In February, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced he was filing a lawsuit against Huntington Beach, the largest of several cities in the state that aren’t in compliance with a 2017 state law requiring local governments to include a “housing element for the preservation, improvement and development of housing” in their long-term plans.
The move was intended as a stick to spur compliance with the multiple laws passed over the years to address the state’s chronic housing shortage but which some say have gone largely unenforced.
“If there’s no sticks, then these laws don’t mean anything, which has been the tradition around these state laws,” said Laura Clark, executive director of YIMBY Action, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for more housing. “The local jurisdictions just ignore them and there’s no consequences.”
Along with the lawsuit, the governor has also threatened to withhold transportation funding from local governments that fail to abide by the state’s development rules.
But he’s offered localities a carrot as well. His state budget proposal provides over $2 billion in funding for housing and homeless programs.
“He’s put a lot of money in the budget for affordable housing, for planning money for cities and reward money for cities that are meeting their housing goals,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D). (GOVERNING)
WISCONSIN Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) is refusing to turn over documents or testify in a civil case related to political boundaries drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature eight years ago. Vos maintains the state Constitution grants lawmakers immunity from civil litigation, but an attorney for the Democrats suing over the 2011 redistricting contend Vos doesn’t have immunity because the Assembly intervened in the lawsuit last year under his leadership, making him subject to discovery requests. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL)
A federal appeals court is considering the constitutionality of a KANSAS law requiring people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote, which took effect in 2013 but was suspended in 2016 by a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that deemed it “a mass denial of a fundamental constitutional right.” A U.S. District Court judge struck down the law last year. (ASSOCIATED PRESS, KCRA-TV [SACRAMENTO])
ARIZONA has given formal notification that it is ending its involvement with the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck program, established in 2005 by then-Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh (R) to help participating states keep their voter rolls up to date, such as by eliminating individuals who have moved to another state but failed to cancel their previous registration. Allegations that the office of Thornburgh’s successor, Kris Kobach (R), violated voter’s privacy with the Crosscheck system figured into Arizona’s decision, according to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D). (HILL)
The NEW MEXICO Legislature has passed a bill that would expand automatic voter registration to additional state agencies and allow voter registrations through Election Day. Currently, registrations are required to end 28 days before an election. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) filed legislation last week to create statewide “innovation partnership zones” that give local schools more and better tools to improve poor performing schools.
The plan is based on a nine-school “empowerment zone” used in Springfield since 2015. That program gives schools, principals and a teacher leadership team broad discretion over scheduling, school budgets, hiring, working conditions, curriculum, teacher pay, and professional development.
Baker’s plan would establish a framework for replicating the Springfield model in other school districts. It defines an Innovation Partnership Zone as a group of at least two schools or one school enrolling more than 1,000 students that is governed by a board of directors with the approval of the local school committee or the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. It would also allow a broad range of stakeholders to initiate the process to create a zone, including school superintendents, a mayor, teachers, parents and unions.
For schools performing in the bottom 15 percent of all schools statewide, the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education could also initiate a zone as an alternative to receivership or as a transition out of receivership, under state-local governing boards.
Regardless of who takes the initiative, a Zone could only be implemented with the agreement of local officials, stakeholders, educators and parents. They would operate subject to renewable five-year performance agreements between a specific zone’s board and the local school committee or the state’s Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Baker lauded the Springfield model, saying taking the zone concept statewide would provide “a collaborative approach that will empower local educators on the ground by giving them more tools to make necessary changes to provide better learning environments for all students.”
The measure’s potential for passage, however, is unclear. Similar legislation last session filed by Sen. Eric Lesser (D) and Rep. Alice Peisch (D) who chairs the House Education Committee, went nowhere amidst strong opposition from teacher unions. (MASSLIVE.COM, FRAMINGHAM SOURCE, MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, WORCESTER TELEGRAM)
Countering a growing trend among retailers toward accepting only credit cards or other forms of electronic payment, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation last week requiring brick-and-mortar retail operations to accept cash and imposing potentially big fines on those that don’t go along.
Under AB 591, businesses can be fined up to $2,500 for a first offense and $5,000 for a second violation. Violations beyond that could see a retailer being charged with unlawful practices under the state’s consumer fraud act, which carries fines up to $20,000.
