Calling climate change “an existential threat,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) issued a proposal to bring Minnesota's electric sector to 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2050.
Under the proposal, by 2050 all Gopher State electric utilities would be required to use only carbon-free energy resources. Utilities would be allowed the flexibility to choose how and at what pace they meet the standard but would be mandated to prioritize energy efficiency and clean energy resources over fossil fuels when replacing or adding new power generation.
The proposal includes provisions to assist workers and communities affected by the transition and prioritizes local employment and prevailing wages for large new clean energy projects.
Walz’s plan drew support from his fellow Democrats, along with a bevy of faith leaders and clean energy advocates. It subsequently drew the wrath of Republicans and business groups, who called the proposal “extreme.” Lawmakers will begin weighing the measure this week. (MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE, GRAND FORKS HERALD)
Breaking a tradition of not commenting on bills that are still in the legislative process, ARIZONA Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said he is “pro-vaccine” and would veto any bills to weaken the state’s vaccination laws that reach his desk. (ARIZONA REPUBLIC [PHOENIX, GOVERNING)
Former COLORADO Gov. John Hickenlooper and current WASHINGTON Gov. Jay Inslee each announced last week they would seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. Hickenlooper said he will make his background as a mayor and governor noted for bipartisan accomplishments the backbone of his campaign, while Inslee announced a more singular focus on battling climate change. (NEW YORK TIMES, DENVER POST)
Citing a finance-driven threat of school closings, MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie baker (R) proposed a bill last week that would give state education officials new oversight of colleges and universities at risk of closing and require them to have a plan in place to accommodate displaced students. (BROCKTON ENTERPRISE)
Saying she wants to shut down out-of-state funders of Keystone Oil Pipeline protesters, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) filed legislation that would allow police to follow such money and “cut it off at the source.” (GLOBE AND MAIL [TORONTO])
Saying “taxpayers, parents and ultimately kids deserve to know how schools are using their tax dollars,” CALIFORNIA Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed SB 126, a bill that requires Golden State charter schools to adhere to the same public records and open meeting laws as do public schools. (CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)
-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
The NORTH DAKOTA Senate approves HB 1400, which defines what constitutes meat and bars non-meat products from being labeled as meat in any way. It moves to Gov. Doug Burgum (R) for consideration (BISMARCK TRIBUNE).
OREGON Gov. Kate Brown (D) signs SB 608, which imposes the nation’s first statewide rent control statute. Under the new law, which takes effect immediately, it is illegal for Beaver State landlords to raise rent by more than 7 percent plus inflation each year. The law also limits a landlord’s ability to evict tenants without a reason after they have lived in a property for a year (OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING).
The NEW MEXICO House endorses HB 441, which would bar the state lottery from offering sports wagering. It moves to the Senate (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The MARYLAND House approves HB 166, which would raise the Old Line State minimum wage to $15 by 2025. It is now in the Senate (WASHINGTON POST).
The SOUTH CAROLINA House approves HB 3759, a bill that would raise the minimum starting teacher pay to $35,000, give the state education superintendent more ability to take over low-performing school districts and create a $100 million fund to help bring businesses to places where schools are poor and struggling. It moves to the Senate (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The WASHINGTON Senate approves SB 5116, which would mandate that all electrical utilities in the Evergreen State transition to 100 percent, carbon neutral electric supply by 2030, and 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. It is now in the House (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The UTAH House approves HB 353, which would authorize funding to pay for free mass transit on 17 of the Beehive State’s worst air quality days over a three-year period. It moves to the Senate (DESERET NEWS [SALT LAKE CITY]).
The NEW MEXICO House approves HB 28, which directs every state agency to develop and implement a climate resiliency and sustainability plan. It moves to the Senate (NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
The MARYLAND Senate approves SB 285, a bill that would make the Old Line State the first in the nation to ban businesses that sell food from using “expanded polystyrene food service products.” The measure, which would take effect on July 1, 2020, moves to the House (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The WASHINGTON Senate approves SB 5323, a bill that would ban stores from giving out single-use plastic carryout bags, giving them until 2020 to use up existing stocks, and require an 8-cent charge for other bags handed out. It moves to the House (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The GEORGIA House approves HB 213, which would allow Peach State farmers to cultivate hemp for use in Cannabidiol, or CBD, oils and other products. It moves to the Senate (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION).
