Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) 2017 budget proposal includes a plan to divert $16.3 million in annual marijuana tax revenues to help pay for a trio of new programs intended to fight homelessness in the Centennial State. The governor’s proposal would entail building up to 1,500 new housing units for residents suffering from chronic and episodic homelessness, 354 units for people with behavioral health needs and up to 250 for senior and low-income residents forced out by gentrification. The proposal, which also calls for using $2 million from the state’s General Fund, comes in the wake of new federal data showing the Centennial State with one of the fastest growing homelessness rates in the nation.
Current tax revenues from marijuana sales reached $134 million through September, with the bulk of those dollars committed to law enforcement, health care and substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. Using any of that funding would require changing state law.
Hickenlooper noted that battling homelessness was one of his signature issues during his time as Denver mayor from 2003 to 2011.
“My argument — and it’s the same argument — is we spend more than twice as much … perpetuating lives of misery by letting people live under bridges than we would getting them into housing and giving them wrap-around services — by which I mean, job training at the top of the list, counseling for addictions and medications for mental health,” Hickenlooper said. (DENVER POST, THEDENVERCHANNEL.COM)
OHIO Gov. John Kasich (R) and lawmakers are working on a plan to consolidate the Buckeye State’s multiple medical licensing boards. Legislation currently under consideration in the General Assembly would reduce the number of medical-licensure boards from 16 to eight, an act that would also cull 88 members from those various boards. The legislation is also intended to address a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that raised antitrust concerns over how the boards operate. Under those bills, the director of the state Department of Administrative Services would be allowed to void any board action found as constituting price-fixing or restricting competition. (COLUMBUS DISPATCH)
MAINE Gov. Paul LePage (R) wants Pine Tree State lawmakers to significantly change two ballot measures voters approved on Election Day. LePage contends the two initiatives – one of which will raise the minimum wage and another that imposes a new surtax on the wealthy to help fund schools – will harm the state economy. Legislative leaders in both parties, however, have expressed reluctance to alter measures endorsed by voters. (BANGOR DAILY NEWS)
-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate each gives final approval to SB 2473, which would impose new safety requirements on so-called “duck boats,” amphibious sight-seeing vehicles commonly used for tourist excursions. The measure is now with Gov. Charlie Baker (R) for consideration (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON]).
NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 10713, a bill that bans the use of automated software or machinery – so-called “ticket bots” – to obtain tickets to arts or cultural events for resale. The law makes use of bots a misdemeanor and imposes fines on those who offer for resale any tickets knowingly obtained through the use of such software (ALBANY TIMES UNION).
Also in NEW YORK, Gov. Cuomo signs SB 6469A, a law that codifies the exclusion of newspaper delivery persons from unemployment insurance coverage, the minimum wage and workers’ compensation coverage (NEW YORK GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
Staying in NEW YORK, Gov. Cuomo vetoes AB 10083B, which would have established tax credits for music and video game production in a similar vein to the state’s film tax credit program (NEW YORK GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
Finally in NEW YORK, Gov. Cuomo vetoes SB 6003, which would have required retailers of electronic cigarettes, not otherwise registered with the Department of Taxation and Finance to sell tobacco products, to register with the Department of Health (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo approves SB 8117, which requires that sexual offense evidence, or rape kits, are processed in a timely manner. The law also requires kits to be tracked from the originating police agency to forensic labs, and that reports are provided to the state on a quarterly basis (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
PENNSYLVANIA Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoes HB 1538, which would have delayed the release of the names of officers involved in shootings or other force that resulted in serious injury or death (PENNLIVE.COM).
The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate give final approval to HB 2319, which would exempt custodians, cafeteria employees and other non-teaching workers from a law that gives principals and superintendents responsibility for hiring and firing decisions concerning school personnel. The measure moves to Gov. Charlie Baker (R) for consideration (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON]).
NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 10264, a measure to establish a state ocean acidification task force, which will be tasked with identifying root causes contributing to acidification in the Empire State’s ocean waters and for developing recommendations for standards and actions to monitor and address the threat of acidification to coastal communities (ALBANY TIMES-UNION).
NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 10448, which allows Empire State pharmacies to electronically transfer prescriptions to other pharmacies (ALBANY TIMES-UNION).