The Garden State becomes the second – after Massachusetts, which has had a similar law since 1978 – to require retailers to accept cash. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed a similar ordinance for that municipality earlier last month. That law goes into effect in July. Similar measures are under consideration in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
Businesses cite a number of attractive reasons for going cashless: greater efficiency, lowered robbery risk, and greater ease of tax compliance among them. But consumer advocates contend the practice discriminates against the poor, who often don’t have credit cards or even bank accounts. Older consumers are also prone to avoid paying with credit cards or digital devices.
“Many people don’t have access to consumer credit and any effort by retail establishments to ban the use of cash is discriminatory towards those people,” state Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D), a main sponsor of the measure, said in a statement. (NJ.COM, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR’S OFFICE)
A Wisconsin judge ruled on Thursday that laws passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature during last December’s lame duck session to strip some powers away from incoming Gov. Tony Evers (D) are unconstitutional. Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess said all of the laws and appointments passed by legislators and made by then-Gov. Scott Walker (R) were unlawful because they met in “extraordinary session,” which isn’t explicitly allowed under the Badger State constitution. Republican leaders said they planned to appeal the ruling. (NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL)
CONNECTICUT Gov. Ned Lamont (D) recast a proposal to create a state commission tasked with encouraging Constitution State schools to cut costs by sharing more essential services. Many critics said SB 874 as originally worded would force school districts to consolidate against their will. Lamont’s revised proposal eliminates the words “consolidation” and “redistricting” and changes references to the proposal being a “plan” to it being “recommendations.” (CONNECTICUT MIRROR)
Citing the cost to Medicaid and other public health services, OHIO Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has proposed raising the legal smoking age in the Buckeye State to 21. His proposal would include the purchase of “cigarettes and cigarette papers, other tobacco products, and alternative nicotine products.” (CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, WSZA [HUNTINGTON])
For the second time since entering office, VIRGINIA Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has vetoed a bill that would have outlawed so-called sanctuary cities in the Old Dominion. Sanctuary cities limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Northam said he vetoed the bill because it imposes an unneeded burden on local law enforcement officials and “sends a chilling message.” (WSLS.COM [ROANOKE])
Seeking input on a comprehensive management approach in the wake of renewed federal protection, MONTANA Gov. Steve Bullock (D) announced the formation of a Grizzly Bear Advisory Council, tasked with considering broad objectives for the bears, such as ensuring a healthy population, genetic connectivity and dealing with bear-human conflicts. (BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE)
Saying lawmakers were “sending a clear signal to our teachers and those considering a career in education that we appreciate and value them,” IDAHO Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a bill (HB 153) that raises Gem State teacher pay by 40 percent. (BINGHAM COUNTY CHRONICLE)
NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he would support banning anyone with two or more subway-related sexual assault convictions from riding the New York City subway system. “I understand civil rights and civil liberties and access to transportation, but...if you are convicted of two sexual offenses on the subway system where groping, touching, grinding is a major problem and recidivism is a major problem, I fully support saying after the second conviction you’re banned from going back to the subway,” Cuomo said. (GOVERNING)
-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (S) signs SB 121, which bars the use of nondisclosure agreements in employment contracts and settlement agreements if those cases involve discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment or assault. The law went into immediate effect (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The NEW HAMPSHIRE House approves SB 1, which would require employers to provide workers with 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child, a serious illness not related to employment or the serious illness of a spouse or certain other relatives. It moves to Gov. Chris Sununu (R), who opposes the measure (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The MARYLAND Senate gives final approval to a bill that would raise the Old Line State minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. It goes to Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who opposes it (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
ARKANSAS Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) signs HB 1407, which bans companies from classifying lab-grown meat products or meat substitutes as meat and prevents manufacturers from marketing “cauliflower rice” if the product contains no rice. The Razorback State is the sixth in the last year to pass a so-called “truth in labeling” law (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE [LITTLE ROCK]).
Also in ARKANSAS, Gov. Hutchinson signs HB 1177, a bill that allows employees to opt out of getting microchipped without the threat of being fired. Workers would also have to give written consent before the implantation and could request to remove it at any time (KARK.COM [LITTLE ROCK]).
The DELAWARE Senate approves SB 25, a bill that would raise the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21. Retailers who violate the proposed law would face fines up to $1,000. It moves to the House (DELAWARE ONLINE).