The WASHINGTON House approves HB 1065, which bars patients from being subjected to so-called “balance billing,” when patients receive a bill for the difference between what a provider expects to be reimbursed from an insurer and what the insurer thinks they should pay. It moves to the Senate (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The GEORGIA Senate approves SB 56, another measure to bar the practice of balance billing. It moves to the House (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION).
The GEORGIA House approves HB 324, which would allow for the licensing of 60 dispensaries that would be legally able to grow, manufacture, test and distribute medical cannabis. It moves to the Senate (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION).
The ARKANSAS House approves HB 1290, which would allow Razorback State pharmacists to dispense birth-control pills to customers who lack prescriptions from doctors or nurse practitioners. It moves to the Senate (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT & GAZETTE [LITTLE ROCK]).
The WASHINGTON House approves HB 1638, a measure that would remove parents’ ability to claim a personal or philosophical exemption to vaccinating their school-age children for measles. It moves to the Senate (SEATTLE TIMES).
The NEW YORK Senate and Assembly unanimously approve SB 1719, which would make so-called “revenge porn,” the act of posting nude or sexual images of someone online without that person’s permission, a misdemeanor subject to one year in jail. The measure moves to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is expected to sign it into law (NEW YORK LEGISLATURE).
The IDAHO House votes down HB 98, which would have set the minimum age to marry at 16 (IDAHO STATESMAN).
OKLAHOMA Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signs HB 2597, which allows most Sooner State residents 21 and older to carry concealed or unconcealed firearms without a license (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
The NEW MEXICO House and Senate approve SB 8, which would expand background checks to include private gun sales. It moves to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who has said she will sign it into law (LAS CRUCES SUN NEWS).
The SAN DIEGO City Council gives initial approval to a proposal to eliminate parking requirements for new housing developments that are within a half-mile of a public transit stop. Downtown housing developments will also be capped at one parking space per unit rather than per bedroom. The measure must pass one more vote to become law (TIMES OF SAN DIEGO).
The INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA City Council unanimously approves an ordinance that temporarily limits rent increases and bans evictions while the city tries to develop a plan for dealing with skyrocketing rents. The ordinance will prevent landlords during a 45-day period from raising rents by more than 5 percent and evicting tenants for any reasons other than criminal activity or drug use in the rental property (LOS ANGELES TIMES).
The PHILADELPHIA City Council endorses an ordinance that requires retailers to accept legal tender. The new law takes effect on July 1 and imposes a $2,000 fine on businesses that refuse to accept cash for payment of good and services (NEW YORK TIMES).
California for the most part really doesn’t like Donald Trump. This is hardly news. Alas, it is news that the California Public Employee Retirement System – the largest pension fund in the nation - is one of the larger shareholders in American Media Inc., the debt-ridden parent company of the National Enquirer. Yes sir, as the LA Times reports, in 2016 CalPERS owned up to a third of AMI, which has been implicated in helping The Donald funnel cash to a mistress to keep her quiet about their extra-marital dalliances. And the same mini-mart rag that regularly buried stories that would make the Donster look bad, while savaging anyone said Donster doesn’t like. One can only imagine the faces many state workers made upon learning that they not only helped their least favorite person get elected, they helped him pay off his side hustles.
You folks can eat all the veggie-based faux burger patties you want. You can even pretend you’re chomping on meat if that makes you happy, but once you cross over into Mississippi you had better not call it that. As the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports, in a rare show of bipartisanship the Magnolia State House and Senate endorsed legislation that would bar the labeling of animal cultures, plants and insects as meat. That’s right – it might look like meat, smell like meat, and maybe even taste like it, but calling it that ain’t gonna git ‘er done. It’s off to the gov, who is expected to sign it into law. Perhaps while munching a tasty cheeseburger. And be warned: over a dozen other states are pondering the same legislation.
