After over a year of negotiation, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and legislative leaders announced an agreement to legalize recreational marijuana use in the Garden State.
The deal would establish a flat tax rate of $42 per ounce, which would stay static no matter how much the price of weed fluctuates. The industry would also be overseen by a new state agency, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which will handle licensing and investigate violations of state law.
Although the state’s Democratic leadership is on board, it is unclear whether a majority of rank and file lawmakers are as well. Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin say they are looking to hold a vote on the proposal by March 25. If not resolved by then, the process could well get sidelined for several months as lawmakers turn their attention to budget negotiations.
Sweeney has noted in the past he would not put forth a bill unless he was sure the votes where there to pass it. (NJ.COM, ASBURY PARK PRESS, MARIJUANA MOMENT)
The budget proposed by WISCONSIN Gov. Tony Evers (D) would roll back several employment laws implemented under former Gov. Scott Walker (R), including a repeal of the state’s so-called “right-to-work” law that bars union shops from requiring employees to join the union as a condition of employment. (JD SUPRA)
Pitching it as a “front door” to statewide tourism, NORTH DAKOTA Gov. Doug Burgum (R) urged lawmakers to approve his proposal to fund a Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library to be built in Medora. Burgum noted that Roosevelt ranched and hunted near Medora in the 1880s while he was recovering from the deaths of his wife and mother. The governor is seeking $50 million in state funds for the project, which has the support of the Roosevelt family. (BISMARCK TRIBUNE)
CALIFORNIA Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he would delay by four years implementing his plan to withhold state transportation funds from cities that fail to meet state affordable housing goals. He made the announcement as part of unveiling a budget trailer that calls for $750 million in funds for cities and counties to boost housing production. (CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)
OHIO Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said he would sign a bill the Buckeye State Senate approved last Wednesday that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy. The measure is now in the Republican-controlled House, where it is expected to pass. (FOX NEWS, TOLEDO BLADE)
-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
The WASHINGTON House approves HB 1706, which would require Evergreen State employers to pay disabled workers the same $12 per hour minimum wage they pay other workers. The measure moves to the Senate (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The OKLAHOMA Senate approves HB 2612, which among several things would allow Sooner State employers in “safety-sensitive” fields to inquire whether employees have medical marijuana licenses. It moves to Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) for consideration (TULSA WORLD).
SOUTH DAKOTA Gov. Kristi Noem (R) vetoes HB 1191, a bill that would have legalized the cultivation and sale of industrial hemp in the Flickertail State (JURIST).
The MARYLAND Senate approves HB 166, which would raise the Old Line State minimum wage to $15 by 2025. It faces a final vote before it could go to Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who opposes it (WASHINGTON POST, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The OREGON Senate approves SB 664, a measure requiring schools to teach students about the Holocaust and other acts of genocide. It moves to the House (ASSOCIATED PRESS, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The NEW MEXICO Legislature gives final approval to SB 489, which would require all electricity from publicly regulated utilities to be obtained from renewable and carbon-free resources by 2045. It goes to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishman (D), who has indicated she will sign it into law (ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL).
The NEW MEXICO House endorses SB 76, which would bar coyote-killing contests in the Land of Enchantment. It goes to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishman (D) for consideration (NEW MEXICO POLITICAL REPORT).
The FLORIDA House and Senate approve SB 182, which would allow patients to smoke medical marijuana. It moves to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who pushed the measure and is expected to sign it right away (MIAMI HERALD).
MONTANA Gov. Steve Bullock (D) vetoes SB 54, which would have aligned Treasure State law with less-stringent federal regulations on health-insurance arrangements among a group of related businesses (KPAX.COM [MISSOULA]).
The MINNESOTA Senate approves a proposal to extend for three years the Gopher State health coverage reinsurance program, which allows the state to absorb some expenses of private health insurers to offset the cost of care for some claims they cover. It moves to the Senate (TWIN CITIES PIONEER PRESS).
ARIZONA Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signs SB 1109, which extends the current maximum time for having a short-term health coverage plan under state law from one year to three years. The law takes effect in June (ARIZONA REPUBIC [PHOENIX]).
