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MN: Bill Bans Spending for Federal Health Care Law
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:33 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 15 March 2011 12:58
From BusinessWeek.com:
A state Senate health care panel takes a look Monday at a bill that would bar Minnesota from participating in the federal health care overhaul.
The bill from Republican Sen. Sean Nienow of Cambridge challenges Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s stance on the health care law.
Dayton has embraced the health care overhaul, expanding the federal Medicaid program in Minnesota and seeking health care grants. He reversed his Republican predecessor, Tim Pawlenty, who had ordered state agencies to avoid discretionary participation in the law.
Tags: Minnesota | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
Attorney General in Wyoming Sworn in
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:33 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 15 March 2011 12:40
From BillingsGazette:
Greg Phillips has been sworn in as Wyoming’s 35th attorney general.
The 50-year-old Phillips took the oath of office Monday from Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kite at the Supreme Court building in Cheyenne.
Gov. Matt Mead nominated Phillips. The Wyoming State Senate confirmed him earlier this month.
Tags: Wyoming | Posted under Attorney General News | No Comments
A flat income tax in Arizona?
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:33 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 15 March 2011 12:38
From East Valley Tribune:
Rep. Steve Court, R-Mesa, who crafted HB 2636, said it is designed so the state takes in just as much as it would under the current system. What that means, he said, is there will be winners — and losers.
One group are those who reduce their taxable income by the amount of interest they pay on their home mortgages. Charitable deductions also will be gone.
But Court’s proposal, in eliminating the personal exemptions and standard deductions, would affect those who have, until now, owed no state taxes at all. Generally speaking, a couple with at least one dependent with a federal adjusted gross income of about $15,000 a year have been able to reduce their state tax liability to zero.
No more. And Court said that is by design, even though the federal poverty level for a family of three is $18,310 a year.
Tags: Arizona | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
WI: Democrat Senators Remain in Contempt
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:33 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 15 March 2011 12:29
From JSOnline.com:
In a sign GOP lawmakers are still smarting from the recent exodus of Senate Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) told his caucus Monday that Democrats can’t vote in committee because they remain in contempt of the Senate.
“They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded,” Fitzgerald wrote his colleagues.
The Democrats fled to Illinois last month to avoid voting on a bill to curtail collective bargaining for most public employees. The bill passed without them last week, and Senate Democrats returned to the Capitol on Saturday.
Tags: Wisconsin | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
Wisconsin Fight Goes National
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:32 Written by rslcpol Monday, 14 March 2011 10:50
Check out the ad from the State Government Leadership Foundation here:
From Politico:
The first round is over. Republican Gov. Scott Walker delivered a crushing defeat to government employee unions in their fight over labor rights in Wisconsin.
But the passage of a law stripping away collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers has touched off a much larger political battle that threatens to spread over Wisconsin’s borders and across the 2012 landscape.
Democrats in Wisconsin are vowing to transform virtually every upcoming state and local election there into a referendum on Walker’s administration. Party leaders from Madison to Washington are gearing up for a major fight in the hope of sending an unmistakable signal to other ambitious GOP state executives.
Their efforts to make Walker and his supports pay a high political price for their victory has led Republicans to activate their own campaign machinery. Few expect the conflict will stay contained in Wisconsin.
“What you’re seeing is a reaction from the national Democratic Party to try and hold the line because they realize that if we’re successful in Wisconsin, there will be a national impact,” said Republican State Leadership Committee president Chris Jankowski, whose group supports GOP candidates in state-level campaigns.
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Iowa: House Passes Collective Bargaining Reform
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:38 Written by rslcpol Friday, 11 March 2011 01:39
From the Iowa State House:
(DES MOINES) – After three days of debate, the House passed House File 525 on Friday. House File 525 makes changes designed to save taxpayer’s dollars. The bill does not eliminate Iowa’s collective bargaining law, rather it addresses two things: what is within the scope of negotiations between management and labor along with arbitration procedures.
“We’re leveling the playing field for taxpayers,” said Rep. Ron Jorgensen (R-Sioux City), the bill’s floor manager.
This bill addresses the cost of government in Iowa. Today, 84% of state employees pay nothing for their health care. Republicans added a provision that required each public employee covered by a collective bargaining agreement to pay at least $100 for the own health insurance. Employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, which includes state legislators, were previously required to contribute at least $100 towards their own health care coverage in both House File 45 and Senate File 209.