Also in NEW YORK, Gov. Cuomo signs SB 5903A, which directs the commissioner of health to make regulations for the donation and re-dispensing of unused prescription drugs (NEW YORK GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
Also in NEW YORK, Gov. Cuomo vetoes AB 9528, which would have allowed a pharmacist to exercise his or her professional judgement in refilling a prescription for a quantity of a drug greater than the quantity initially prescribed (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
Staying in NEW YORK, Gov. Cuomo vetoes SB 6962, which would have limited the substitution of abuse-deterrent analgesic opioid drug products for analgesic opioids lacking such technology (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
Lawyers generally have a long list of dos and don’ts in the course of their work. One that would seem to be obvious in any such a compilation would be to not have sex with the clients they represent. Obvious everywhere, that is, except California. Yes, believe it or not attorneys in the Golden State are free to get their groove on with the same people they represent, no matter how bad an idea that might be. Alas, those days might be winding down. As Capital Public Radio reports, the California State Bar has proposed a rule that would prohibit such intermingling of briefs, so to speak. More interestingly, some legal beagles are opposing the rule change, contending it violates their privacy. Be that as it may, the fate of the new rule will soon be in the hands of the state Supreme Court, which decides such matters.
-- By RICH EHISEN
Coordinating a global PR strategy can sometimes seem like a Sisyphean struggle. When cornerstone ideas of your company's (or client's) brand don't cross international borders, there's a temptation to either limit your reach or cook up completely different strategies for each territory. However, there is recent precedent for commercial ideas circling the globe, bringing rich new PR opportunities with them - for evidence, simply look at Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Black Friday started as a simple concept, namely that it is the day after Thanksgiving and the first shopping day of the winter holiday season. Brands would naturally want such a buying frenzy to go global in an age of cross-border commerce, but there's a hitch - Thanksgiving is an American holiday. What to do? Companies have remained tenacious and, as the examples below show, the shopping holiday has found its feet in markets that don't celebrate Thanksgiving.
The words "Black Friday" have become divorced from Thanksgiving, and are now being used to sell goods around the world. Kotaku culture reporter Brian Ashcraft recently highlighted the expansion of a three-day Black Friday sales period running through the post-Thanksgiving weekend in Japan. While the unofficial holiday doesn't yet prompt the kind of hysteria it promises in America, the Black Friday name is omnipresent.
Ashcraft noted that the attempt to drive shopping in Japan is in its early stages, which makes Japan an interesting case to watch from a PR perspective. Some retailers, obviously reacting to buyer confusion about what the sales represent, have taken an informative approach to their promotional campaigns.
The question now facing Japanese retailers is whether they can establish Black Friday in the country's lineup of important retail dates. Ashcraft explained that the New Year is currently the king of sales in the country, with its own unique traditions. Retailers have ample incentive to continue pushing Black Friday via informational campaigns, hype and whatever other means they can come up with - it would make a great addition to their fall financial statements.
Fortune's overview of Black Friday in the United Kingdom revealed a country that has internalized the retail holiday so deeply that it is already evolving dramatically. Retailers are shifting from in-person sales to enabling online and mobile shopping. The source explained that 2014 represented a breaking point. Bad weather and fights between shoppers painted Black Friday as an unpleasant experience. But it didn't disappear, it went online.
Now, Fortune reported that companies were preparing for a wave of purchases made from smartphones. The concept of time-sensitive discounts remains, but the manner of sales has increased. There is a PR lesson in this change, too: Companies shouldn't be afraid to let the nature of an event change, provided they still stand to benefit from it.
In a few short years, Black Friday has gone from an imported retail scrum to a chance for companies to boost their online sales revenues before the winter holidays. This is an especially impressive pivot considering the original impetus for Black Friday - Thanksgiving - is absent from the U.K. calendar.
Okay, yes, Black Friday started in the U.S., but where does it stand today? What about the rise of Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday? Looking at the media coverage over time, Black Friday still garners most of the media attention, but Cyber Monday has its own day to shine.
Cyber Monday grabbed 17% of the share of voice with more than 160,000 articles, and the two newbies Giving Tuesday and Small Business Saturday captured over 2% share of voice each. While Giving Tuesday and Small Business Saturday coverage may be small, the media article count for these two purchasing holidays has grown by over 10,000 articles since our tracking in 2015. Here in the U.S., businesses may get lost in the shuffle with a Black Friday campaign, so adept PR professionals may look to the lesser known shopping days to get some brand coverage. Giving Tuesday may be just the opportunity to connect the fun and excitement of Black Friday with corporate social responsibility campaigns. Will Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and Small Business Saturday become the next global exports? Well, Giving Tuesday has already made it to 68 countries across the globe. Where will it go next?