The HAWAII House declines to take up SB 557, a Senate-passed bill that would have made the Aloha State the third to become a so-called “sanctuary state,” which gives local law enforcement agencies the option to not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. OREGON and CALIFORNIA are currently the only two states with such laws (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The IOWA Supreme Court upholds a lower court’s ruling that the Hawkeye State cannot deny Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery. The court ruled that doing so would violate the state’s 2007 Civil Rights Act, which added gender identity to the state’s list of protected classes (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The MASSACHUSETTS House approves HB 140, which would bar the use of so-called “gay conversion therapy” – which attempts to reverse a person’s sexual orientation - on Bay State minors. It moves to the Senate (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON]).
The ARKANSAS Senate approves HB 1439, which would bar doctors from performing an abortion on a woman after her 18th week of pregnancy. It returns to the House (JURIST).
The MINNESOTA Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee rejects SB 619, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use in the Gopher State (MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO).
The IDAHO House approves HB 217, a bill that would require a public vote on any public projects using urban renewal money. It moves to the Senate (IDAHO STATESMAN [BOISE]).
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects a challenge to a Santa Monica, CALIFORNIA ordinance that regulates short-term rental sites like Airbnb and Homeaway (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The NEW YORK City Council adopts a package of bills intended to prevent lead poisoning in schools, including a measure that bars inspectors from flushing pipes before conducting lead testing (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS).
Word is that tattoos are becoming less of a thing for the younger set these days. That’s probably a good idea given that some folks apparently think it is a good idea to get a tattoo on their eyeball. Yes, on their eyeball! Thankfully, Cornhusker State lawmakers think that sounds like about as bad an idea as I do. As the Associated Press reports, pols there recently endorsed a measure that would severely limit the practice. Wait, just limit it? As it turns out, such tats are occasionally given to mask eye abnormalities or injuries, so the bill would still allow properly trained medical personnel to perform the procedure if necessary. The bill would also still allow folks to tattoo...wait for it...their own eye! And that’s about all I can think to say about that.
Since men get to constantly tell women how to manage their own bodies, Georgia state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick thinks it’s time that women get to return the favor. In an email to colleagues she titled “Testicular ‘Bill of Rights’ Legislation,” Kendrick said she is pondering a measure that would, as reported by the New York Daily News, “ban vasectomies,” classify sex without a condom as “aggravated assault” and require men purchasing Viagra to have their partner’s consent. It would also require men to take paternity tests at a woman’s eighth week of pregnancy, and to begin paying child support immediately thereafter. Kendrick concedes the bill is mostly a response to HB 481, which would bar women from having an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. Still, her point is well taken. To paraphrase an old saw, what’s good for the gander ought to be good for the goose.
All hail Lincoln, a Nubian goat now known as His Honor the Mayor of Fair Haven, Vermont. Yes, as the Associated Press reports, Lincoln outlasted over a dozen other critters seeking the office, most notably a dog named Sammie, to win the final tally 13-10. The remaining dogs, cats and a gerbil named Crystal garnered 30 votes combined. For the next year, Lincoln will represent the community – which doesn’t have a human mayor – at public functions and celebrations, usually adorned with a festive sash befitting his place in the hierarchy. Sounds good, but folks ought to be careful. As we we’ve seen, putting an inexperienced and temperamental critter with bad hair into a position of power rarely works out for anyone.
Most people would not spend $18,000 to save $200. Alas, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety is clearly not burdened with such fiscal sense. As the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports, the DPS has recently spent $17,727.50 fighting an open records request from a Magnolia State lawmaker. After rejecting the request, DPS lost an appeal to the state ethics commission, which also levied $200 in fines against two DPS lawyers involved in the process. Not satisfied with that rebuke, the agency is now preparing to fight the case in court, where it is also expected to lose. If so, it will likely also have to pay the court costs of state Rep. Joel Bomgar, the lawmaker who asked for the records in the first place. DPS says it will appeal if so, growing the taxpayers’ tab even more. Which sounds like what my mom used to call stepping over dollars to pick up nickels and dimes.
