A fraction of a penny sales tax increase in Iowa that would go to environmental and outdoor recreational improvements may get a hearing from lawmakers in the Hawkeye state this year, according to legislative leaders. Iowa voters changed the state...
CT ON PACE FOR FISCAL YEAR-END SURPLUS Higher-than-forecast income tax receipts leave CONNECTICUT on pace for a nearly $250 million budget surplus, state comptroller Kevin P. Lembo said this week in a regular monthly forecast . Lembo projected the...
North Carolina lawmakers have voted to require identification for people who vote absentee, a reaction to allegations of voter fraud that have led to calls for a new congressional election in part of the state. The House added a provision on absentee...
A powerful Republican state senator said he will propose legislation to keep Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) from forcing Keystone State counties to buy new voting machines. Wolf and Democratic lawmakers say getting new machines online before the...
CRITICS ASSAIL NJ DEMS REDISTRICTING PROPOSAL Government watchdog groups, civil rights organizations and redistricting experts are criticizing a Democratic proposal in NEW JERSEY that seeks to change the state constitution to entrench the party’s...
Gov.-elect Tony Evers (D) said he will make a personal appeal to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to veto legislation the GOP-controlled legislature passed to transfer key powers from the governor to lawmakers. If that fails, Evers says he will likely...
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed legislation last week to significantly amend a voter-approved measure that legalized medicinal marijuana use in the Beehive State. The Utah Medical Cannabis Act came out of a one-day session last Monday called specifically...
NORTHAM WINS NC GOV BALANCE OF POWER BATTLE A NORTH CAROLINA court ruled last week that the GOP-controlled General Assembly unconstitutionally allowed outgoing Gov. Pat McCrory (R) to pick the leadership of the state Industrial Commission before he...
MI House and Senate Endorse SB 1171 and SB 1175 The MICHIGAN House and Senate endorse bills that would drastically change previously approved laws on paid sick leave and the state minimum wage: SB 1171 (2018) would slow the increase of the state’s...
CA Building Standards Commission Unanimously Approves The CALIFORNIA Building Standards Commission unanimously approves rules that make the Golden State the first in the nation to require new homes to be powered by solar power. The regulation takes...
MN Department of Health Announces The MINNESOTA Department of Health announces it is adding Alzheimer’s disease to the medical conditions eligible for treatment with medical marijuana in the Gopher State. The agency declined to add hepatitis...
CA San Francisco Board of Supervisors Approves The Board of Supervisors approves a bill that would make SAN FRANCISCO the first major city in the nation to eliminate provisions that require developers to provide at least some parking spaces as part...
Funerals for heads of state are always solemn affairs, as they should be. On occasion, they also lend themselves to moments that elevate all of us to a higher place. Such was the case last Monday in Washington D.C., where many came to pay their respects...
Americans are notoriously inept at geography, but one might think we’d at least be up to speed on our own country. Uh, not so much. As the Las Cruces Sun News reports , former New Mexico Secretary of State candidate Gavin Clarkson was recently turned...
And for California Assembly member Phil Ting, that dream is a whole state of cars that run on something other than gasoline. Yep, Ting so wants to see the nation’s number one vehicle market move entirely to cars that don’t run on fossil fuels...
2018 marks the anniversary of a multitude of different political as well as social turning points in human history. While the festivities commemorating the end of World War I were widely broadcasted and spoken about, two anniversaries often fall short...
Now more than ever, understanding the competition is a requirement for business success. From equipping teams with intelligence that allows them to better connect with customers, to identifying the next steps your industry will take before they take them...
Forget about the turtles. Today is International Ninja Day, but what we’re on about has more to do with regulatory risk than teenagers or (as far as we know) mutants. Why does International Ninja Day make us think ‘compliance program’...
SNCJ devotes the last three issues of each year to a preview of the coming state legislative sessions. Here in part one of that three-part series we’ll take a look at a few of the issues that are likely to draw the attention of state lawmakers next...
At least 35 states have considered bills or resolutions dealing with cybersecurity in 2018, according to analysis of LexisNexis State Net legislative data by the National Conference of State Legislatures . Twenty-two states have enacted such measures...
Total spending across all 50 states last fiscal year exceeded $2 trillion, a new high, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers . The record spending was driven largely by a bump in income tax revenues, resulting from last year’s...
A population explosion in Ada County, Idaho is putting a strain on city services, from roads to parks to fire and police stations. So some cities in the tax-averse region are looking to do what the county’s largest city, Boise, has done before:...
About $260 million was wagered in New Jersey on sporting events in October, bringing the total for the four and a half months sports betting has been legal in the state to $597 million. A spokesman for FanDuel, which handles the sports book at the...
AK FACING BIG CLIMATE-CHANGE COSTS ALASKA is facing some of the country’s most extreme climate changes, including coastal erosion and road damage, according to the federal climate report released last month. The report estimated that the climate...
Last week the Michigan Senate voted largely along party lines to make significant changes to citizen-initiated measures raising the state’s minimum wage from $9.25 to $12 per hour ( SB 1171 ) and requiring paid sick leave ( SB 1175 ). The...