The ARKANSAS House approves HB 1626, which would require schools to offer classes on the Bible if enough students request such courses. It moves to the Senate (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE [LITTLE ROCK]).
SOUTH DAKOTA Gov. Kristi Noem (R) signs SB 15, which clarifies that the Flickertail State Public Utilities Commission has authority to ensure solar and wind energy facilities are permitted in a timely fashion and with public safety in mind (SOUTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
The OREGON House approves HB 2623, a bill that would impose a 10-year ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that injects high-pressure liquids into underground rock to extract oil and gas. The measure moves to the Senate (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gives OHIO approval to impose work requirements for those covered by Medicaid expansion. Under those rules, recipients will need to either be employed, a student or meet other conditions that allow them to obtain an exemption (DAYTON DAILY NEWS).
The IOWA Senate approves SF 538, which would require most Hawkeye State Medicaid recipients to work or volunteer as a qualification to receive benefits. It moves to the House (KCGR.COM [CEDAR RAPIDS]).
FLORIDA Gov. Ron de Santis (R) signs SB 182, legislation legalizing smokable medical marijuana in the Sunshine State (ORLANDO SENTINEL).
The MINNESOTA House approves HB 400, which would impose steep fees on pharmaceutical manufacturers and drug wholesalers that sell or distribute opioids in the Gopher State. Those fees would then be used to pay for a range of education, intervention and drug treatment programs. It moves to the Senate (LEXISNEXIS SENATE).
ARKANSAS Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) signs HB 1439, which outlaws abortion 18 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy except in medical emergencies and in cases of rape or incest. Opponents have indicated they will sue to block the law from taking effect (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE [LITTLE ROCK]).
MISSISSIPPI Gov. Phil Bryant (R) signs SB 2216, which bans Magnolia State doctors from performing an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected in a fetus (WJTV.COM [JACKSON]).
ARKANSAS Gov. Hutchinson also signs SB 341, a bill that requires abortion providers to notify, in writing, women undergoing drug-induced abortions that the procedure can be halted halfway through the procedure (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
KENTUCKY Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signs HB 5, which would ban abortions based on the sex, race or disability of a fetus. Opponents of the measure have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to ban it from being implemented (LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL).
SOUTH DAKOTA Gov. Kristi Noem (R) signs a suite of anti-abortion bills, including HB 1177, which requires doctors to offer a woman the chance to view a sonogram and listen to the heartbeat of the fetus before proceeding with an abortion, and HB 1193, which imposes a criminal penalty for forcing a woman to have an abortion against her will (SIOUX CITY ARGUS LEADER).
Seattle, WASHINGTON Mayor Jenny Durkan signs an ordinance that allows for the building of denser, taller housing in a handful of urban villages across the Emerald City. The law also levies substantial fines on developers who don’t dedicate between 5 and 11 percent of projects to low-income housing (MYNORTHWEST.COM [SEATTLE]).
It wasn’t the kind of exit Kentucky First Lady Glenna Bevin was planning on. As the Louisville Courier-Journal reports, Bevin was one of the speakers at the annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast last week. When she was done, she sat down in her chair...and fell backside over tea kettle right off the stage. Thankfully, while she was a bit shaken she was otherwise unhurt. And in the spirit of “the show must go on,” Gov. Matt Bevin quickly dusted his wife off and then went back to his hosting duties.
Like millions of other Americans, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is good and ready for the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament – a.k.a. March Madness – to get started. As MLive.com reports, Whitmer has her bracket all filled out, and even posted it to Twitter. It should come as no surprise to anyone that she is picking perennial power Michigan State – her alma mater – to win it all. And in case you think she has forgotten about that other school, she is picking her Spartans to face off with the University of Michigan Wolverines in the Final Four.
Texas might be about to go to the dogs, and that’s not a bad thing. As the Wichita Falls Times Record News reports (say that three times fast!), the Lone Star State Senate passed a bill last week that would make it legal for eateries to allow dogs on outdoor patios, provided they were “well-behaved and well-controlled.” As a dog lover who takes his dog anywhere and everywhere possible, I say huzzah. And as a person who loves to enjoy a nice quiet meal on a restaurant patio, I say the same rules ought to apply to children and frat boys.