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage and current Gov. Janet Mills have almost nothing in common, except for an apparent need for speed and an unwillingness to learn a lesson. As the Bangor Daily News reports, Mills has had 10 speeding tickets since 1975, and four since 2000. One from 2008 was for cruising along at 91 MPH in a 65 zone. LePage is not much better, tallying nine speeding tickets in the same time frame. If ever there was a case to be made for pols having someone else do the driving, this is it.
-- By RICH EHISEN
Sixteen states led by California sued President Donald Trump on President’s Day, alleging that his proclamation of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexican border was unconstitutional.
Trump proclaimed the emergency a week earlier after expressing frustration with Congress for providing only a small fraction of the $5.7 billion he sought for building 230 miles of his long-promised wall on the U.S. southern border. The action was widely denounced as unlawful by Democrats and 10 Republican U.S. senators.
“He is usurping congressional authority,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The lawsuit, California et al. v. Trump et al., filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said the plaintiff states were suing “to protect their residents, natural resources, and economic interests from President Donald J. Trump’s flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles engrained in the United States Constitution.”
“Contrary to the will of Congress, the president has used the pretext of a manufactured ‘crisis’ of unlawful immigration to declare a national emergency and redirect federal dollars appropriated for drug interdiction, military construction and law enforcement initiatives toward building a wall on the United States-Mexico border,” the lawsuit said.
Joining California in the lawsuit were Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia.
The suit was filed by the attorneys general of these states. All have Democratic governors except Maryland, whose Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has often taken a bipartisan approach. Democrats also control both chambers of the legislature in these states except for Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia.
Of these states, only California and New Mexico share a border with Mexico, and it’s not certain any of the new fencing sought by Trump will be built in either of these two states. The White House legal team is expected to contend that the states would suffer no specific harm from construction of the wall and therefore lack standing to sue.
Anticipating this argument, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told the New York Times that the plaintiff states have standing because their residents could “lose funding that they paid for with their tax dollars, money that was destined for drug interdiction or for the Department of Defense for military men and women and military installations.”
In a statement accompanying the lawsuit, Becerra described Trump’s action as “unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds lawfully set aside by Congress.”
The lawsuit by the states is part of a two-pronged attack on Trump’s emergency declaration. The other prong is a congressional resolution of disapproval that Democrats will soon introduce. The resolution is assured passage in the Democratic-controlled House and could pass the GOP-controlled Senate, where 10 Republican senators have spoken out against the declaration.
If this happens, Trump will veto the resolution, said Stephen Miller, a White House aide. It would be Trump’s first veto. Democrats acknowledge it would be difficult to muster the two-thirds majority necessary for a veto override.
That would leave the decision to the courts. In addition to the lawsuit filed by the states, legal actions aimed at overturning the declaration are expected by various advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union. The advocacy group Public Citizen filed the first such lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of three Texas landowners and an environmental group.
Proclamations of national emergencies are not rare. Fifty-nine have been declared by presidents under the National Emergency Act of 1976, and 31 of them remain in effect today, going back to an emergency declaration by President Jimmy Carter after U.S. hostages were held captive in the American embassy in Iran.
Most existing emergencies involve foreign countries or foreign nationals. The Trump declaration is the only one to come after Congress passed legislation rejecting a presidential budget request.
“This is plainly a power grab by a disappointed president who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a joint statement.
The lawsuit filed by the states is part of a persistent pattern of conflict between Democratic-controlled states and the Trump administration. California alone has filed 46 lawsuits against the Trump administration with mixed results.
Trump won an important victory on Feb. 11, ironically in the often liberal U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals the president has frequently denounced. The administration plans to rebuild some sections of existing fencing near San Diego without making an environmental assessment. California challenged this, but the court said that the administration has the authority to waive environmental regulations.
This decision could set a precedent for other sensitive environmental considerations involving the border wall.
The courts are not the only arena in which the Trump administration and states have clashed.