As a PR professional, your job is to always stay aware of potential opportunities, no matter where those chances appear. Whether you're leading the charge into a new territory or taking advantage of changing conditions, media monitoring with a global reach is an essential element of your expansion. If the global Black Friday spread proves one thing, it's that you should never assume that a promotional tactic won't work in a specific territory. Where there's a will, there's a way.
The holidays may be the season of goodwill, but companies must beware that it also brings a heightened risk of financial crime. These risks include bribery to secure more sales in the busy Holiday period, bribery masked as hospitality, and unethical sourcing of goods.
The holiday season is the most important time of the year for retailers. Given that a company’s performance in December has a big effect on their annual revenue, the temptation to commit financial crime is higher. Executives feeling this pressure may pay a bribe to secure a sale or a contract ahead of their competitors. So it is vital that companies put in place proper compliance procedures to prevent and detect financial crime.
Whether it is the latest ‘must-have’ toy for a child’s Christmas stocking, or discounted smartphones in the New Year sales, certain goods are in high demand this month. So retail companies should warn staff working on the front line against the temptation of reserving high-demand goods for certain customers in exchange for a bribe, or buying goods themselves and reselling them for more money. This was such a problem in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2016 that the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption issued a guide to train retail employees about these dangers.
The winter season is associated with gift giving, whether for Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year or Diwali. Executives often take clients and suppliers out for a meal or buy them a gift. But while the law in many countries allows companies to provide hospitality to give information on their services, or to promote good relations between company and client, it is usually illegal to use hospitality as a bribe.
Bill Pollard, Deloitte Advisory partner, said in an interview last year that this can be the most stressful time of year for compliance officers. ‘We are entering into a traditional gift-giving season around the globe where Western and Eastern cultures are engaging in behaviors where the requests for approvals related to gifts go up significantly,’ he says. So companies must ensure they are up to date on the anti-bribery legislation governing all jurisdictions in which they operate. They must pay particular attention to third parties with links to government officials and politically-exposed persons.
In the rush to source and produce sufficient stocks of goods to sell to Holiday shoppers, companies should not neglect to carry out proper due diligence checks on their suppliers. Firms should make sure they know where their goods come from and implement a risk-based approach to due diligence, where they apply extra scrutiny to third parties in countries or sectors which carry a higher risk of bribery.
Companies should investigate the condition and treatment of people working for their suppliers to produce goods. For example, major clothing retailers across Europe suffered damage to their reputations after a building in Bangladesh which housed some of their suppliers’ factories collapsed in 2013, causing the tragic deaths of 1,135 people. UK clothing retailer Primark, German discount store KiK, Dutch retailer C&A and Polish firm Cropp were among the firms facing a media and social media campaign calling on them to pay into a compensation scheme for workers in the building. Primark says it has paid $14 million following the disaster. This pressure came not only from consumers, but also investors. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 275 institutional investors seeking social change, also called for clothing brands to do more for victims of the disaster. These investors had more than $4 trillion of assets under management, so there was a strong financial incentive for companies to comply.
It would be unfair to suggest these clothing firms could have predicted the Rana Plaza disaster, but the case shows the importance of carrying out an extra level of due diligence on suppliers in higher risk markets such as Bangladesh.
As part one of our legislative preview indicated, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds next year’s legislative sessions, but as a result of President-elect Donald Trump’s surprising victory and with Republicans in control of both legislative chambers in 32 states - up from 30 before last month’s election - conservative focuses such as the Affordable Care Act and immigration are likely to dominate state legislative agendas. A few liberal issues that figured prominently on states’ November ballots, however, could also get attention in some statehouses, along with issues that cut more across ideological lines.
Marijuana Legalization: All four of the measures on states’ Nov. 8 ballots seeking legalization of marijuana for medical use were approved by voters, including the first in the South: Arkansas’ Issue 6 and Florida’s Amendment 2. And all but one of the five measures aimed at legalizing recreational use of the drug also passed, including California’s Proposition 64. That measure in particular could give a major boost to the recreational marijuana movement - which had already scored victories in four states and the District of Columbia - given that California, the nation’s most populous state, was the first to legalize medical marijuana, in 1996, and 24 other states have taken that action since.
“California is a game changer. California is a movement,” the state’s lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsome (D), said at a news conference before the election.