It’s been an uncharacteristically rainy winter in California. Not a bad thing, as we natives know we’re always just a bad year or two from a big drought. The rain also produces wildflower “super blooms” in various remote locales around the state, including in the poppy-laden hills around the tiny Southern California town of Lake Elsinore. But with the crazy beauty of the flowers comes something locals could do without – “Disneyland size crowds” of picture-snapping tourists. Massive traffic, numerous reports of bad tourist behavior and a grossly overworked city staff later, the town had had enough. As the Washington Post reports, the “poppy apocalypse” grew so big that Lake Elsinore city leaders cut off access to their famous fields. And with more rain on the way, they might have to stay closed for a long time.
-- By RICH EHISEN
The next generation of wireless technology, 5G, could bring major advancements in everything from entertainment to public safety. But federal, state and local governments are at odds over how that technology should be deployed and where regulatory authority over it should reside.
5G promises data transfer speeds 100 times faster than current cellular technologies, as well as lower network communication delays known as latency. Those upgrades may not only let mobile users download high-definition videos in seconds and access virtual reality while on the move, but also enable “telemedicine applications” like remote patient monitoring or even remote surgery and “smart city applications including public transit scheduling, crime detection and reporting, smart streetlights and sensors that monitor things such as air quality, water use, parking spaces, traffic flow, sewers and trash collection,” as Network World reported.
Those changes are still a ways off. But wireless providers have been offering to upgrade municipalities’ telecommunication networks with 5G technology for years. Some of them have been more receptive than others. Doylestown, Pennsylvania battled cell tower operator Crown Castle in state and federal courts for nearly two years over the company’s proposed placement of dozens of 5G “small-cell” antennas along the streets of the borough’s historic downtown. Crown Castle ultimately agreed to deploy fewer antennas, conceal them more and compensate the town for the use of its rights of way.
Other towns and cities, including New York and San Jose, have also entered into agreements with carriers authorizing the deployment of the technology. But many have also been blocked from doing so by state legislation establishing statewide requirements for small-cell installations.
Twenty-one states have passed such laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some bar local governments from negotiating their own deals with wireless providers or impose restrictions on such agreements. For example, legislation enacted in Texas in 2017, SB 1004, capped municipal ROW fees for small-cell installations at $250 per network node, well below the $1,500-$2,500 some of the state’s major cities were charging, potentially denying them millions of dollars a year, as Governing reported.
“We just don’t need to make this a major revenue source,” said Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R), who co-sponsored SB 1004. “We should keep government out of the way of technology.”
Other states, like Hawaii, have passed small-cell laws that are less restrictive for local governments.
“In Hawaii, we took a big step forward in deploying 5G technology by instituting certainty in the permitting process while still allowing cities and counties to negotiate to address their needs with the industry,” Hawaii Rep. Takashi Ohno (D), who sponsored HB 2651, enacted last year, told NCSL.
But in September the Federal Communication Commission approved a declaratory ruling and order preempting both state laws and local ordinances that conflict with its provisions. Those provisions include “shot clock” time limits for processing applications for small-cell installations - 60 days for installations on existing infrastructure and 90 days for those involving new utility poles - as well as limits on application fees and a $270 cap on ROW charges. The order also provides guidance on when aesthetic or other state or local requirements, such as “undergrounding,” the deployment of infrastructure below ground, constitute an “effective prohibition” of service.
“The FCC is committed to doing our part to help ensure the United States wins the global race to 5G to the benefit of all Americans,” the order states. “Today’s action is the next step in the FCC’s ongoing efforts to remove regulatory barriers that would unlawfully inhibit the deployment of infrastructure necessary to support these new services.”
The agency also noted it had drawn “on the balanced and commonsense ideas generated by many of our state and local partners in their own small cell bills.” And dozens of state and local officials voiced support for the order, several of them suggesting it would address the “digital divide” between urban and rural areas. As Maureen Davey, a commissioner in Stillwater County, Montana, stated, “the Commission’s actions to lower regulatory barriers can enable more capital spending to flow to areas like ours.”
But the order has also generated plenty of pushback. NCSL and the National Governors Association filed a joint statement saying the order would hamstring any state “looking to ensure inclusive and equitable access to high-speed internet services to residents.”
