Credits Editor: Rich Ehisen Associate Editor: Korey Clark Contributing Editor: Mary Peck, David Giusti Editorial Advisor: Lou Cannon Correspondents: Richard Cox (CA), Lauren Davis (MA), Steve Karas (CA) and Ben Livingood (PA), Cathy Santsche (CA), Dena...
In The Hopper Number of 2015 Prefiles last week: 531 Number of Intros last week: 12,093 Number of Enacted/Adopted last week: 743 Number of 2015 Prefiles to date: 14,461 Number of 2015 Intros to date: 49,679 Number of...
The week in session States in Regular Session: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN...
(02/06/2015 - 02/27/2015) 02/10/2015 Arkansas Runoff Senate District 16 Florida Special Primary House District 64 Iowa Special Election House District 23 02/17/2015 Florida Special Election House District 13 ...
There’s a busy world all around us that goes relatively unnoticed much of the time but that could soon be a major focus of government regulation. It’s called the Internet of Things, or IoT, and although it has dominated the attention of the...
As of last November, 15 states had enacted motor vehicle event data recorder (EDR), or “black box,” privacy laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. All of the laws prohibit the downloading of information from a motor...
In 2013, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) and the DFL-controlled Legislature added a new income tax bracket for the state’s highest earners, individuals who make $150,000 or more per year and couples who make $250,000 or more. During debate over the...
Most state budgets are continuing their “modest, slow” recovery from the Great Recession, with most states expecting to meet revenue projections and have balanced budgets, according to a new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures...
CALIFORNIA Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D) announced a proposal to increase transportation funding by $2 billion per year over the next 5 years. She plans to generate that money by redirecting truck weight fees, which currently go to servicing general...
A few years ago, government computer systems in Utah were sustaining 25,000 to 30,000 attempted cyber-attacks a day, which Utah Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires thought was a lot at the time. But last week Squires told a legislative budget committee...
In the aftermath of New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s (D) arrest last month on federal corruption charges, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has vowed not to sign a state budget this year unless it includes a slate of ethics reforms. His list...
A bill with bipartisan support in the ARIZONA Senate would modify the state’s open records law to allow school boards, city councils and other government officials to talk out of the public eye. Sen. Sylvia Allen (R), who introduced the bill, said...
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s (R) proposal to expand Medicaid to cover an additional 280,000 low-income Volunteer State residents appears to be dead after the Senate Health and Welfare Committee rejected it last week. The measure’s chances...
Declaring, “I was elected by the people of this state to do a job, and I intend to do it,” Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) announced at a press conference last month he would not consider resigning from office. His assertion came in response...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said car-hire services like Uber and Lyft can continue operation in the Bay State while he works with mayors in Boston and Somerville to craft licensing regulations for those operations. Those regulations are expected...
A little-noticed recommendation in FLORIDA Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) budget proposal would repeal the state’s impending “hospital tiering” law. The measure, set to take effect later this year, would require counties that use local...
NEW JERSEY Gov. Chris Christie (R) signs SB 1870, a bill that will require Garden State pet stores to display the names and addresses of the breeders of each dog and cat for sale, to post U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports for the prior...
The WYOMING House approves HB 114, a bill that would allow people with concealed carry weapons permits to bring guns onto public school campuses and into state and local government meetings. It moves to the Senate (REUTERS). * NEW JERSEY Gov. Chris Christie...
The ARKANSAS Senate approves legislation that would authorize the continuance of the state’s so-called “private option” Medicaid expansion plan for another year. That program uses federal funding to pay for private health care insurance...
Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announces the Wolverine State will recognize over 300 same-sex marriages performed in 2014 during a time period when a court had lifted the state’s ban on those unions. Snyder said the state would not appeal the decision rendered...
Here are some of the topics you may see covered in upcoming issues of the State Net Capitol Journal: - Common Core - State worker exodus - Legalizing pot
To paraphrase the immortal Mark Twain, everyone complains about statehouse news coverage but nobody does anything about it. Enter Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. As the Indianapolis Star reports, Pence recently announced plans for his administration to start...
To eat the boxed lunch or not to eat the boxed lunch, that is the question for Washington state lawmakers these days. New rules regulating how many free meals they can accept from lobbyists has left Evergreen State pols angry and confused: annoyed because...
When most pols talk about cutting waste, fraud and abuse, they pretty much never mean anything that would directly impact them. But not so for newly-minted Wisconsin Treasurer Matt Adamczyk. As the New York Times reports, Adamczyk has spent most of his...
With all the attention being paid to disease outbreaks, it’s hard to imagine anyone being against at least some basic hygiene. But then there is U.S. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. As Talking Points Memo reports, Tillis recently related...