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HomeSpotlight Story | Bird’s Eye View | Budget & Taxes | Politics & Leadership | Governors | Hot Issues | Once Around the Statehouse Lightly
It’s not news that our political and social discourse has taken a turn toward the crude, rude and – in years past anyway – socially unacceptable. It’s easy to blame he who shall not be named, but he’s hardly the only one...
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As of October 17, 68 lawsuits had been initiated against the Trump administration via a complaint or petition filed by multiple states, according to data compiled by Dr. Paul Nolette, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University...
Wyoming has the largest estimated fiscal year 2019 rainy-day fund balance as a percentage of total state expenditures, at 109 percent, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers’ Spring 2019 Fiscal Survey of States . California...
PUSH FOR ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ IN FL FLORIDA billionaire Mike Fernandez, who left the Republican Party because of his opposition to President Trump, is spending millions of dollars to place a measure before voters in 2020 that would shift the...
NJ FACING BIG PUBLIC PENSION HIT NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) decision to phase in a reduction in the public pension system’s expected rate of return from 7.6 percent to 7 percent, which former Gov. Chris Christie (R) made just before...
The Wyoming statehouse in Cheyenne is undergoing a spiffy top-to-bottom makeover, and as is often the case with such undertakings, workers are digging up some cool stuff. As the Casper Star Tribune reports , the latest is six oil paintings that had been...
Reducing the soaring prices of commonly used prescription drugs has become a political priority in the nation’s statehouses. So far this year, 258 bills that sponsors hope will assist consumers in managing pharmaceutical costs have been filed in...
At least 40 states have introduced legislation in 2019 aimed at reducing the cost of prescription drugs, according to LexisNexis State Net ’s legislative tracking system. Fifteen of those states have enacted such measures.
In recent decades individuals who have come to the United States to escape violence or persecution in their home countries have helped rejuvenate and shore up budgets in upstate New York cities where population declines have accompanied a loss of manufacturing...
ME SENATE VOTES TO JOIN NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE COMPACT MAINE’S Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a bill ( LD 816 ) that would award the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote if enough...
By some accounts, insurance fraud has reached epidemic proportions, costing insurance companies and their policyholders tens of billions of dollars each year. State lawmakers have taken several measures in recent years to combat the problem, but this...
So far this year, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, one state, New Mexico, has enacted legislation dealing with balance billing, the practice of charging consumers for medical costs not paid by their insurance. Balance billing measures...
HOLCOMB SIGNS INDIANA HATE CRIME BILL Saying that his state has “made progress and taken a strong stand against targeted violence,” INDIANA Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed a measure last week that for the first time gives the Hoosier State...
New York pays a larger share of its total Medicaid spending than any other state, at 51.2 percent, with the federal government covering the other 48.8 percent, according to data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation . New York also pays the most in...
CT GOV PROPOSES SODA TAX CONNECTICUT Gov. Ned Lamont (D) unveiled a budget proposal last week calling for a new 1.5 cents per ounce tax on sodas and other sugar-sweetened drinks that would generate an estimated $163 million in new revenue next fiscal...
WY House Approves HB 145 The WYOMING House approves HB 145 , which would abolish capital punishment in the Equality State. It moves to the Senate (ASSOCIATED PRESS).
It’s been 9 1/2 years since the last U.S. recession - the second-longest period between economic downturns on record. The economy still appears to be going strong. But there are signs trouble may not be far off. The good news for states is that...
As of September 2018, 23 states had enough rainy day and other reserve funds to weather a moderate recession, while 17 states lacked such reserves, according to Moody’s Analytics. The other 10 states had reserve balances that were within 5 percentage...
CO River Water Agreement Seven states that depend on the Colorado River for water reach agreement on a management plan for the waterway. The deal between COLORADO, UTAH, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, CALIFORNIA, NEVADA and WYOMING creates a collection of drought...
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to buy goods and services, pay bills, gamble online, transfer money internationally and as an investment vehicle, among other things. And that activity is drawing more attention...
At least 21 states have introduced bills or resolutions dealing with digital currencies in 2018, about double the number of states that did so last year, according to analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures and LexisNexis State Net....
UBER REACHES DATA BREACH SETTLEMENT Ride-hailing company Uber agreed to pay $148 million to settle a dispute with all 50 states and the District of Columbia over its delay in disclosing a breach impacting 57 million of its drivers and riders worldwide...
Federal Judge Blocks Grizzly Bear Plans A federal judge blocks plans by WYOMING and IDAHO to hold the first grizzly bear hunt in the lower 48 states in almost three decades. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled grizzlies weren’t sufficiently...
Going On In NJ The NEW JERSEY Department of Environmental Protection enacts a new rule to cap the amount of compounds known as PFNAs, short for perfluorononanoic acids, in Garden State drinking water. The man-made, toxic chemical compounds, once used...
California will have the highest cybercrime losses of any state this year, according to analysis of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Insurance Information Institute by Website Builder Expert. The website development adviser estimates...
