State Government
Leadership Foundation

JEFFERSON CITY — A measure that would significantly change how unions representing Missouri's public employees can collect and spend members' fees was sent to the governor Monday. Under the bill approved by the House, unions would need to get annual consent from members before they can automatically deduct fees from paychecks. It would also force unions to receive similar annual consent in order to spend fees on political activities, including campaign contributions.

The 85-69 vote in the Republican-led House was three greater than the minimum number needed to pass legislation and 24 votes short of a two-thirds majority that would be needed for a veto override, should Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon reject the bill. The Senate passed the same version of the bill earlier this year. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, said the bill would protect the rights of individual union members. Other supporters argued that giving members a choice to opt-in to automatic paycheck deductions allows them to play a more active role in the organization's political activities.

"A few weeks ago, four state attorneys general asked that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator nominee Gina McCarthy show transparency and answer a number of important questions regarding the EPA and her tenure at the agency. Yesterday, in light of her continued intransigence, U.S. senators boycotted a vote on her nomination. We hope that rather than further refusal to cooperate, Ms. McCarthy will provide answers to the questions being asked by both state and federal officeholders." - SGLF Executive Director Chris Jankowski

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The House Finance Committee will consider Chairman Helio Melo's bill creating a new incentive program for local manufacturers at a Thursday hearing. The proposed "Manufacturing Industry Revitalization Act" is a key piece of House Speaker Gordon D. Fox and Democrats' economic development package. Under the proposal, companies would have to invest at least $10 million in real estate, building, equipment or other capital purchases and create at least 100 new full-time jobs in order to qualify. They would receive an annual reimbursement of $500 per each new worker, so long as the positions earn at least 200 percent of the state minimum wage and work a minimum of 30 hours a week.

Electric Boat, a submarine maker with a manufacturing facility at Quonset Point in North Kingstown, has said it is supportive of the measure, even though it is not expected to testify Thursday. "We support this bill based on the effect it would have on our efforts to control costs for our customer, the United States Navy, as well as the effect it would have on economic development and job creation in Rhode Island," Robert A. Hamilton, Electric Boat's communications director, said in a statement.

CONCORD -- Along party lines, a Senate committee on Wednesday supported on a 3-2 vote changing the current state voter identification law by removing its clear statutory reference to student IDs as an acceptable form of voter ID. Also Wednesday, the Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee voted -- again along partisan lines -- to recommend passage of legislation that addresses the requirements that one needs to meet to register to vote.

Committee Chairman David Boutin, R-Hooksett, said although the specific reference to a student ID is removed under his voter ID amendment, it would allow state university system student IDs to be used under a broad requirement that the would-be voters produce "a nondriver's identification card issued by" a "department, agency or office of any state." Boutin said he believed the state university system is an agency of the state under the bill. Private student college IDs, such as for Dartmouth College, would also likely be allowed under his amendment, he said, but the decision would be at the discretion of the local elected officials at the polling place. Leaving clear reference to students IDs in the law, he said, "might cause concern" among some Senate Republicans. "It's the art of compromise," he said. "I'm confident moderators will do the right thing." As recommended by the committee Wednesday, the bill would repeal the moderators' discretion to authorize forms of identification they deem "legitimate" on Sept. 1, 2015 and revert to a strict, four-item list. But Boutin said that provision was an oversight and he will introduce a floor amendment when the bill goes to the Senate to make the moderators' discretionary authority permanent.

Complying with President Obama's healthcare law will take nearly 190 million hours per year, according to a new tally released by House Republicans. The GOP reached that total by adding together the compliance burden in each regulation implementing part of the healthcare law. They said the annual burden to comply with ObamaCare is enough time to build Mount Rushmore more than 1,500 times over, or to build the Empire State Building 27 times.

"Every hour and dollar spent complying with the Democrats’ health care law are time and resources being taken from spending time with family, growing a business and creating jobs, or caring for patients," House Republicans said in a release. Some of the 190 million hours will fall to insurance companies, some to doctors and hospitals, and some to individuals — the total represents all of the work required under all of the regulations implementing some part of ObamaCare. Some of the most burdensome provisions include changes to Medicaid eligibility, mandatory calorie labeling on restaurant menus and tax credits to help small businesses pay for health insurance.