It remains to be seen, however, whether that game at the state level will continue to be played mainly at the ballot box or will carry over to state legislatures. So far, legalization of marijuana for recreational use has only come via ballot measure, although Vermont came close to becoming the first to accomplish it legislatively, with the Senate’s approval in February of SB 241, which was later derailed in the House, according to LexisNexis State Net’s legislative tracking database.
President-elect Trump’s pick for attorney general, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), who opposes marijuana legalization, could also end an Obama administration policy allowing states that have legalized the drug to operate in a regulatory grey area, despite the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance like LSD and heroin.
“We need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized. It ought not to be minimized, that it’s in fact a very real danger,” Sessions said at a U.S. Senate hearing in April.
But in a statement issued on Nov. 18, National Cannabis Industry Association Executive Director Aaron Smith said: “Voters in 28 states have chosen programs that shift cannabis from the criminal market to highly regulated, tax-paying businesses. Senator Sessions has long advocated for state sovereignty, and we look forward to working with him to ensure that states’ rights and voter choices on cannabis are respected.” And the business publication Quartz reported that half of the members of the U.S. Senate and 60 percent of the members of the U.S. House “hail from states that have legalized some kind of marijuana access.”
Minimum Wage: Voters in four states - Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington - passed initiatives increasing their respective minimum wage rates on Nov. 8. And voters in South Dakota, which supported Trump by a nearly 30-point margin (61.5 percent to 31.7 percent), rejected a popular referendum (Referred Law 20) on legislation signed into law last year (SB 177) making workers under 18 ineligible for a minimum wage increase - from $7.25 per hour to $8.50 per hour - approved by the state’s voters in 2014 (Measure 18).
Those results could spur other states to take action on the issue. In October Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) said he and his state’s lawmakers would explore raising the minimum wage to replace hikes being approved by counties across the state. Wisconsin Republicans, on the other hand, said after the election - which gave them larger legislative majorities than they’ve had in decades - they might eliminate the minimum wage for workers on road and government building projects. Trump, meanwhile, has issued contradictory statements on the issue, saying in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press in May that he’d “rather leave it to the states” but then saying at a press conference in July that the federal rate had to go up to “at least $10.”
Soda Taxes: Berkeley, California became the first city to pass a soda tax in 2014, with voters’ approval of Measure D. Philadelphia’s City Council approved a soda tax this past June. And three California cities - San Francisco, Oakland and Albany - and Boulder Colorado all passed soda tax ballot measures on Nov. 8 with over 60 percent voter support.
“This is the start of a national movement,” Larry Tramutola, a political strategist who organized the campaigns in support of the soda tax measures in San Francisco and Oakland, said after the election.
Michael Jacobson, co-founder and president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, likewise, said, “I’m sure that other cities and states will look at this and put tax measures before their legislatures.”
“Legislators will say, ‘We get a twofer: balance the budget and improve public health.’”
It didn’t take long for the next soda tax measure to come: The Board of Commissioners of Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago, narrowly passed one on Nov. 10.
Transportation/Infrastructure Funding: In the absence of an increase in the federal excise tax on gasoline - the primary source of federal funding for transportation programs - since 1993, states have had to carry more of the financial burden of maintaining and improving their deteriorating roads and infrastructure. Last month New Jersey raised its gas tax by 23 cents, to 37.5 cents per gallon, to provide more money for transportation projects, and other states, including Georgia, Idaho, Iowa and Nebraska, have done the same in the last few years.
Trump has promised to spend $1 trillion over 10 years to rebuild America’s infrastructure. But the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates the nation would have to spend $3.6 trillion over just the next three years to get its infrastructure - including roads, airports, railways, waterways, energy and water systems, hazardous and solid waste systems, schools and parks - to “a state of good repair,” enough to raise the ASCE’s overall grade for it from its current D-plus to a B. So more state tax hikes are likely on the way.
“There are still 20 states that have waited a decade or more since last raising their gas tax rates,” said Carl Davis, research director for the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “At least a dozen states are going to be discussing gas tax increases next year.”
Autonomous Vehicles: Since Nevada became the first state to authorize the operation of autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles in 2011, seven other states have enacted legislation and two states have issued executive orders related to such vehicles, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The number of introductions related to autonomous vehicles by NCSL’s count, meanwhile, has risen from 10 bills in six states in 2012 to 10 bills in eight states in 2013, 21 bills in 12 states in 2014, 15 bills in 11 states in 2015 and 36 bills in 17 states this year. And with self-driving cars increasingly in the headlines - Apple Inc. recently revealed it is “investing heavily” in the emerging technology - that growth trend is only likely to continue.