-- By RICH EHISEN
For most communications and public relations professionals, crisis planning is a relatively standard tactic in the professional tool belt. While the timing of a crisis can’t always be predicted, PR leaders—together with management—frequently develop incredibly detailed plans for responding to hypothetical scenarios that could lead to widespread critical attention.
This type of crisis planning is essential, but often skips a step that could prove equally important; researching what crises might impact competitors—and how you’ll react when they happen. With the proper planning, a competitor’s crisis can be your opportunity. On the other hand—and more critically—a competitor’s crisis can quickly become an industry-wide catastrophe. If that happens, your organization’s ability to stay afloat can depend on proper planning and the right strategic contingency plan.
Understand How a Crisis Can Spread
There’s a reason the phrase “going viral” exists, and in today’s interconnected world it’s a scenario that should always be considered when planning crisis communications. Like a virus, negative public sentiment can spread and mutate rapidly with incredible unpredictability. What might start with a competitor answering tough questions about unpopular operational decisions could soon lead to your organization facing similar scrutiny.
Examples of this phenomenon are legion. The Takata airbag crisis started with one automaker facing backlash from recalls, before it was determined that the problem spread across nearly the entire auto industry.
More recently, digital media paragon Buzzfeed faced a PR crisis after announcing widespread layoffs among its news division. Within hours, the crisis had also engulfed Facebook and Google, whose advertising platforms have created tight digital media revenues which, some have argued, contributed to the layoffs. Headlines and social media comments accused the two tech giants of being a “duopoly,” decrying the unfairness of their stronghold on online advertising and how it had impacted media companies like Buzzfeed.
A LexisNexis Newsdesk® analysis shows that that this line of negative messaging has reached an estimated global audience of more than 41 million people since the Buzzfeed layoff was announced. What started as “Buzzfeed’s crisis” quickly became a Facebook and Google problem, with such headlines as:
• “Google, Facebook duopoly will continue to hurt BuzzFeed, Vice and Vox, report says”• “Are Facebook and Google a threat to a free press?”• “Media firings bring heat on Facebook, Google”
Stay Ahead of a Potentially Viral Competitive Crisis
To stay ahead of the “crisis virus,” we can take a page from the book of real-life global virologists: surveillance and monitoring.
You can’t prevent a competitor’s crisis from negatively impacting your organization without the ability to quickly identify the issues as they emerge. The best way to do this is using tools that can automate competitive intelligence and alert key stakeholders when news breaks.
This starts with creating alerts for media coverage of competitors. This type of competitive monitoring can provide communications professionals with important alerts at regularly scheduled intervals or in real-time—an important feature, given that every moment in a crisis matters.
It’s equally vital to research potential industry-wide exposure. Like the Takata airbag crisis, a situation endemic of the entire industry may first surface with a specific competitor. Consider this a luck of the draw moment, one that—if you’ve monitored appropriately—gives your organization a strategic advantage when implementing your response to the issue.
Identify Appropriate Opportunities
Competitive crisis monitoring isn’t just about staying vigilant and planning a sound defensive strategy. Done judiciously, monitoring for competitor crises can also create opportunities to highlight the expertise and competitive advantage of your organization.
The effectiveness of this more proactive approach may vary with industry. A political campaign would be more apt to jump into a news cycle critical of the competition to highlight their comparative strengths, but this approach isn’t always so cutthroat. Making proactive maneuvers like offering an executive interview to give broad industry-level perspective can forge valuable media relationships and position your organization as an expert, without going so far as to exacerbate the negative coverage a competitor may be receiving.
Regardless, whether used as a tool to guard reputation or fuel to gain a competitive edge, the foundation for a solid competitive crisis plan is built on effective media monitoring. For a more detailed look at the power of media monitoring, competitive crisis monitoring and other types of competitive intelligence, contact us today.