The Iowa Senate Tuesday night rejected a Republican-sponsored amendment to require Iowa voters to show a photo identification when they are voting. The effort failed on a 26-24 vote with Democrats against and Republicans in support. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, proposed the amendment to the so-called standings bill, one of the final appropriations bills usually approved as adjournment nears. She suggested that if someone doesn’t have a voter ID, her measure would allow another voter with a photo ID to vouch for them at the polls.

Sen. Robert Dvorsky, D-Coralville, strongly objected to the amendment. “This is a vote suppression bill, clear and simple,” Dvorsky said, criticizing Republican Secretary of State Matt Schultz for his efforts to detect voter fraud. “This does nothing to move voting forward in Iowa. … I think it is one of the worst, cynical things that you could run.” Ernst disagreed with Dvorsky, saying her proposal was not aimed at voter suppression. “There have been cases of voter fraud in Iowa, not many, but those cases of voter fraud can determine an election. What we don’t know is how many cases of voter fraud go undetected because we are not using voter identification,” Ernst said.

BOSTON (AP) — Supporters of legislation to lift the cap on charter schools in the state’s lowest performing school districts will be making their case before lawmakers. The proposal will be heard on Tuesday by the Legislature’s Education Committee. It has the support of the Massachusetts Public Charter School Association, which points to a waiting list of 25,000 students trying to get into one of Boston’s 22 charter schools. The bill would also give the state Department of Education more power to intervene in underperforming school districts and enforce turnaround plans for those schools. The committee on Tuesday will also hear testimony on a bill that would allow school districts to adopt longer school days with more classroom time.

LANSING, MI -- Michigan lawmakers have worked quickly on budget bills for next fiscal year, with one notable exception: The Senate has yet to consider the Department of Community Health budget, which leaves open the question of whether the state will accept and appropriate federal funds to expand Medicaid, as proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder. Advancing a bill without funds for expansion, as the House has done, could derail the proposal, while inclusion could set up a point of debate between the chambers to be ironed out in coming weeks. Snyder is among a handful of Republican governors across the country who have backed Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Health Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, which seeks to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

A new report from a conservative think tank says income levels would grow more rapidly upstate if New York allows hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. The report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy found New York counties sitting within the gas-rich formation could see their per-capita income increase by 15 percent by 2015 if the state gives shale-gas drillers the green light. That figure would represent a 6 percentage point increase over the counties’ current trends.

“By our count, there are immediate and concrete benefits in hydrofracturing wells: more money in the pockets of the people, more tax revenue for the state,” the report reads. “These data deserve close attention and consideration as New York State confronts its decision.” The Empire Center is the state-centric branch of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a business-backed think tank. The report examines Pennsylvania economic data from 2007 through 2011 and extrapolates it to New York, finding generally that the counties that saw the most high-volume wells saw the most rapid income growth. Those counties are mostly in the northeast and southwest corners of Pennsylvania.

A new report from a conservative think tank says income levels would grow more rapidly upstate if New York allows hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. The report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy found New York counties sitting within the gas-rich formation could see their per-capita income increase by 15 percent by 2015 if the state gives shale-gas drillers the green light. That figure would represent a 6 percentage point increase over the counties’ current trends. “By our count, there are immediate and concrete benefits in hydrofracturing wells: more money in the pockets of the people, more tax revenue for the state,” the report reads. “These data deserve close attention and consideration as New York State confronts its decision.” The Empire Center is the state-centric branch of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a business-backed think tank. The report examines Pennsylvania economic data from 2007 through 2011 and extrapolates it to New York, finding generally that the counties that saw the most high-volume wells saw the most rapid income growth. Those counties are mostly in the northeast and southwest corners of Pennsylvania.

RALEIGH — Local school boards would have the authority to create charter schools and form more flexible arrangements with district-run schools under a pair of bills in the North Carolina House. The bills, sponsored by a Republican lawmaker and supported by Democrats, are intended to help bridge the divide between public and charter schools, which even critics acknowledge are a fixture of the education landscape that’s here to stay.

The first bill would allow local school boards to approve charters and convert their own schools to a charter format. Under existing law, local boards can grant preliminary approval, but ultimate authority lies with the State Board of Education. The program would start on a trial run of up to 10 districts that would maintain oversight of the charters. The second bill would allow districts to create schools operating under special curricula, budgets and admissions criteria. That’s currently possible only with failing district schools. The so-called satellite schools would be able to experiment with different pay models, and districts could petition the State Board to waive the requirement that at least 50 percent of the school’s staff hold instructional certifications.