Days before Trump’s emergency declaration, the newly installed Democratic governor of New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, withdrew most of her state’s National Guard troops from a contingent of 2,300 National Guard forces dispatched to the border by Trump last April. (Trump subsequently sent 5,200 regular U.S. troops to the border just before the midterm elections; about half have been withdrawn.)
Disputing Trump’s claims of a national security crisis. Lujan Grisham said that border towns in New Mexico are among the safest communities in the country. She said she wanted no part of Trump’s “charade of border fearmongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new Democratic governor of California, followed suit. He withdrew 260 of his state’s 360 National Guard troops on the border. Lujan Grisham is withdrawing all but a dozen of 118 troops. Those that remain are needed to process amnesty requests, she said.
The conflict over the border wall, like so much else in the debate over illegal immigration, is clouded in political semantics. Pelosi has called Trump’s proposed wall “immoral,” but walls, fencing and various barriers already cover one-third of the 1,954-mile-long border between the United States and Mexico.
Some construction began under President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s. President George W. Bush increased the effort in 2006 and President Barack Obama added 130 miles of wall, most of it during his first year in office. Many Democrats, including Sen. Schumer, supported this effort.
Although the information is shrugged off by Trump, data compiled by his administration raises questions about the value of any additional wall construction. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows that unlawful entry of persons from Mexico is at a 45-year low. Dangerous drugs are still a major problem, but CBP data shows that the vast majority of them come through legal ports of entry. Democrats and Republicans generally agree on the need for improved high tech interdiction at these points of entry, although this agreement is pretty much drowned out by the barrage of insults exchanged between Trump and his detractors.
In the legal battle ahead Trump may be haunted by his own words; “I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this,” he told reporters gathered in the White House Rose Garden, shortly before he declared the emergency. “But I’d rather do it much faster.”
But these words may not matter. Congress, in passing the National Emergency Act, defined no standards that a president must meet in declaring an emergency. Writing in the Washington Post, attorney Elizabeth Goitein of the liberal Brennan Center for Justice, observed that this Supreme Court has shown “a willingness to defer to Trump on claims of national security.”
However the legal battle is resolved, the sad truth about the emergency declaration is that it’s unnecessary except as a way for Trump to demonstrate that he is keeping a campaign promise.
The administration intends to spend wall construction money in sequence, starting with the $1.375 billion Congress appropriated. It would then tap three additional pots of money: $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund, $2.5 billion from a Department of Defense anti-drug fund and $3.6 billion in military construction funds that Trump would re-direct to the wall.
Trump can legally do all of this except divert the last $3.6 billion without an emergency declaration. The lawsuits are likely to take until 2020 to resolve. So even if Trump wins in the courts, he in all probability will not have diverted the $3.6 billion in military spending by the time his term ends.
And that presumably would be the end of the matter. Unless, of course, Donald Trump is re-elected.
Health care will be a major issue in statehouses this year, from the stability of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid to state single-payer and prescription drug price proposals. Join us on March 5 as SNCJ Managing Editor Rich Ehisen welcomes two of California’s most respected health care voices - former California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley and Dr. Micah Weinberg, President of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute - for a discussion of these issues and more during our 2019 Hot Topic Webinar Series: Health Care. Register here to reserve your spot.
The attorneys general of 16 states have filed a federal lawsuit to block the Trump administration from using a national emergency declaration to appropriate about $6.6 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. All 16 of the AGs are Democrats, and all but four of the plaintiff states also have Democratic governors and Democrat-led legislatures. Maryland has a Republican governor, while Michigan and Virginia have GOP-controlled legislatures, and Minnesota has a Republican-led Senate.
President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border could collectively cost states, the District Columbia and two U.S. territories as much as $6 billion in federal military construction and National Guard funding.
California, Hawaii and Maryland stand to take the biggest funding hits, $896 million, $550 million and $362 million, respectively. All three of those states are among the 16 that have filed a federal lawsuit to block the border wall action (see Spotlight and Bird’s Eye View).