March 15 is World Consumer Rights Day, and this year’s theme is ‘Trust in Smart Devices.’ Innumerable devices populate the digital landscape—from wristbands that track every step taken to smartphones that instantly connect users with family, friends and brands. And with every connection, data is generated and collected. But being entrusted with private data demands a proactive risk management strategy.
Why data privacy should be part of your risk mitigation program
Consider the cost of data breaches.
Each year, the Ponemon Institute conducts benchmark research into the cost of data breaches. This year's edition—lucky number 13, if you’re counting—saw increases in both the global average cost of a data breach and the average cost for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive information.
Sure, $148 doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you look at notable data breaches in 2018, the potential financial risk becomes crystal clear. Take the hacking of Marriott Starwood Hotels reservation database, which exposed personal information including passport numbers and credit card details for 5 million customers. That’s a hefty $740 million price tag. According to Digital Information World, other notable data breaches of 2018 included:
Financial risk related to data breaches isn’t only tied to the size of the breach, either. In terms of volume, the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data breaches weren’t the largest, but the loss of trust by consumers and investors came at a high price.
In May 2018, enforcement of the European Union’s long-anticipated General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) came into effect. Companies don’t need to have operations in the EU to be subject to GDPR. Large or small, multinational or regional—if your company has a website that can be visited by EU citizens, then GDPR is definitely a potential compliance risk. We’ve created a quick factsheet on GDPR for details.
The U.S. does not currently have an equivalent, comprehensive federal law regulating data privacy and security, however there are a number of sector-focused laws that address consumer data.
And since the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica brouhaha caught the attention of U.S. legislators, it’s not a stretch to think that Congress will eventually tackle the issue of data privacy and security on a national level.
Why not establish a robust process for ensuring the privacy and security of data now? It may not keep determined hackers at bay, but it will go a long way towards reducing your risk exposure and building trust with customers, investors and regulators alike. Isn’t that the best way to celebrate World Consumer Rights Day anyhow?
3 Steps to Take Now
If you’re a social media user, you’ve likely seen plenty of posts about what people—even those without a religious affiliation—are giving up for Lent. There are the usual suspects, of course: chocolate, alcohol, bread. But a recent Mashable article highlights a different focus. The trending hashtag #PlasticFreeLent exposes a growing consumer movement that focuses on sustainability. And, it helps explain why companies increasingly work toward Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards. What advantages do these companies gain?
Meeting consumers ethical expectations protects your bottom line
Today’s consumers are less brand loyal than their predecessors. But that’s not the only factor that is driving change in how consumers make buying decisions. As Forbes pointed out in 2017, “As our population gets older, Millennials are getting closer and closer to snatching the baton away from Boomers — not to mention the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world.”
With $30 trillion dollars on the proverbial auction block, understanding what motivates people to choose a brand had become the challenge of the day.
The article identified four questions that Millennials ask when looking for socially responsible companies:
Committing to Corporate Social Responsibility enhances your reputation
According to a global corporate social responsibility (CSR) study by Cone Communications, people are less likely to do business with companies that are perceived as irresponsible. And in the digital age, where a single headline can unleash a tweet-storm of condemnation, companies face ongoing reputational risk.
Managing reputational risk takes a proactive approach. Ongoing risk monitoring can help companies stay alert to potential threats that surface in the media. But a commitment to meeting environmental, social and governance standards offers an extra layer of protection. How?
If you’re invested in doing good, you build a loyal customer base. Some of the world’s most popular brands¬ are known for their environmental or social commitments.
Plus, you’re less likely to get blind-sided by negative news. If an issue does come up—because we all know that third-party risk is a complex beast to tame¬—consumers will be more forgiving, especially when a company acknowledges the problem and quickly (and transparently) moves to correct the issue.
Reputation and profits are great incentives for embracing CSR, but there’s one that’s even more compelling. The world needs you. As the UN has explained on its Sustainable Development Goals website, “… Ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.” How can your company contribute to a better world?
Next Steps:
It has been just over two years since President Donald Trump famously bemoaned the complexities of the American health care system, telling a meeting of the nation’s governors that “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”
It goes without saying that health care’s monumental complexities were not news to the governors, nor really to anyone else. The system’s many layers and players in fact make even minor reforms some of the most complicated and challenging tasks facing lawmakers today.