MONTGOMERY — Private and parochial schools want to make sure Alabama's new tax credits and scholarships for private school attendance don't lead to the state government having a role in their operations. J. Robin Mears, executive director Alabama Christian Education Association, said the concept of the new law is sound, but proposed changes raise concern about state involvement. "What we are looking at is what is in it that could eventually hurt us?" he said. Randy Skipper, executive director of the Alabama Independent School Association, said he expects many of his 55 member schools to decline to participate if the tax credits and scholarships come with state government involvement. "The whole point is they are independent schools," he said.

The Legislature passed the Alabama Accountability Act on Feb. 28. It provides tax credits to parents who chose to send their children to a private school or non-failing public school rather than a public school rated as failing. It also gives tax credits to individuals and businesses who donate to organizations that will provide scholarships for children from low-income families who can't afford private school tuition even though their children qualify to move from failing public schools. Bills have been offered in the legislative session to clear up some questions about the new law. One of the architects of the new law, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, has written a bill to make several changes. One provision that he said he put in to assure quality has raised concerns among private school organizations. It says private schools accepting scholarships would have to administer state achievement tests or nationally recognized tests to measure learning in math and language arts by participating students.

A $329 million cut in two dozen tax exemptions and a $106 million reduction in spending feature prominently in a bipartisan deal to strip $525 million in one-time money from Louisiana's budget. The plan would use about half the money taken out of the $24.7 billion budget to fund non-recurring expenses in state government, including road construction, coastal protection and paying down the debt in the state's pension system. The details of the proposal, which were circulated to members of the media after Republicans and Democrats separately caucused on the plan, lay out a plan that would boost state revenues by shrinking state tax credits by 15 percent and rely on a increase in existing projections of state tax revenue to balance the budget. The plan would also cut the amount retailers receive for collecting sales taxes and cut other deductions and exemptions.

The $100 million in state budget cuts would come from specific areas: about $9.4 million would be saved by curtailing out-of-state travel for conferences and a reduction in spending on office supplies; $18.6 million would be taken out of the budget for positions that are now vacant; $25.3 million would come from a 10 percent reduction in state contracts and about $52.4 million would come from new spending proposed in the governor's budget above what was spent in the current year.

RALEIGH — Senate Republicans rolled out Monday evening the frame of their tax overhaul plan for North Carolina that they say will cut income tax rates while expanding the scope of the sales tax. Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County attorney, announced the release of a video and website in which he lays out some of the highlights of the plan. The video was designed as a preview as Berger and leaders of the chamber’s tax committee scheduled a news conference today to talk more about the details.

The unveiling of the chamber’s plan is a key moment in this year’s session because House and Senate Republican leaders and new GOP Gov. Pat McCrory have made tax reform a leading priority. Berger labeled the “North Carolina Tax Fairness Act of 2013” as the “largest tax cut in state history” at more than $1 billion. But expanding the sales tax will mean many residents would have to pay more in sales taxes. Democratic lawmakers and governors have talked over the past two decades about reworking the tax code to capture more consumer transactions and services while lowering income tax rates. But their efforts failed because they couldn’t work out details or interest groups put up roadblocks. Berger said he’s committed to making changes.

The Pennsylvania House has passed legislation today that cuts business taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars, while increasing revenues by addressing the so-called Delaware loophole. The bill, which was approved by 129-65 bi-partisan vote, would cut the corporate net income tax rate from 10 percent to 7 percent over 10 years beginning in 2015. All midstate Republican House members voted for it, while Harrisburg Democratic Rep. Patty Kim cast a dissenting vote. The measure now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Republicans say it's a way to make the state more competitive, while Democrats are calling it a massive giveaway to big corporations. The Delaware loophole refers to a practice where companies shield revenues from state taxes by setting up a holding company for its intangible assets in a lower tax state, often Delaware.