As of February of last year, at least five states had laws limiting how much local law enforcement had to cooperate with requests from federal authorities to detain immigrants, according to analysis of data from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center by...
VA City Council Rejects Proposal The VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA City Council rejects a proposal to regulate short-term rentals. The Council is expected to reconsider possible regulations and introduce a new proposal (WAVYTV [VIRGINIA BEACH]). WY City...
BROWN MOVES DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BILL TO CA BALLOT CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed AB 807 , a measure that will allow Golden State voters to decide if they want to stay on daylight saving time year-round. If voters approve, the measure would still...
Thirteen states have made progress in battling the deadly opioid epidemic while eight states have notably failed to deal with the crisis, according to a report issued this month by the National Safety Council (NSC). It comes on the heels of a report earlier...
Only 13 states are currently taking five or all six of the key actions needed to end the opioid crisis, according to a report from the National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization that seeks to eliminate preventable deaths. The six actions are: educating...
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) signed 41 bills last week, including at least five that deal with blockchain cryptocurrency technologies. Those measures include HB 19 , which codified a definition of a cryptocurrency and makes them exempt from Equality...
NY Senate Signs SB 7848 The NEW YORK Senate approves SB 7848 , which would write into law a firm definition of sexual harassment that applies to both government and the private sector, ban secret settlements of harassment cases unless the accuser requested...
MO House Approves HB 1443 The MISSOURI House gives initial approval to HB 1443 , which would, among several things, bar welfare recipients from cashing out benefits at an ATM machine and more clearly identify items that are may not be bought with those...
At least 18 bills dealing with blockchain or distributed ledger technology have been introduced in 11 states so far this year, according to LexisNexis State Net’s legislative tracking system. Another five blockchain-related measures that were introduced...
MURPHY ORDERS NJ MEDICAL WEED REVIEW : Calling the Garden State’s medical marijuana system “constrained,” NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued Executive Order No. 6 , which mandates a 60-day review of the program. Murphy said he...
WY GETS REVENUE BOOST FROM AIRBNB DEAL: WYOMING took in about $1.25 million more in lodging taxes between August and December of last year than it did the year before. A sizeable portion of that increase was due to the tax collection agreement the...
STATES TURNING TO TOLLS At least a half-dozen states, including COLORADO and FLORIDA, are imposing tolls on roads that used to be toll-free or building new toll-only lanes this year, and more are expected to do the same next year. With transportation...
Taxpayers in nine high-income, high-tax states claimed more than 60 percent of the state and local tax (SALT) deductions on federal tax returns nationwide in 2014, according to the Tax Foundation. Seven of those states, which include California, where...
US HOUSE PASSES TAX PLAN: The U.S. House passed its version of the GOP tax overhaul last week on a 227 to 205 vote, with none of the chamber’s Democrats supporting the plan and 13 Republicans opposing it. But passage of the Senate version isn’t...
SNYDER SIGNS MI POLICE MICONDUCT LAW Looking to prevent police agencies from hiding misconduct that leads to terminations, MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed legislation last week that requires law enforcement agencies to keep records of the circumstances...
In an interview with the Casper Star-Tribune last week, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) said he regretted his state’s decision to not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act before current efforts at health care reform got under way. “The...
CA LAWMAKERS CONSIDERING BILLIONS IN SPENDIND PROPOSALS CALIFORNIANS could vote on billions of dollars in new spending for low-income housing, water projects and parks improvements next year if Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and state lawmakers approve several...
Vermont is the “greenest” state in the country, and Wyoming is the least “green,” according to analysis by the personal finance website WalletHub. WalletHub’s analysts compared all 50 states on the basis of 20 measures of...
Almost $82 billion was spent on Medicaid in California in FY 2016 - $52.6 billion (64.1 percent) by the federal government and $29.4 billion (35.9 percent) by the state - according to January 2017 estimates from the Urban Institute, based on data from...
Between 2014 and 2015 death rates due to opioid overdose rose by over 25 percent - more than twice the national average (11 percent) - in five states and the District of Columbia. The five states with the highest opioid death rates in 2015 were West Virginia...
Social Policy in Arkansas The ARKANSAS Supreme Court rules that a Fayetteville ordinance banning discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity violates a Razorback State law barring local municipalities from enacting...
WY House Passes Internet Sales Tax Bill The WYOMING House has given final approval to a bill requiring internet retailers located outside the state to collect sales taxes on purchases by state residents. The measure ( HB 19 ) now heads to the Senate...
Gov. Mead Says No Medicaid Expansion in WY 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...
State spending on higher education nationwide is down nearly $10 billion - an average of $1,598, or 18 percent, per student - from where it was before the Great Recession began in 2008, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Per-student...
LA Judge Rejects Edwards LGBT Directive Saying the law was unclear, a LOUISIANA judge rejected an attempt by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) to force the state Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) to okay legal contracts that include anti-discrimination language...