Not that it has stopped anyone from trying. Governors and lawmakers in statehouses across the country are currently weighing a plethora of health care proposals, including but not exclusively focused on the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, single-payer health care systems and the high cost of prescription drugs.
To better understand how a few of these proposals fit into this year’s broader legislative picture, we sat down recently to talk about several of them with two of the nation’s most respected voices on health care: Diana Dooley, former Secretary of the California Department of Health and Human Services and a former Chief of Staff to Gov. Jerry Brown (D), and Dr. Micah Weinberg, President of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
With respect to the limited space here in this venue, we are only going to focus on one specific issue, the push in a growing number of states to adopt their own mandate that individuals have health insurance or pay a penalty. The full broadcast of the discussion covering all of the issues noted above can be accessed here.
One of the big challenges for states has been dealing with the fallout of changes made to the Affordable Care Act. While the change of control in the U.S. House of Representatives in January appeared to ensure the health law was safe, previous changes made to the law by Congress are still being felt in a negative way at the state level. One of the most notable is the loss of the so-called individual mandate, the requirement that all people have health coverage or pay a penalty.
To counter that, some states have previously implemented their own statewide individual mandates, including Massachusetts (since 2006), Vermont and New Jersey. Several more, including Hawaii, Rhode Island, Oregon, Maryland, Minnesota and California, are now considering their own mandates.
Dooley believes the ACA is on sounder footing than some critics might think, but she also notes the need for a way to ensure health insurance pools are able to spread risk around.
“The legislative action to remove the individual mandate was serious,” she says. “Risk pooling is the premise of any insurance program, be it fire or auto or home. You have to have the healthy lives as well as those who need to use health care to have a good risk mix. If you let people opt out, it adversely affects everyone in the pool. Everything costs more.”
Whether a large number of states implement their own mandates this year is yet to be determined, but the road forward even in blue states is not wide open.
The challenge, of course, is political.
“From a policy standpoint, it’s critically important,” Dooley says. “But nobody likes to be forced to pay for something they don’t want, so there is a political risk any time you ask for a mandate.”
The mandate was in fact one of the most unpopular aspects of the Affordable Care Act from the law’s beginning. It is also the crux of the most visible current threat to the law’s existence. Last December, citing Congressional removal of the ACA’s individual mandate, a federal judge in Texas ruled the entire law unconstitutional.
Although most legal observers believe Judge Reed O’Connor’s contention that “the Individual Mandate ‘is essential to’ and inseverable from ‘the other provisions’ of the ACA” will be overturned on appeal, it nonetheless continues placing the law in jeopardy. And that creates something some states likely dislike even more than the mandate: uncertainty.
A recent report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office makes clear that restoring the mandate also will not unto itself solve the uncertainty. The LAO notes that while “the individual mandate may be one of the state’s most effective policy options to increase enrollment in the individual market and reduce the cost of individual market coverage, particularly for households that currently do not receive federal subsidies,” it would do so “at the expense of individuals who would choose to pay the penalty rather than obtain coverage, perhaps because they do not view available coverage options as affordable.”
The LAO report notes such a law would also be “at odds with the goal of raising revenue for insurance subsidies” because as fewer people pay the penalty, less revenue is generated to pay the subsidies offered for plans bought through the health benefits exchanges.
The individual mandate is just one of several hits to the ACA and the exchanges over the years. The Trump administration, for example, cut tens of millions of dollars in 2018 from the budget for advertising the open enrollment period for buying coverage through a state or federal exchange, while also drastically reducing the open enrollment period itself.
The Trump administration has also allowed consumers the option of extended purchases of so-called “skimpy pans,” lower-cost short-term plans that offer significantly less comprehensive coverage than more standard plans. During the Obama administration, such plans were limited to a lifespan of no more than three months, the Trump administration now allows people not only to buy those plans for as long as 12 months, but to renew them twice.