Arthur Scott of the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) said the ruling’s shot clocks force “local governments to make a decision between rubber stamping applications or facing crippling litigation with these providers in court,” as Governing reported.
Local governments have also insisted they should be able to charge ROW and other fees at market rates.
“We never saw this new infrastructure as a cash cow,” John Davis, borough manager of Doylestown, told CNET. “But they’re using rights of way that belong to the public, and we deserve to be fairly compensated for it.”
Some have also disputed the contention that lowering costs in urban areas will speed up development in rural ones.
“Freeing up a dollar in one market doesn’t mean it will be spent in another,” said Blair Levin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and former FCC official, according to CNET. “There needs to be a business case. And without that, carriers won’t build a network.”
Levin pointed out in a blog post that San Jose and other cities had reached agreements with carriers that “provide benefits to both sides and will result in deployment without the need of a top-down, one-size-fits-all framework that the FCC is preparing to impose on thousands of diverse municipalities.”
But as San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (D) said at the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual winter meeting in January, the way the FCC sees it, “local government is the problem,” with its “high fees, red tape and restrictive permitting,” as Route Fifty reported.
For Liccardo, who served on the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee until resigning early last year, the problem is “the pervasive and overwhelming influence of big telecom and industry interests over the body, and the predetermined, industry-favoring outcome,” according to a press release announcing his resignation.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, in turn, has criticized Liccardo’s broadband policies, posting on Twitter that they’ve “held San Jose back,” while “thousands of small cells were deployed in other cities, closing their divides & growing their economies.”
Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC’s only Democrat when the small-cell order was approved, meanwhile, supported the agency’s decision to shorten the time frames for state and local review of small-cell deployments, given the size and scale of the technology. But she called its decision to take away state and local governments’ ability to determine what fees and other requirements are appropriate “extraordinary federal overreach.”
“I do not believe the law permits Washington to run roughshod over state and local authority like this,” she said.
San Jose and dozens of other cities and counties have sued to block the FCC’s ruling. Their petitions were initially consolidated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. But they managed to get the case transferred to the Ninth Circuit, which could help them significantly, given the FCC’s order defies two long-standing decisions by that court, as Gerry Lederer, one of the attorneys representing the petitioners, told Route Fifty.
Incidentally, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, are also petitioners. They contend the FCC’s order actually didn’t go far enough and should have provided for the automatic approval of applications that aren’t processed quickly enough.
If the local governments prevail in the Ninth Circuit, the Supreme Court could always overturn that decision. Much has been made of the Ninth’s overturn rate, the third highest of the nation’s 13 federal appeals courts between 2010 and 2015, at 79 percent, according to Politifact. But of the 11,900 cases the Ninth considered in the 12-month period ending March, 31, 2015, the Supreme Court heard only 11 of them and reversed eight, less than 1 percent of the total.
In the meantime, states continue to introduce bills dealing with 5G. Nine states have done so this year, according to NCSL. Most of the measures provide for the deployment of small-cell technology in states that haven’t already passed such legislation, including Georgia (HB 184 and SB 66), Maryland (HB 64) and West Virginia (HB 2005 and SB 3, both of which have been passed by their originating chambers). Others address the health effects of 5G technology (Montana HJR 13 and New Hampshire HB 522) or encourage cooperation between the federal government and wireless providers on 5G development (New Jersey AR 144).
If the FCC order is struck down, there will probably be more bills like the former variety. If it stands, there may only be more like the latter.
As of mid-February, 21 states had passed laws streamlining regulations for the deployment of 5G or small-cell technology. In 12 of those states, Republicans controlled both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office when the laws were enacted. In six others, control of the government was split between Democrats and Republicans. Only three of the states were governed entirely by Democrats.
With the first tax season since the federal tax overhaul now in full swing, the $10,000 cap on state and local tax, or SALT, deductions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may have wealthy Americans in some high-tax states eyeing moves to cheaper locales. But state tax officials aren’t going to make it easy for high-earning former residents to shed their tax obligations. And that’s actually been the case for years.
“Ensuring taxpayers pay their fair share is a top priority; therefore, our nonresident audit program continues to be very active,” said James Gazzale, a spokesman for New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance.