Cybersecurity: Twenty-eight states have introduced over 100 bills and resolutions - and enacted or adopted 24 - related to cybersecurity this year, according to NCSL analysis of LexisNexis State Net legislative data. Those numbers are up from the 25 states, 66 introductions and 20 enactments or adoptions in 2015. The profile of the issue has also been ratcheted up recently by the reports of Russian hackers targeting Democratic National Committee computers and state voter registration systems leading up to last month’s election, as well as of the massive cyberattack on Domain Name System (DNS) provider Dyn in October, which utilized hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices like home network routers and baby monitors to disrupt traffic to major websites, including those of Twitter, Netflix and The New York Times.
Police Oversight/Protection: Since the highly publicized fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed, 18-year-old black man, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and the suffocation of Eric Garner by police in New York City, in 2014, 30 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws dealing with the use of body cameras by law enforcement, according to NCSL. Fewer of the laws require police departments to use such cameras than set standards for those that do, but as of August, 43 of the country’s 68 “major city” departments fell into that category, according to a report by the Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights.
But controversial incidents involving police officers, including shootings, continue. As of early December, there were 888 fatal police shootings nationwide this year, just 21 fewer than at the same point in 2015, according to a database maintained by The Washington Post, fueling public demand not only for more body cameras but also greater civilian oversight of law enforcement. Last month voters in Oakland, California approved the creation of a powerful civilian-run police commission, while voters in Denver, Honolulu, Miami, New Orleans and San Francisco approved plans to strengthen existing police oversight programs, according to the Associated Press.
But there have also been calls for more protection of law enforcement officers. As of late November, 60 officers had been killed by gunfire themselves this year, a 67 percent increase from the same time last year, according to a statement issued by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. That statement also said 20 officers had been killed this year in targeted attacks, “part of a growing and alarming trend that has seen 44 officers gunned down in fatal ambush shootings since 2014.” And the organization urged elected officials and others to “confront those who are directing violence and hate toward” law enforcement.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had already declared his intention to do so months earlier, announcing proposed legislation for the 2017 session - the Police Protection Act - that would make committing a crime against law enforcement officers motivated by bias against them a hate crime.
Immigrant Fees: In addition to the immigration issues covered in part one of our legislative preview, fees targeting undocumented immigrants could also catch on next year. A bill expected to be considered in Georgia - which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s political blog described as the state’s “first piece of Trump-era legislation - would impose a fee of 2 percent on personal wire transfers of money out of the state. That fee would be recoverable as an income tax credit or refund, meaning it would effectively only be paid by those who don’t file an income tax return, including - as the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) pointed out - “aliens, many of them in illegal status” and “drug dealers, as well, whatever their status.” Oklahoma passed a 1 percent fee on out-of-state money transfers in 2009 that generated about $12 million for the state last fiscal year. And CIS estimates the higher rate of Georgia’s fee and the larger number of undocumented immigrants there could yield it as much as $100 million. Other GOP-led states with sizeable populations of undocumented immigrants will undoubtedly take note.
Public Pension Hedge Fund Divestment: In recent years state pension systems have poured billions of dollars into alternative investments like hedge funds in pursuit of ambitious return goals the retirement funds have been failing to meet, to the detriment of their respective states’ budgets. But in 2014 the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) - the nation’s largest public pension system - announced it was pulling out the $4 billion it had invested in hedge funds, which attempt to earn a profit regardless of market conditions through a combination of investments including stocks, real estate and other sometimes risky ventures, because the funds are too costly and complicated. This past April New York City’s Employees Retirement System (NYCERS) voted to divest the $1.5 billion it had invested in hedge funds, after deciding the funds’ lackluster performance didn’t justify their high management fees. In October the state of New York issued a report indicating that investments in hedge funds had cost its Common Retirement Fund - the third largest in the country - $3.8 billion in fees and poor performance over the last eight years. Retirement systems in Kentucky, New Jersey and Rhode Island have also recently announced plans to pull out of hedge funds. And although the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) said in April that it would be adding to its holdings in hedge funds as part of a strategy to reduce losses in down years, the reports and actions in opposition to such funds are likely to spur more divestments.