“I am enormously impressed with the lasting ability of the law and of health care exchanges,” the Bay Area Council’s Weinberg says. “They’ve taken a real licking but just keep on ticking. It’s amazing they’ve continued to exist in the midst of all the headwinds they have now faced for almost a decade.”
Even so, he notes one area he believes lawmakers should focus attention.
“In some ways, the concerns around the exchanges distracts from one of the bigger issues, which is the plight of those people that fall outside of the subsidy range,” he says. “Recent statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation have shown a 40 percent decrease in enrollment in unsubsidized ACA-compliant plans since 2015.”
There are lots of reasons for that, he says, but he adds it is something lawmakers must keep in mind as they work on legislation to bolster the ACA and the exchanges the law relies on.
Even with all of the challenges and setbacks for the law, Weinberg contends its successes far outweigh its losses. Most notable, he says, is in cost controls. While all medical costs have continued to rise, he argues that the degree of increase has slowed considerably in the age of the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, it has done so while providing more coverage to more people than ever before.
“It is difficult to attribute any one policy intervention, even one as sweeping as the Affordable Care Act, as being responsible for something as large as health costs,” he says. “The health care costs trend since the passage of the ACA is in the 6 to 7 percent annual range, which is still too high, but it is substantially lower than the ranges of health care cost growth that we saw in other periods of U.S. history.”
As noted, the debate over individual mandates is just one of many lawmakers will consider this year. Medicaid has of late dominated legislative activity. According to LexisNexis State Net, as of last Monday just under 800 Medicaid-related bills are currently active in statehouses across the country, more than those dealing with pre-existing conditions (225), drug pricing (200), the ACA (176) and single-payer systems (53) combined.
With divided government not likely to end federal gridlock any time soon, these or any other reforms are likely to come first at the state level. And if, as once noted by former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, states are truly the laboratories of democracy, maybe that is the way it should be.
New York pays a larger share of its total Medicaid spending than any other state, at 51.2 percent, with the federal government covering the other 48.8 percent, according to data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. New York also pays the most in total dollars, $39.8 billion, outspending even California, the nation’s most populous state, by nearly $6 billion. Montana pays the smallest portion of its overall Medicaid spending, at just 20 percent.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
Two years ago Amazon announced plans to build a second headquarters in North America and invited cities to vie for the 50,000 jobs that facility would provide. More than 200 cities responded with incentive proposals.
But companies don’t always deliver on such job promises. News broke in January that Global electronics company Foxconn failed to meet its 2018 job target for a new plant in Racine County, Wisconsin.
That disclosure was unusual, not because it’s so rare for companies that receive tax breaks and other incentives to miss stipulated job quotas, but because that information isn’t usually made public.
It took an audit of New York’s Excelsior Jobs Program in 2016 to reveal that staff there routinely lowered job targets when recipients were close to not meeting them.
“New York state gives away millions of dollars each year in tax breaks for companies that are supposed to create jobs and expand under the Excelsior program,” state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said at the time. “Oversight leaves a lot to be desired.”
A University of Texas at Austin study revealed that the Texas Enterprise Fund amended 46, or about 25 percent, of the 165 contracts for corporate incentives it has awarded, usually to lower job targets or extend the schedule for meeting them. The rate may actually be higher, but many incentive recipients have contested the university’s public records requests.
“This finding, from a single state, is troubling,” said Nathan Jensen, the author of the study. “If companies can not only secretly renegotiate the rules, they can also make sure that public records laws shield them from revealing these renegotiations.”
The two states Amazon initially chose for its new headquarters, New York and Virginia (although the company recently canceled its planned New York facility), both agreed in their deals to notify the company when any public records requests were made so it could challenge them it court. (GOVERNING, WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL [MADISON], NEW YORK TIMES)
The Affordable Care Act mandated that insurance companies cover mental health services at parity with medical care. But loopholes in the ACA and other federal laws have let some plans limit or exclude mental health coverage.
So state and local governments have begun taking on the issue themselves. California; Larimer County, Colorado; and Seattle are among those that have enacted tax increases to provide funding for mental health services. And a 2018 RAND Corporation report found that California’s tax had expanded such services to 130,000 individuals in Los Angeles County alone.