Proposed changes to Iowa’s teacher evaluation system have halted progress at the Statehouse on a sweeping education bill aimed at improving instruction in Iowa’s 1,434 public schools. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have agreed on the broad strokes of the plan’s centerpiece — a new career pathways structure for teachers that will cost $160 million annually once fully implemented. But sharp divisions remain over a provision that calls for student achievement data to be considered in teacher performance reviews.

Many Democrats and teachers union leaders say they fear the legislation could be used to judge educators solely on their students’ standardized test scores. That strategy has proven ineffective in other states and has created tension between teachers and administrators in some districts, they say. But Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass insists that’s not the goal of proposals introduced by Gov. Terry Branstad and House Republicans. The bill now under review in a conference committee calls for student growth to be one of multiple measures gauging teacher effectiveness.

In light of negative comments made by Congressional Democrats, President Obama discussed the implementation of Obamacare at a press conference this week, explaining that “even if we do everything perfectly, there’ll still be, you know, glitches and bumps, and there’ll be stories that can be written that says, oh, look, this thing’s, you know, not working the way it’s supposed to, and this happened and that happened.” But Obamacare has been experiencing more than a few “bumps” and “glitches.” For starters, it has been over three years since Obamacare’s enactment and public opinion of the law still remains negative. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 40 percent of respondents still had an unfavorable view of the law, 35 percent reported a favorable view, and 24 percent reported they had no opinion on the law.

Moreover, with just six months until open enrollment for the exchanges begins, the poll found that “about half the public says they do not have enough information about the health reform law to understand how it will impact their own family, a share that rises among the uninsured and low-income households”—the two groups the law is most likely to benefit. In addition, another story about the harmful effects of Obamacare’s employer mandate is in the news. The employer mandate forces all employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer government-approved health coverage or pay a penalty. To avoid the cost of coverage and the penalty, many employers are increasingly shifting their full-time workers to part time. As NPR reports, Rob Wilson, president of the temp agency Employco said it is impacting his business too, “Instead of saying, ‘I want one person for 40 hours a week,’ [employers are saying], ‘I’ll take two people for 20 hours or 25 hours a week.’”

HELENA – Gov. Steve Bullock signed the Legislature’s main budget bill Friday – but not after first using his line-item veto authority to strike a small portion of the spending. Bullock said in his line-item veto message that he needed to reduce spending. His office said the reductions cut about $30 million, roughly 0.4 percent of the two-year, $8 billion budget. House Bill 2 cleared the Legislature with the backing of minority Democrats and some Republicans. But Bullock said lawmakers did not stick to his goals of a structurally balanced budget that left more money in the bank.

“I asked the Legislature to pass a budget that didn’t spend more than we take in and that left $300 million cash in the bank for a rainy day. Unfortunately, they didn’t,” Bullock said in a statement. “Therefore, I’ve had to veto and line-item veto more bills than I would have liked to, in order to keep the state’s financial position strong.” The line-item veto in the main budget bill did not ax any particularly large programs. One move would strike the 6 percent pay raise that Republican lawmakers gave to game wardens who broke with other union workers and backed Bullock’s Republican opponent.

This month the number of unemployed dropped by more than 80,000, even as more people entered the labor force. Meanwhile, the number of employed workers jumped by 293,000. The total labor force increased by 210,000, leaving the labor force participation rate unchanged at 63.3%. The steady rate is a positive sign that people are encouraged enough to look for work, and raises hope that more long-term unemployed aren’t just dropping out. But there was an area of concern in the report as a broader rate, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, increased to 13.9% from 13.8% a month earlier. That includes everyone in the official rate plus “marginally attached workers” — those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic reasons, meaning they want full-time work but took a part-time schedule instead because that’s all they could find.

Two House Democrats have been trying all session to get the first Republican member to sign on to their immigration-reform resolution. On Wednesday night, they hooked one. At a State Affairs Committee hearing late Wednesday, state Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, signed on to House Concurrent Resolution 44 by Reps. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and Ana Hernandez Luna, D-Houston. HCR 44 calls for comprehensive immigration reform and incorporates some immigration measures drafted by national and state Republican and conservative groups. The end goal of the largely symbolic resolution is to get U.S. Congress to pass immigration legislation that takes into account the bipartisan approach of Texas leaders, Anchia said.