“If the president is essentially stealing money that’s been allocated to go to the various states for various purposes but no longer will, we’re being harmed, our people are being harmed,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra when the lawsuit was announced. (GOVERNING)
The makers of several cigarette brands, including Salem and Winston, have stopped paying Minnesota the money they owe it under the 1998 multistate tobacco settlement agreement. That has left the state with an estimated $15 million less per year to spend on tobacco control.
Last year, then-state Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and ITG Brands to recover the settlement money they haven’t paid since 2015 for four cigarette brands sold in the state.
Reynolds sold the four brands to ITG that year, and the two companies have sued each other over which is responsible for making the associated payments.
But that dispute isn’t the only thing hampering Minnesota’s anti-smoking efforts, at the same time that teen tobacco use is on the rise.
In 2018 the state took in $154 million in tobacco settlement payments that did get made, along with $648 million in tobacco taxes. But most of that revenue just went into the state’s general fund. The state spends a total of $17 million per year on tobacco control, about a third of what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it should be spending in a 2014 study.
“This was the largest and most significant lawsuit in the state’s history, and for none of that money to be earmarked for the purposes that the lawsuit was serving is an unforgivable shame,” said Doug Blanke, director of the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul.
Some Minnesota lawmakers appear to agree. Bills have been introduced in both chambers of the state’s Legislature (HB 1058 and SB 1029) that would require any proceeds from the litigation with Reynolds and ITG to be spent on the prevention of tobacco use.
“It’s time for all Big Tobacco brands selling in Minnesota to pay up and honor this settlement,” said Sen. Jeff Hayden (DFL), lead author of SB 1029. “And it’s time for the state to dedicate some of that tobacco money to preventing youth from ever starting this deadly addiction.” (STAR TRIBUNE [MINNEAPOLIS], LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
Four years ago, faced with a $1 billion budget deficit, Arizona’s GOP-controlled Legislature reduced the maximum amount of time residents could receive welfare benefits over their entire lives to 12 months, the shortest duration in the country.
But this year Republicans have refused to give hearings to Democrat-backed bills aimed at raising the lifetime maximum to the five years allowed under federal law (HB 2607) -- the standard in most states, including Arizona as of 2010 -- or removing the additional conditions the state now imposes for a second year of aid (SB 1501), despite the fact that the state is expecting a $1 billion surplus.
Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley (D), who sponsored HB 2607, said: “If we have $1 billion, why can’t we put a couple million toward helping these people out?”
Sen. David Gowan (R), one of the committee chairs who declined to give the welfare measures hearings, said through a spokesman that “a bill like this could still be discussed as part of budget negotiations.” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC [PHOENIX])
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced last week that it was canceling a $929 million grant to California for a high-speed rail project that was supposed to link San Francisco and Los Angeles. The announcement also said the department was “actively exploring every legal option” for getting back the $2.5 billion in federal funding that had already been contributed to the project.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the week before that the state would be scaling back the rail project significantly.
“The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long,” he said. “There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.”
But Newsom tied DOT’s announcement to California’s decision to file a lawsuit with 15 other states to block the Trump administration from using a national emergency declaration to fund a border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s no coincidence that the Administration’s threat comes 24 hours after California led 16 states in challenging the President’s farcical ‘national emergency’,” Newsom said in a statement. (FORTUNE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, BLOOMBERG)
CONNECTICUT Gov. Ned Lamont (D) unveiled a budget proposal last week calling for a new 1.5 cents per ounce tax on sodas and other sugar-sweetened drinks that would generate an estimated $163 million in new revenue next fiscal year. If approved, the state would become the first to impose such a tax. (HILL)
TENNESSEE Gov. Bill Lee (R) said last week that he would propose repealing the state’s nearly 10 percent tax on gym memberships in his forthcoming budget. He said the move would help reduce the burden on the state’s small businesses and improve the health of its residents. (NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN)
MINNESOTA Gov. Tim Walz (D) proposed a two-year budget last week that would provide millions of dollars more in funding for education, expand public insurance and increase the state’s gas tax by 20 cents a gallon. The $49.5 billion spending plan, representing an 8.6 percent boost from the current budget, could be a tough sell to Republicans who control the Senate and hold 58 of the House’s 134 seats. (STAR TRIBUNE [MINNEAPOLIS])
