Archive for the ‘State Legislature News’ Category
Tax Collections Fall in 2010
Last Updated on Thursday, 24 March 2011 12:57 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 24 March 2011 12:57
From sctimes.com:
State government tax collections decreased $14.3 billion to $704.6 billion in fiscal year 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday. There was a $65.8 billion decrease in 2009.
Minnesota collected more than $17.2 billion in 2010, making it the state with the 12th-highest total. South Dakota ranked 50th, with more than $1.3 billion collected.
The data come from the 2010 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections, which measures receipts from property taxes, licenses, compulsory fees and related penalty and interest receipts.
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Politico: RSLC Hits back in Wisconsin Senate Fight
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:32 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 23 March 2011 07:36
From the Politico:
National Republicans are launching a counteroffensive in the symbolically charged fight for control of the Wisconsin Senate, targeting two Democratic state senators with an ad campaign aimed at keeping the chamber in the GOP’s hands.
The Republican State Leadership Committee is expanding a television ad campaign against Democratic state Sen. Jim Holperin and launching a media blitz against state Sen. Dave Hansen, a member of the Democratic leadership.
Holperin and Hansen were among 14 Democratic lawmakers who fled Wisconsin to block a vote in the state Senate on a Republican-backed plan to scale back public-sector union rights.
Republicans ultimately passed the labor law in the Democrats’ absence by separating it from a larger budget bill. Implementation of the collective-bargaining law has been halted until a court challenge is resolved.
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Another Dem State Senator Jumps the Obama Ship
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:32 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 22 March 2011 01:35
The Associated Press in Louisiana is reporting that State Sen. Norby Chabert is finished with what he called an "out of touch" Obama Administration and national party making him at least the 25th state legislative Democrat to join the Republican Party since Election Day.
From the AP:
The member of a longtime Democratic political family, [Sen. Norby] Chabert holds the Senate seat once held by his father Leonard and brother Marty. He’s the fourth Democrat in the Senate to switch parties in the last five months, as the fall elections near and the state continues a trend to the right.
Chabert said the national Democratic Party and President Barack Obama are out of step with Louisiana businesses, residents and philosophies. He cited the Obama administration’s response to the Gulf oil spill and the now-lifted moratorium on deepwater drilling among his reasons. He had supported Obama for president.
"… I see an administration and a national party clearly out of touch," Chabert said in a statement.
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Why do state elections matter to the RSLC?
Last Updated on Monday, 21 March 2011 12:50 Written by rslcpol Monday, 21 March 2011 12:50
Check out the first installment of RSLC President Chris Jankowski’s President’s Perspective – Notes from the States:
Democratic legislators in Wisconsin and Indiana did not flee their jobs because Republican Governors proposed bold comprehensive reforms to balance their budgets and create job growth in their states. These Democratic legislators fled their jobs because there were new Republican legislative majorities poised to enact these comprehensive reforms in Wisconsin and Indiana. State legislative elections matter.
Elections for state Attorneys General also matter as we saw when Republican Attorneys General rallied to challenge the overreaching Obama healthcare law. As home to the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association (RLGA), the RSLC knows elections for Lieutenant Governors matter as we cheered just weeks ago when Republican Lt. Governor Bill Bolling of Virginia cast the tie breaking vote on an amendment to Senate Bill 924 that will require new regulatory standards to protect the health of patients in Virginia’s abortion clinics.
Indiana Dems Outline Demands to end Boycott
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:31 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 16 March 2011 10:45
From CourierPress.com:
Scotch one labor bill, water down a private school voucher program and declare the “right to work” measure dead for the year.
Those are the requests the leader of Indiana’s boycotting House Democrats made in a letter his staff hand-delivered to Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma on Tuesday.
The implication of House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer’s letter: If Republicans agree to those concessions, Democrats move much closer to leaving the Comfort Suites hotel in Urbana, Ill., where they’ve been holed up since Feb. 22, and returning to the Statehouse.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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