“Jason has engaged in a good faith dialogue on this issue and has brought much-needed leadership on the Republican side,” Anchia said. “It is this type of bipartisan collaboration that gets things done in Austin and that is needed more in Washington, D.C.” The resolution takes a middle-of-the-road, even conservative, approach, the Democrats said. Anchia and Hernandez Luna borrowed language from the Texas Federation of Republican Women, which in January called for allowing young people in the country illegally to earn legal status or citizenship when they meet certain standards, such as English fluency.

Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama's Affordable Care Act. The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead. The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work. Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year, and that extra expense would trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services. Part-timer Tara Sievers, 43, understands why, but she still thinks it's wrong. "I understand there are costs to healthcare reform, but it is surely not the intent of the law for employees to lose hours," said the outreach coordinator at the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. "It's ridiculous the city is skirting the law."

MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- The chairman of the Senate’s education budget committee said today he expects the Senate to debate the Education Trust Fund budget on Tuesday. The budget had been expected to come up this week. One of the key sticking points has been the size of pay raise for educators. The House of Representatives passed the budget with a 2 percent cost of living raise for current teachers and education employees. The Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee reduced the raise to 1 percent, with a conditional appropriation for a 1 percent pay bonus if the money is available.

Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, chairman of the committee, had supported the 1 percent raise. “I feel like the 1 percent with the 1 percent bonus would be more conservative with all the unknowns we’re dealing with,” Pittman said. But Pittman said there was strong support in the Senate for the 2 percent raise and said that would give it the best chance to pass the Senate. Education employees last received a cost of living raise in fiscal year 2008. Gov. Robert Bentley had proposed a 2.5 percent raise for education employees. The budget bill, HB166 by Rep. Jay Love, R-Montgomery, would appropriate $5.76 billion from the Education Trust Fund for public schools, colleges and other entities for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Rekindling the raw emotion of Senate Bill 5 from 2011, two House Republicans plan to introduce bills today that would “eliminate compulsory unionism in Ohio.” If enacted, the two bills would make Ohio a right-to-work state in both the public and private sectors by prohibiting mandatory participation in a union or payment of union-related fees as a condition of employment. In November 2011, voters overwhelmingly rejected Republicans’ effort to sharply limit collective bargaining for public employees by overturning Senate Bill 5 — a referendum that might still have political ramifications for Gov. John Kasich.

Kasich has since refused to support any right-to-work efforts in Ohio — a bid to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot is proceeding slowly — and Democrats were quick to pounce on news of the new bills. But Kasich wouldn’t commit one way or the other on the latest GOP effort. “There have been 300 bills introduced so far this year,” said Rob Nichols, Kasich’s spokesman. “ We don’t weigh in on all of them, and it would be premature to do so on these.“The governor has a big agenda that’s moving through the legislature, and he continues to work on it.” State Reps. Ron Maag of Lebanon and Kristina Roegner of Hudson will hold a news conference today announcing their intentions.

Three years after President Obama signed the health care reform law, there are concerns that the process of implementing it will be rocky. Even some of the law’s supporters are worried. Perhaps more troubling for the White House, the Affordable Care Act is still not well liked or well understood. The Obama administration had hoped that over time, the legislation would gain enough support to help smooth over the rough patches of putting it into practice. Instead, public opinion has remained mostly static: a plurality of Americans still disapprove of the law, and a substantial portion of the public remains uncertain about what it says, according to recent polls.

There is even confusion about whether the health care law is still, in fact, law. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey [PDF] conducted in April found that 41 percent of American adults did not know that the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land. A separate tracking survey conducted by Kaiser, which has done far more surveys on health care than any other polling organization, found that roughly half of American adults said they did not have enough information about the law to understand how it will affect them. The tracking poll found that there had actually been an increase in the percentage of American adults with no opinion about the health care law.

RALEIGH — A bill requiring local governments and state agencies to roll back environmental regulations passed its first full vote in the North Carolina Senate on Wednesday. The Republican bill requires cities, counties and numerous state agencies to repeal or rewrite rules that go beyond federal law. It also allows businesses or utilities with decommissioned buildings to dispose of waste on site rather than transporting it to a landfill and potentially weakens standards to mitigate damage to wetlands. The vote was 36-12, with some Democrats crossing party lines to support the Republican majority. A provision removing buffers for development along the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins that are intended to protect water quality was stripped from the bill through an amendment from Sen. Neal Hunt, R-Wake.