“The state can no longer afford and the taxpayers can no longer support health care insurance which does not require the employee to at least contribute something to their own health care coverage,” said Rep. Jorgensen.
The list of items that will still be bargained for is largely unchanged and still includes: wages, hours, vacations, insurance, holidays, leaves of absence, shift differentials, overtime compensation, supplemental pay, seniority, transfer procedures, job classifications, health and safety matters, evaluation procedures, in-service training, and other matters mutually agreed upon.
The reform measure allows arbitrators flexibility when dealing with contract negotiations. Currently arbitrators are forced to pick either management’s offer or the union’s offer. The bill will allow arbitrators the ability to find a middle ground between the positions and will save taxpayers money.
The bill was approved Friday afternoon after a very long, very open and transparent debate. House File 525 saw 15 hours of debate in the House Labor Committee and approximately 30 hours debate in the House Chamber. There was also a 2 hour public hearing held earlier this week on the bill. The bill passed the House, 58 to 38, and now moves to the Senate for consideration.
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Rainy Day Funds tough to use in some states
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:37 Written by rslcpol Friday, 11 March 2011 01:05
From NewsTribune.com:
While budget deficits threaten to cripple government services across the country, a handful of states with billions of dollars socked away in “rainy day” funds for troubled financial times are discovering they can’t use that money to offset their cuts.
Amid the worst financial crisis facing states in decades, stringent rules governing the use of reserve funds have tied the hands of lawmakers in nearly a dozen states even as they consider raising taxes, slashing health and social services and shuttering education programs.
About three-fourths of states have used rainy day funds in the past three years to alleviate budget cuts, but some have had difficulty accessing the money or have shied away from doing so. They would have to repay it quickly or were worried it would hurt their bond ratings.
Tags: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Neveda, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
NY Democrats Indicted for Accepting Bribes
Last Updated on Thursday, 10 March 2011 02:50 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 10 March 2011 02:50
From the New York Times:
State Senator Carl Kruger, Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. and an influential lobbyist were among eight people who surrendered on Thursday to face charges in a federal corruption case accusing the lawmakers of taking bribes over the course of a decade in schemes large and small, from pushing hospital mergers to extending business hours for liquor stores.
Mr. Kruger, a Democrat from Brooklyn, is accused of “receiving a stream of bribes totaling at least $1 million in exchange for taking official actions.” Among the charges in the complaint is that he shared fees paid to the lobbyist, Richard Lipsky, and then took “the very official acts in favor of which Lipsky had been paid to lobby.”
Indeed, the detailed 53-page complaint portrays Senator Kruger as a lawmaker who offered a full range of corrupt services in exchange for bribe payments, performing official acts that included sponsoring and supporting legislation, lobbying other elected officials and directing state monies for the benefit of Mr. Lipsky and the lobbyist’s clients.
Tags: New York | Posted under State Legislature News | No Comments
How the Wisconsin Senate Passed the Governor’s Bill
Last Updated on Thursday, 10 March 2011 02:39 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 10 March 2011 02:39
From the National Review Online:
On Wednesday night, Wisconsin Senate Republicans did what most people thought impossible — they passed Governor Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill virtually intact, without having to split out controversial provisions that limited the ability for government employees to collectively bargain.
A letter Democrat Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller sent the governor today, indicating Miller’s unwillingness to further negotiate any details of the bill, was what prompted the GOP’s decision to take the bill to the floor.
“It was like, ‘I’m in the minority, and I’m going to dictate to you what your options are,’” said one GOP source about Miller’s letter. It was just three days ago that Miller had sent Fitzgerald a letter urging more negotiations, despite the fact that Governor Walker had been negotiating with at least two Democrat senators for nearly a week. “With his recent letter, it became clear that all he wanted to do was stall,” said the GOP source.
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Governor Scott Walker: Why I’m Fighting in Wisconsin
Last Updated on Thursday, 10 March 2011 01:58 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 10 March 2011 01:31
From the Wall Street Journal:
In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools. Why would one of the best new teachers in the state be one of the first let go? Because her collective-bargaining contract requires staffing decisions to be made based on seniority.
Ms. Sampson got a layoff notice because the union leadership would not accept reasonable changes to their contract. Instead, they hid behind a collective-bargaining agreement that costs the taxpayers $101,091 per year for each teacher, protects a 0% contribution for health-insurance premiums, and forces schools to hire and fire based on seniority and union rules.
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