Lottery Reform: An investigation in October by the Charlotte Observer revealed that hundreds of players of scratch-off ticket games in North Carolina have beaten overwhelming odds repeatedly. One resident reportedly won 46 times between 2008 and 2015, claiming a total of $56,000 in prizes. Another won a $150,000 scratch-off prize in 2014, a $150,000 prize this past April, and a $1 million prize in May. Lottery officials and lawmakers in the state say they’re now considering reforms including making the reselling of tickets a crime, with the presumption being that some of the winning tickets were redeemed by someone other than the purchaser to avoid forfeiting money owed to the state such as for back taxes or unpaid child support. Those developments may have the 44 other states with lotteries taking a closer look at their games, although at least three - Florida, Indiana and Iowa - already prohibit ticket reselling.
Nevada became the first state to authorize the operation of autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles in 2011. In the years since then, seven other states - California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah - and the District of Columbia, have passed legislation related to such vehicles. Several of the states, including California, Florida and Nevada, have passed laws in two different years.
Source: National Association of State Legislatures
Monthly premiums in Alaska’s individual insurance market averaged $863 this year, compared to just $396 nationally. And those premiums increased roughly 31 percent this year and 26 percent in 2015, compared to 10 percent and 2 percent, respectively, nationwide. But a program passed by the state’s Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Walker (I) in June to contain those costs is already paying dividends.
After the state agreed to pay Premera - the only company in the state still offering individual insurance through the federal marketplace - $55 million next year through the Alaska Reinsurance Program to cover about 500 high-risk patients, the company reduced a planned premium increase from 42 percent to 7 percent.
But the state’s lawmakers limited the Reinsurance Program to two years, and they say the state can’t afford to pay for the program indefinitely. So the state’s Division of Insurance intends to seek federal funding for it.
“We’d really like to see this reinsurance program into the future, just because of what we’re seeing that it did in 2017 to the rates,” said Division Director Lori Wing-Heier.
There is some incentive for the federal government to fund Alaska’s program: It could save $50 million a year on insurance subsidies for low and middle-income residents, as a result of premium reductions brought by the reinsurance program. (ALASKA PUBLIC MEDIA [ANCHORAGE], HEALTH AFFAIRS BLOG [BETHESDA, MARYLAND])
Chicago has the largest unfunded pension liability of any city in the nation - more than seven times its annual operating revenues - according to a new report from Moody’s. But four of the other cities on the financial analysis firm’s list of those in the worst shape on pension funding are all located in Texas.
At No. 2 on that list is Dallas, with unfunded pension liabilities of $7.6 billion, nearly five-and-a-half times its operating revenues. At No. 4 is Houston, with a pension debt of $10 billion, about four times its operating revenues. Austin, with debt of $2.7 billion, 267 percent of operating revenues, ranked ninth. And San Antonio, with $2.3 billion in debt, 188 percent of operating revenues, ranked twelfth.
All public pension funds took a hit during the Great Recession, but risky investments and reduced contributions to pension funds also contributed to the Texas cities’ pension problems. (TEXAS TRIBUNE [AUSTIN])
LOUISIANA is facing over $600 million in mid-year budget cuts - likely to higher education, hospitals that treat the poor and uninsured, and services for those with disabilities - in spite of passing over $1.5 billion in tax increases last year. (TIMES-PICAYUNE [NEW ORLEANS])
MINNESOTA officials are predicting a $1.4 billion budget surplus for the state. But Gov. Mark Dayton (D) and state lawmakers are working on a deal to spend half of it, on insurance premium relief for some hard-hit residents, tax cuts and infrastructure projects. (TWIN CITIES PIONEER PRESS)
The U.S. Navy and Department of Energy announced the siting of a future nuclear facility in eastern IDAHO to handle the fuel waste from the country’s nuclear-powered fleet. Construction of the $1.65 billion facility, which will provide 360 jobs, is expected to begin in 2019. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
gaveling in a new session last week, Democrats who hold a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the California Legislature drew a line at the state’s border in defiance of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies. The Democrats let loose a barrage of legislation challenging Trump’s immigration proposals - including bills authorizing grants to nonprofit organizations that provide legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation and requiring voter approval for the construction of any wall along the border with Mexico - as well as criticism of those policies and of Trump himself.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D) said Trump’s agenda was “cynical, shortsighted and reactionary,” Assemblyman Marc Levine (D) called his immigration policies “ethnic cleansing,” and Senate Leader Kevin de León (D), noting his mother is an immigrant, said that while the Legislature accepted the outcome of the election, the state - which is home to 3 million undocumented immigrants - would “never appease those who threaten to undermine our prosperity or deprive our people of their most fundamental human rights.”