When high-end furniture retailer Thomas Campaniello filed taxes for 2007 as a resident of Florida, which has no state income tax, New York auditors disputed his Florida residency and said he owed New York upwards of $488,781. In 2015 the state’s Division of Tax Appeals ruled that while Campaniello spent much of his time in Florida and had showrooms in that state, he also spent plenty of time in New York, his company’s headquarters were there, as well as his wife and his only daughter and grandchild, and that, therefore, he was still a New York resident and owed the full amount of his tax bill.
But the auditors aren’t always successful.
Four years after Pizza Hut magnate Gene Bicknell sold 790 of the chain’s locations to Merrill Lynch & Co. for an undisclosed amount in 2006, tax officials in Kansas, where he built and oversaw his business, sent him a bill for $42.5 million. Bicknell claimed he’d already moved to Florida, but the Kansas Court of Tax Appeals found that he was a Kansas resident at the time of the sale and ordered him to pay the $42.5 million.
In 2016, however, the Kansas Legislature, overriding a veto from then-Gov. Sam Brownback (R), approved legislation allowing taxpayers to challenge tax rulings in district court. Bicknell seized on that opportunity and last week, Senior Judge Richard Smith ruled that Bicknell qualified as a Florida resident in 2006 and ordered the state to return his tax payment with interest and penalties amounting to $48 million.
Gregory Blatt, CEO of New York-based IAC and former CEO of its Dallas-based subsidiary Match.com, meanwhile, managed to avoid having to pay a $430,065 tax bill from the state of New York for taxes he filed as a Texas resident in 2009 and 2010 largely due to something known as the “Teddy Bear Test,” a gauge of New York residency which holds that wherever a taxpayer keeps the items they value most is home. In Blatt’s case that was a large, elderly dog, which he had moved to Dallas in 2009, making him a Texas resident in the eyes of the New York tax judge and relieving him of the obligation of paying state taxes in New York. (BLOOMBERG, TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL)
Making good on a campaign promise, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has proposed a graduated income tax that he says would generate $3.4 billion in revenue for the state while lowering taxes for 97 percent of its residents.
“It’s wrong that I would pay the same tax rate as someone earning $100,000 or, even worse, pay the same tax rate as someone earning $30,000, which is why 33 states and the federal government use lower rates for lower earnings and higher rates for higher earnings,” said Pritzker, a billionaire and an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune.
All residents of the state are currently taxed at a flat 4.95 percent rate, regardless of how much they earn. Under Pritzker’s proposal, taxes would increase significantly for residents earning over $250,000 a year, with those making $1 million or more being taxed at the rate of 7.95 percent.
Before the new tax rates could be enacted, however, three-fifths of each legislative chamber would have to pass a constitutional amendment eliminating the state’s current flat tax requirement, which would then have to be approved by the state’s voters.
Republicans said they were united in opposition to the plan. But Democrats hold large enough majorities in both chambers to approve the required constitutional amendment without any GOP support, if they choose to do so. (CHICAGO TRIBUNE)
The TEXAS Senate approved a supplemental FY 2019 appropriation of $8.4 billion for lingering expenses associated with Hurricane Harvey, school safety measures and the teacher retirement system, among other things, with $4.4 billion of that total coming from the state’s rainy day fund. The proposal will have to be reconciled with one in the House calling for $5.25 billion in additional spending, including $1.2 billion from the rainy day fund. (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
The WASHINGTON Senate passed a bill (SB 5078) that would require presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns before they could appear on either the state’s primary or general election ballot. Similar legislation has been introduced in dozens of other states since President Donald Trump refused to release his returns during the 2016 presidential campaign. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The number of small municipalities in LOUISIANA that derive at least half of their revenues from traffic fines and forfeitures rose from 15 to at least 25 between 2007 and 2018. Those same sources accounted for over 30 percent of revenues in 60 other municipalities in 2018, more than double the 28 in 2007. (ADVOCATE [BATON ROUGE])
Over the past decade, many states, citing concerns about voter fraud, have enacted voting restrictions, such as photo ID requirements and early voting reductions. It looked as though voter purges would be the next phase of that movement, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year upholding Ohio’s policy of removing inactive voters from its registration rolls, known as “use it or lose it.”
But that decision hasn’t triggered a stampede of other states adopting policies like Ohio’s. And this year over 30 states are considering legislation that would expand voting access. New York has already passed a package of bills letting eligible 16-year-old residents pre-register to vote, allowing voter registrations through Election Day and establishing an early voting period.