The WYOMING Legislature has passed at least three bills aimed at making the state more attractive to cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses. If signed by Gov. Mark Gordon (R), the bills would recognize digital assets as property (SB 125); create “special purpose depository institutions to serve businesses which may not be able to access traditional banking services, including blockchain businesses” (HB 74); and allow the issuance of securities in token form (HB 185). (COINDESK, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
OHIO Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is calling for an 18-cent hike in the state’s gas tax to avert a more than $1 billion projected transportation funding shortfall. The increase would take the state’s levy to 46 cents per gallon, the second highest rate among its neighbors, behind Pennsylvania, at 57.7 cents a gallon. (TOLEDO BLADE)
In the first veto of his tenure, WISCONSIN Gov. Tony Evers (D) nixed a plan passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to use money left over from the current state budget to provide a 10-percent income tax cut for middle-class families. Evers said he objected to the passage of such a significant fiscal policy matter outside of the state’s normal budget process and that he would include a tax cut of the same size in his coming two-year budget. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL)
NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is looking into selling, leasing or otherwise leveraging assets belonging to the state, including airports, bridges, roads and naming rights to help fund public workers’ pensions. The state’s pension system is one of the most underfunded in the nation. (NJ.COM, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
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 of Elections ordered a new election.
The board’s 5-0 decision came after the GOP candidate, Mark Harris, suggested a new election should be held.
“Through the testimony I listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” he said. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the Ninth District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”
It was a stunning turnaround for Harris, who held a 905-vote lead over Democratic candidate Dan McCready after last year’s election and had aggressively defended himself through months of investigation into allegations that L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a veteran political operative he’d hired, had engaged in fraudulent activity involving ballots cast in two counties within the Ninth District.
The election board will decide when the new election will be held at a later meeting. But because new primaries will have to be held along with a new general election, the Ninth could be left without congressional representation until the fall.
It’s not clear if Harris will run again. Even before the current proceedings, he wasn’t beloved by the state’s Republican voters. He lost campaigns for the U.S. Senate in 2014 and the Ninth District House seat in 2016.
Regardless of who runs in or wins the new election, partisan control of the U.S. House won’t be affected, as Democrats hold a sizeable majority in the chamber. (NBC NEWS, NEW YORK TIMES, ABC 11 [DURHAM])
In July 2005 Pennsylvania lawmakers voted to give themselves pay raises of between 16 and 34 percent, depending on their position. That action caused such a public outcry that the raises were repealed a few months later. And even after the repeal, 20 lawmakers, including top leaders in the state’s Senate, still lost their seats in the 2006 election cycle.
But last year Pennsylvania lawmakers received an automatic 1.6 percent raise, due to cost of living increases, and there “has been no controversy at all about the pay hike,” according to Terry Madonna, a professor of public affairs and Director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.
“It’s the modest amount, more likely than not, that is responsible for the lack of any controversy.”
But New York lawmakers managed a big pay increase for themselves without producing too much of a backlash. In the budget they passed last year, they turned over authority for legislative pay raises to an appointed commission. And in early December that commission awarded the state’s lawmakers, who haven’t received a pay increase since 1999, a 63 percent raise over three years, as long as they approve a budget on time and agree to restrictions on outside income.
The media’s response to the pay increase decision hasn’t been favorable, and at least one lawsuit has been filed to block the raise. But the state’s lawmakers appear to have distanced themselves somewhat from the controversy. The timing of the raise has also helped.
“Having it drop after the election and before the holidays,” said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, “is sort of the sweet spot when you get a pay raise.” (GOVERNING)
TENNESSEE’s House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee approved a bill (HB 1273/SB 1500) last week that would require voters to declare a party affiliation in order to vote in the state’s primary elections. Gov. Bill Lee (R) has said that he opposes the idea of closing the state’s primaries. (NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN)
After three hours of partisan debate, NEW MEXICO’s Democrat-led House approved a bill (HB 84) that would automatically register residents to vote when they obtain a driver’s license or ID, unless they specifically request to opt out of that registration. Under current law drivers must opt in to register to vote. (LAS CRUCES SUN NEWS)
Wisconsin Gov. Toney Evers (D) unveiled an expansive plan last week to overhaul the Badger State’s marijuana laws. His proposal would make the drug legal for medicinal use, decriminalize cannabis possession and align the state’s CBD oil laws with federal statutes.