The Republican minority wasn’t at a loss for words on the subject either. Sen. Joel Anderson (R) said the Democrats’ Mexico wall proposal was just political grandstanding.
“We’re not in the business of dictating what the feds can do on federal land,” he said. “It’s a great publicity stunt. I’m not sure it has any potency behind it whatsoever.”
Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes condemned the Democrats and Trump at the same time.
“Some of the rhetoric that I heard today, I felt like I was watching a speech from Trump, to be honest,” he said. “It was fear mongering. There was demagoguery.”
The Dems also failed to say how they would pay for some of their measures. Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D), who authored one of the proposals – AB 3, which would fund regional centers to train public defenders in immigration law – said his bill would likely cost the state at least $10 million. Sen Ben Hueso, author of SB 6, a bill that would fund legal representation for unauthorized immigrants facing deportation, said his measure could run as high as $80 million.
The state’s top Democrat, Gov. Jerry Brown (D), meanwhile, said he was adopting a wait and see approach with Washington.
“I’m going to take it step by step and work in a collaborative way, but also defend our principles vigorously,” he said. “I think that’s the wiser course of action.” (LOS ANGELES TIMES, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, struck down a GOP-backed legislative redistricting plan in Alabama that critics say packed black voters into districts in a way that reduced their voting power. Last week the now shorthanded court took up a pair of cases originating from North Carolina and Virginia where voters have accused Republicans of doing the same thing. And two hours of oral arguments before the eight justices indicated they are still struggling with how to decide when state lawmakers have unlawfully considered race in drawing voting districts.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said “it’s real easy” for them to say their actions were politically motivated, even when “there’s a lot of direct evidence that it really was race.”
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito sympathized with the challenge faced by states in complying with voting laws while avoiding lawsuits.
“Maybe there’s no way around it, but isn’t this just an invitation for litigation in every one of these instances?” he asked.
Decisions in both the North Carolina and Virginia cases are expected by the end of June.
Last month COLORADO voters approved Amendment 71, raising the bar for passage of constitutional amendments from a simple majority to a vote of at least 55 percent, and requiring signatures from 2 percent of registered voters in all 35 of the state’s Senate districts to qualify such measures for the ballot. Policy advocates say that second provision in particular will put the initiative process out of reach for all but the most well-funded backers. (DENVER POST)
A legislative push is underway to increase the number of Superior Court judgeships in NEW JERSEY from 443 to 463, in order to allow the courts to handle the heavier workload expected from criminal justice reforms passed in 2014 and taking effect next year. (NORTHJERSEY.COM)
Citing the uncertainty of America’s health care system under the new administration, WYOMING Gov. Matt Mead (R) said he will not push Equality State lawmakers to expand Medicaid coverage this session. Mead had unsuccessfully urged lawmakers to endorse expansion during each of the last two legislative session. (CASPER STAR TRIBUNE, WYOMING TRIBUNE EAGLE)
A NEW JERSEY appeals court ruled earlier this month that Gov. Chris Christie (R) does not have the power to scrap exam requirements for hiring and promoting public sector workers. The court further ruled that lawmakers have “legislative veto” authority to strike down any regulations adopted by the executive branch that defy “legislative intent.” (BERGEN RECORD, STAR-LEDGER [NEWARK])
President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate IOWA Gov. Terry Branstad (R) to become U.S. ambassador to China. Branstad, the longest serving governor in U.S. history, is friends with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He is the second sitting governor Trump has named to a top spot in his administration; last month he nominated SOUTH CAROLINA Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to become America’s ambassador to the United Nations. Both must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. (WASHINGTON POST, NEW YORK TIMES)
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) launched a new two-year pilot program last week aimed at curbing opioid abuse among workers who are injured on the job. The effort is aimed at helping people with settled workers’ compensation cases who are being treated with opioid medication and whose insurance company seeks to stop payment for the medication. Baker noted that such cases can take up to a year to be resolved, during which the worker is still being prescribed opioids.