“There is a push and pull with voting rights, as with other civil rights,” said Jonathan Brater, an elections lawyer. “Some of what we’ve seen in the last decade can be seen as a response to the huge participation in 2008, particularly of minority voters.”
Last year voter ID ballot measures were easily approved by voters in Arkansas and North Carolina. But a proposition allowing same-day voter registration was also overwhelmingly approved by voters in Michigan. A ballot measure restoring voting rights for most former felons was supported by nearly 65 percent of Florida voters. And Nevada voters made that state the 15th since 2015 to authorize the automatic registration of eligible residents to vote when they interact with their department of motor vehicles or other designated state agency.
Momentum may have shifted in the direction of expanding voting rights, but concerns about election security certainly haven’t gone away, especially since the ballot tampering scandal upending the Ninth District Congressional race last year in North Carolina.
“Expanding access to the polls without addressing safety protocols to protect the integrity of our electoral process is a disservice to the voters of our state,” New York Sen. Robert Ortt (R) said in a statement issued after the passage of the state’s new voting laws. (GOVERNING, NEW YORK TIMES, NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, VOX, NEW YORK SENATE)
GEORGIA’s GOP-controlled General Assembly has passed a bill (HB 316) providing for the adoption of new voting machines that utilize touchscreens and paper ballots for review by voters, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp (R) for his signature. Democrats attempted to block the legislation, contending that the new machines will be just as susceptible to hacking and errors as the state’s current machines. (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
DELAWARE’s Democrat-led General Assembly approved legislation (SB 22) adopting the national popular vote interstate compact, which, if signed by Gov. John Carney (D), would award the state’s three electoral votes to the presidential candidate that wins the most votes nationwide, if enough other states to constitute 270 electoral votes sign onto the agreement. The tally currently stands at 181, with eleven Democratic-leaning states and the District of Columbia having already adopted the compact. (WBOC-TV [SALISBURY], LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
NEW MEXICO’s Democrat-controlled Legislature has passed a bill (SB 3) requiring that so-called “dark money” expenditures - those made without direct coordination with candidates or campaigns - in statewide elections that exceed $3,000 be reported to state election officials. The bill now goes to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D). (ASSOCIATED PRESS, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
The U.S. House passed a bill (HR 1) that, among several other things, includes support for statehood for the District of Columbia. The “For the People Act” is the first legislation approved by a chamber of Congress endorsing statehood for the district. (WTOP-FM [WASHINGTON D.C.)
Calling capital punishment “ineffective, irreversible and immoral,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order on Tuesday all but abolishing the death penalty in the Golden State for the foreseeable future.
Newsom joins governors in Pennsylvania, Oregon and Colorado who have recently imposed moratoriums on carrying out state-sponsored executions. His order issues a temporary reprieve to the state’s 737 death row inmates but does not commute those sentences to life imprisonment. It does, however, end the state’s efforts to develop a legally-acceptable drug cocktail to carry out death sentences and dismantles the execution chamber at San Quentin prison.
The directive is likely to face legal challenges from death penalty supporters and victims’ right groups. It is also likely to spark another ballot measure asking voters to end capital punishment. Voters have rejected two such measures in the last six years, and in 2016 endorsed one (Proposition 66) to speed up the carrying out of death sentences.
Newsom cited investigations that show since 1973, 164 death row prisoners nationwide have been later proven innocent. He also cited a study showing the disparity in death sentences handed out to minorities over whites, particularly when it is a person of color accused of killing a white person.
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation legal director Kent Scheidegger accused Newsom of “abuse of power,” saying the governor lacked the constitutional authority to end efforts to devise a new lethal injection protocol and shut down death chambers.
“He’s following in the footsteps of other governors who abused this power because they were frustrated by a law that they just personally disagreed with,” Scheidegger told the Los Angeles Times.
In spite of the failures in the past, Assemblymember Marc Levine (D) said he wants to ask voters one more time to abolish capital punishment. He introduced a constitutional amendment that, if approved by lawmakers, would go before voters in 2020.
Newsom said he would support that measure.
“I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people,” Newsom said in a prepared statement. “In short, the death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian.” (SNCJ, LOS ANGELES TIMES, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, SACRAMENTO BEE)