In November Denver appears to have become the first major city to approve a tax increase for mental health services via the ballot box, with the approval of a measure imposing a 0.25 percent sales tax hike. The increase is expected to generate $45 million in its first year.
“That is an absolute game-changer,” said Carl Clark, president and CEO of the Mental Health Center of Denver. “Forty-five million dollars is a significant amount of money to create more programs and build more capacity for our existing programs that are working well.” (GOVERNING)
MINNESOTA Gov. Tim Walz (D) has proposed borrowing nearly $1.3 billion to provide more affordable housing, fix buildings on college campuses and repair transportation infrastructure. Although parts of the governor’s plan have broad appeal, the state’s Legislature doesn’t usually pass large bond measures in odd-numbered years. (STAR TRIBUNE [MINNEAPOLIS])
MASSACHUSETTS House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D) has called on his fellow lawmakers to take up yet-to-be-introduced legislation this session providing for $1 billion in borrowing over the next decade for investments in emergency efficiency, renewable energy, and climate change resiliency, including electric vehicle charging, energy storage and solar power infrastructure. (UTILITY DIVE)
ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has proposed a statewide 5-cent tax on plastic shopping bags to reduce waste while raising revenue. But the proposal is facing some resistance, particularly in Chicago where a 7-cent plastic bag tax has already been in effect for over two years. (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
NEW MEXICO’s House approved a bill overhauling key parts of the state’s tax code to broaden its tax base, reduce its dependence on oil revenue and provide more money for education, healthcare and transportation. Among other things, the bill would raise some individual income tax rates and levy new taxes on e-cigarettes and online sales. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
MICHIGAN Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has proposed a 45-cents-per-gallon increase in the state’s gas tax to generate over $2 billion for road repairs. The increase would be phased in over a one-year period, with the first 15-cent hike coming on Oct. 1, the second on April 1, 2020, and the third on Oct. 1, 2020. (DETROIT FREE PRESS)
ALABAMA Gov. Kay Ivey (R) called the Legislature into a special session last week to consider raising the state tax on gasoline and diesel fuel by 10 cents to provide additional infrastructure funding. The state’s fuel taxes have stood at 18 cents for gas and 19 cents for diesel since 1992. (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET))
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
With Democrats having suffered presidential election losses despite winning the popular vote in 2000 and 2016, an effort to bypass the Electoral College has been picking up momentum in blue states. Eleven that have consistently voted for the Democratic candidate in recent presidential elections, including California, Massachusetts and New York, have now signed onto the national popular vote interstate compact, which would award all the electoral votes of the signatory states when there are enough of those states to constitute a majority of the Electoral College, currently 270 votes.
But last month lawmakers in the less solidly blue state of Colorado passed a bill, SB 42, adopting the popular vote compact, which Gov. Jared Polis (D) said he would sign.
“I’ve long supported electing the president by who gets the most votes,” he said.
Colorado state Rep. Emily Sirota (D), one of SB 42’s sponsors, said she views the compact as a way to get candidates to campaign nationwide instead of in just a few battleground states that are key to an Electoral College victory.
“If we had presidential candidates campaigning across the country, instead of a handful of swing states, you’d see a lot more participation from across the country and I think that is good and healthy for our electoral process,” she said.
Advocates are hopeful Colorado’s action will spur other states to join the compact. Sixteen others, including Democrat-governed Delaware, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon, have introduced legislation this session to do so, according to National Popular Vote, the group that proposed the interstate compact.
But with the compact’s electoral vote tally, including Colorado, standing at 181, it seems unlikely to reach the 270-vote threshold before the 2020 election. Some of the 16 states that have introduced popular vote bills are under split-party control, while others are deep red and likely to resist any effort that might favor candidates able to draw support from large urban areas that tend to vote Democratic over those more reliant on rural areas that generally vote Republican.
Still, John Koza, chairman of the National Popular Vote, said it was “theoretically” possible to get to 270 electoral votes by the end of next year.