“Injured workers in Massachusetts receive 10 percent more prescriptions for opioids on average than 25 other states that were reviewed in a two-year study done by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute, and Massachusetts led the studied states with the percentage of pain medications that were written for Oxycodone and nearly half of all prescriptions stronger than schedule II opioids,” Baker said at a press conference announcing the plan. “There’s more we can do to help injured workers with settled workers’ compensation claims get appropriate treatment for pain management.”
The new program will be voluntary for the injured worker and insurance carrier. It will fast-track court proceedings to mediation by assigning a specialized nurse to serve as a care coordinator to work as an intermediary between the worker and insurance company to find the best alternative treatment option. The insurer will cover the cost of the coordinator.
“We hope this will encourage participation and mediation, leading to better care, alternative treatment and reduced risk of addiction,” Baker said. (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON], MASSLIVE.COM)
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) unveiled a proposal last week to require Old Line State employers with 50 or more workers to provide them with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. Part-time employees would need to work at least 30 hours per week to be covered.
The mandate would not apply to businesses with less than 50 employees, but those that go along would be allowed to exempt the first $20,000 of income for doing so. Hogan said the proposal is fair to both workers and employers.
“While all of us agree that more workers need sick leave in Maryland, it would be irresponsible to put a law on the books that unfairly penalizes our state’s job creators,” Hogan said. “It is clear that, in order to move forward, we must strike a balance between the needs of Maryland’s employees while not hurting our small businesses and continuing to foster a more business-friendly climate in our state.”
Seven states and the District of Columbia currently have paid sick leave requirements, though for most the employee threshold is lower. Maryland lawmakers considered similar legislation last year, passing a bill in the House that would have applied to companies with 15 or more workers. The measure, which would have also applied to part-time workers, died in the Senate.
The proposed bill drew the expected praise from Republicans and something other than that from Democrats, who are expected to introduce their own paid sick leave measures when lawmakers return to Annapolis in January. The proposal also sparked skepticism from local government officials like Tom Hucker, a member of the Montgomery County Council. Montgomery has its own paid sick leave policy requiring employers with five or more workers to offer one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked.
“It’s critical that this legislation does not preempt local jurisdictions that have stepped up and done the right thing. Montgomery County families don’t need their paid sick leave stripped by the governor. . . . State law should always be a floor, not a ceiling,” Hucker told the Washington Post. (MARYLAND GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, WASHINGTON POST, HERALD MAIL MEDIA)
The OHIO House and Senate approve HB 493, which would make it a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to one year in prison, for a physician to perform an abortion without checking for a fetal heartbeat or performing the procedure after it can be detected. The doctor also could face a civil lawsuit from the mother and disciplinary action. The anti-abortion language was added to legislation originally dealing with child abuse. It is now with Gov. John Kasich (R) for consideration (COLUMBUS DISPATCH).
The U.S. House and Senate each approve HR 6, known better as the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill that boosts by billions of dollars funding for medical research, eases the development and approval of experimental treatments and reforms federal policy on mental health care. The measure moves to President Barack Obama, who has said he will sign it into law (WASHINGTON POST, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
The MICHIGAN House approves SB 291, which would provide financial compensation and reentry services for people who were wrongly convicted and incarcerated in the Wolverine State. It moves to Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for consideration (DETROIT FREE PRESS). Also in MICHIGAN, the House approves HB 5815, which would require the Michigan Department of Corrections to provide services, such as clothing allowances, medical care and housing referrals for people who are released from prison after a conviction is overturned. It moves to the Senate (DETROIT FREE PRESS).
NEW JERSEY Gov. Chris Christie (R) vetoes SB 51, legislation that would have required Garden State prisons and jails to use isolated confinement only as a last resort, restricting its use to 15 consecutive days or 20 days in a two-month period (NJ.COM). Also in NEW JERSEY, Gov. Christie signs AB 3470, which requires correctional facilities to provide inmates with prescription medication that was prescribed for chronic conditions existing prior to their incarceration (NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
The WASHINGTON D.C. Council approves a proposal that would grant workers eight weeks of time off to care for a newborn or adopted child. The measure, which would also grant employees six weeks of paid leave to help ailing relatives and two weeks of personal sick leave per year, must pass a final vote on Dec. 20 before it could be sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser for consideration (WASHINGTON POST).
The MASSACHUSETTS Senate approves SB 2513, which would allow Bay State farmer brewers and distillers to sell their wares at farmers markets. Sellers would have to obtain a special permit and products would have to be sealed for consumption off the premises, though sellers would be able to offer up to five free samples per customer. The bill moves to the House (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON]).