The proposal would allow doctors to prescribe cannabis to treat ailments like cancer, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, severe nausea, and seizures. Medical weed patients would be allowed to possess up to three ounces of cannabis, or up to 12 plants. It would also align the state’s laws on cannabidiol, also known as CBD oil, with federal standards. Current Badger State law requires a doctor to give a yearly certification for families to get access to CBD oil.
“As a cancer survivor, I know the side effects of a major illness can make everyday tasks a challenge,” the governor said at a press conference last week. “People shouldn’t be treated as criminals for accessing a desperately-needed medication that can alleviate their suffering.”
He also made clear he sees cannabis law reform as a social justice issue, noting the inequities in how minorities are arrested and convicted for marijuana-related offenses. In addition to the medical allowance, his proposal would decriminalize possession, production or distribution of marijuana in amounts of 25 grams or less and expunge the records of those previously convicted for violations under that amount who have served their sentences or probations.
“Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate in the country for black men, and drug-related crimes account for as many as 75-85 percent of all inmates in our prisons,” he said via a press release.
The plan was met with a mixed response. In a statement, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) said in a statement he felt Evers’ proposal was too much too fast.
“It makes it easier to get recreational marijuana and provides a pathway to full legalization, which I do not support,” he said.
It also drew a negative response from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, a business lobbying group, which came out against the plan, saying, “business leaders are concerned about the impacts marijuana decriminalization will have on workplace safety.”
The measure drew broader support from Democrats and groups like Wisconsin Veterans for Compassionate Care, which advocates for legalizing medical marijuana.
Evers is expected to make his official proposal to lawmakers as part of his budget address on Feb. 28. (STATE JOURNAL [MADISON], NBC NEWS, MARIJUANA MOMENT)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he wants to cut the state’s health care costs by importing prescription drugs from less expensive Canadian pharmacies.
It is currently illegal for states to import drugs from foreign pharmacies, but DeSantis said he is working with the Trump administration to gain approval for such a plan. He said he had discussed the possibility directly with the president and that Trump was all for it.
“He not only supports this, he is enthusiastic, and he supports what we are doing,” DeSantis said at a news conference.
Vermont passed legislation last year making it the first state to authorize an importation plan, but it has yet to submit its request for approval to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
While Trump may be on board, the plan is already drawing opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. A statement from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said the industry was willing to work with lawmakers to address exorbitant drug prices, but “proposals like this that brush patient safety aside are not the answer.” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, HILL [DC])
Citing a lack of cohesive enforcement to stamp out CALIFORNIA’s illegal marijuana market, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced expanded efforts by the state National Guard to work with federal officials to target black market dealers, including illegal drug grows operated by international drug cartels. Newsom said at least 150 California National Guard troops would be redeployed from the U.S.-Mexico border to join a federally funded Counterdrug Task Force focused on cartel activity in Northern California. (CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
Citing federal judicial rulings that the current OHIO method for capital punishment was unconstitutional, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said last week he is implementing a moratorium on executions until a new method can be developed. (CLEVELAND.COM)
To pay for her plan to increase staffing at state parks, RHODE ISLAND Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) proposed increases of 33 percent for most parking fees at state beaches as well as steeper increases for camping fees, including doubling the price for some prime campsites. The proposal is in response to a study that said budget cuts had forced staffing down to a level in which parks facilities were no longer adequately maintained. (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL)
MAINE Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced her support for New England Clean Energy Connect, a controversial proposal by Central Maine Power to build a 145-mile transmission line to carry hydropower from Quebec to MASSACHUSETTS. Her support was part of a negotiated agreement between the governor’s office and consumer, business, labor groups and environmental groups. (PORTLAND PRESS HERALD)