“You never know how a bandwagon can get rolling,” he said.
He added that it seemed “perfectly plausible that we should get there by 2024.” (HILL, NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE)
Republican Mark Harris said last week he will not run in NORTH CAROLINA’s new election for the 9th Congressional District due to health concerns. The GOP candidate in that race will instead be Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing. The new election was ordered after a months-long investigation into allegations of ballot tampering in last year’s race by a political operative working for the Harris campaign. (HILL)
Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins has thrown out two amendments to NORTH CAROLINA’s Constitution approved by voters in November, implementing a voter ID requirement and capping the state income tax rate. The judge ruled that the state’s General Assembly was so gerrymandered that it “does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution.” (NEWS & OBSERVER [RALEIGH])
Lax residency requirements and voter registration enforcement in SOUTH DAKOTA may be leaving the state open to voter fraud and election tampering. About 6,300 voters are registered at a single rural address in Pennington County, and about 1,400 people are registered at a business address in Hanson County. (ARGUS LEADER)
KENTUCKY lawmakers are considering a bill (HB 387) that, as amended, would bar nonresidents from obtaining public documents. Only a handful of states, including Arkansas and Tennessee, limit public records access to residents. (LOUISVILLE COURIER JOURNAL, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
HAWAII lawmakers are considering several bills aimed at boosting voter turnout. The House has passed automatic voter registration and voting by mail measures, as well as legislation requiring automatic recounts in close races. The Senate has also passed voting by mail and automatic recount bills. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The GEORGIA House passed a bill (HB 316) late last month providing for the replacement of the state’s 27,000 existing electronic voting machines with a $150 million touchscreen voting system that prints paper ballots that can be used to verify accuracy. The fast-moving bill is now in the Senate. (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered officials in 18 TEXAS counties named as defendants in a lawsuit challenging the state’s effort to identify ineligible voters not to remove any names from the voter rolls without his approval, saying the state’s effort was “inherently paved with flawed results.” The judge also ordered acting Texas Secretary of State David Whitley to direct officials in the state’s other 254 counties not to remove any voters without court approval. (NBC NEWS)
An investigation by the ARIZONA Attorney General’s Office found that 28 public officials in the state, including utility regulator Andy Tobin, violated state law by opposing a clean-energy initiative (Proposition 127) on the ballot last year, which ended up not passing. But although three state laws barring the use of public resources to influence the outcome of elections provide for fines of up to $5,000, the AG’s office offered the officials the opportunity to settle for $225 apiece. (ARIZONA REPUBLIC [PHOENIX])
Saying a lack of affordable housing is becoming a drag on the state economy, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker filed legislation earlier this month that would relax zoning controls in Bay State cities and towns.
Baker said a lack of housing is driving up rental rates, making much of the current housing stock unaffordable and forcing workers to live further and further away from their jobs. That in turn further burdens the state’s already-stressed transportation system and may ultimately create a worker shortage as employees opt to seek employment outside urban hubs.
“This is an economic issue. Where is the next generation of your employees going to come from? And where are they going to live? And how are they going to afford to be here?” Baker said in announcing the bill, which is intended to produce 135,000 new housing units by 2025.
Baker introduced a similar bill last year, but it did not come up for a vote. He says he listened to feedback from lawmakers on that measure in crafting the new bill, which would make it easier for municipalities to waive zoning restrictions in order to facilitate the production of new housing units.
One key element in that regard would be to reduce the voting threshold for some local permit-granting authorities from a two-thirds “supermajority” vote to a simple majority vote. It would also provide $10 million in state incentives to further boost development.
The bill has drawn strong support from a bevy of local mayors and community leaders in the Boston area, as well as groups like the Commercial Real Estate Development Association of Massachusetts, the Conservation Law Foundation, and the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
The governor’s case was bolstered on Thursday by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, who said there are 160,000 people on waiting lists for public housing in the Bay State.
Critics, however, contend that Baker’s plan is not explicit enough in its requirements. (BOSTON HERALD, STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON], SALEM NEWS)