty favorable for Democrats in some state legislative chambers. If Colorado...
Funerals for heads of state are always solemn affairs, as they should be. On occasion, they also lend themselves to moments that elevate all of us to a higher place. Such was the case last Monday in Washington D.C., where many came to pay their respects...
CA GOV PROPOSES LAST STATE BUDGET: CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) unveiled the final budget of his tenure, a plan calling for $199.3 billion in total spending and projecting an $8.8 billion surplus, $7.6 billion of which would be deposited into two...
MI Senate Approves SB 741 The MICHIGAN Senate approves SB 741 , which would bar local governments from banning the ownership of certain dog breeds. The bill, which would nullify all current bans and bar municipalities from imposing new ones, moves...
MA House Approves HB 4486 The MASSACHUSETTS House approves HB 4486 , legislation that would raise the Bay State smoking age to 21. It is now in the Senate (BOSTON GLOBE). IA Governor Signs HF 2377 IOWA Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signs HF 2377 , a...
If you happen to live in the tiny Wisconsin town of Winneconne, you are probably used to sedate, uneventful elections. Alas, that might not be the case this November. As the AP reports , an as-yet-unnamed resident has asked for permission to bring three...
Or maybe it just seems that way. According to a Quinnipiac poll released last month, just 15 percent of New Jersey residents think Gov. Chris Christie (R) is doing a good job, while a whopping 81 percent think he kinda sorta stinks at it. For those who...
Business In MA The MASSACHUSETTS Senate approves SB 2054, which would bar employers and schools from requiring employees, students and job applicants to share their social media passwords or provide the employer or a school official access to those...
In 1969 Kentucky voters approved a tax break for agricultural land with the aim of protecting family farms from encroaching development. But according to a series of reports by the Lexington Herald-Leader , $36.6 billion worth of property in the state...
Since 2000, 20 states have raised their cigarette taxes, with Louisiana becoming the latest to do so on April 1. And over a dozen states have expanded gambling since the Great Recession. But as states have become more reliant on so-called “sin taxes”...
Decrying the continued growth of opioid addiction in the Green Mountain State, Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin (D) introduced new regulations for the prescription of painkillers and other opioid-containing drugs. “We are fighting this battle on...
Saying that “When you attack immigration, you attack the founding premise of our nation,” NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) decried growing anti-immigrant sentiment that has become a focal point of GOP presidential aspirant Donald Trump’s...
The U.S. Department of Justice told a federal court last week that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) order to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood violates federal law because it denies enrollees in the state-federal health plan the right...
Six MARYLAND House members have announced the formation of the Maryland Latino Legislative Caucus to represent the interests of the state’s fastest-growing demographic group (WASHINGTON POST). * ARKANSAS lawmakers are considering abolishing the...
IL Budget Deficit Over $6.2b ILLINOIS’ budget deficit will exceed $6.2 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, according to the state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The nonpartisan commission, which conducts...
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said any health insurer pulling out of the Empire State health benefits exchange would be barred from participating in the state’s Medicaid and child health programs. But while hospitals and health advocacy groups...
Primary elections were held in four states - Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia - on May 8 and, as FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver pointed out , both Democrats and Republicans managed to “mostly avoid self-inflicted damage.”...
BAKER OPEN TO NEW MA DEATH PENALTY In the wake of the murder of a Bay State police officer, MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker (R) says his office is talking with lawmakers and law enforcement officials about crafting a bill to reinstate the death penalty...
CUOMO PROPOSES ELIMINATION OF NY COAL PLANTS : NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) ordered the state Department of Environmental Conservation to set new limits on carbon dioxide emissions he said would make Empire State power plants entirely coal-free by...
MA Governor Vetoes Section of HB 4732 MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker (R) vetoes a section of a $1.1 billion economic development package ( HB 4732 ) that would have barred “bad faith” allegations of patent infringement by so-called “patent...
ND VOTER ID LAW ALLOWED TO STAND The U.S. Supreme Court declined to vacate a ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing NORTH DAKOTA to enforce a requirement that voters provide a street address before casting a ballot on Election Day...
Breaking with his GOP colleagues, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) issued an executive order intended to keep people with mental health issues from obtaining guns in the Buckeye State. “There’s gaps in our system,” Kasich said in signing...
After several days of hearings into the handling of absentee ballots by an operative for the Republican candidate in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District race in November -- the only 2018 contest yet to be decided -- the state’s Board...