State Government
Leadership Foundation

Environmental groups have a tough time getting Congress to do what they want. Case in point: In the early months of 2010, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Defense Fund waged an all-out campaign urging the Senate to pass a sweeping climate-change bill backed by President Obama and leaders in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The measure crashed and burned that summer.

But the green groups—and Obama’s top environmental officials—knew they could resort to a different tactic: lawsuits to compel executive action. Toward the end of George W. Bush’s administration, the three big environmental organizations and 11 states sued to force the Environmental Protection Agency to issue new regulations reining in carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants and oil refineries. The Bush EPA fought the suit, but the Obama EPA, full of top officials who had worked in these very nonprofits, took a different tack. By December 2010, after the failure of the climate-change legislation, Obama’s first-term EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, settled the lawsuit—on the advocates’ terms. The settlement obliged the agency to begin regulating carbon pollution from coal plants and oil refineries, an outcome with profound environmental and economic implications. And in April 2012, EPA proposed a historic new rule to regulate global-warming pollution from coal plants. As Obama’s second term unfolds, the agency is expected to finalize more rules that, thanks to lawsuits, will give the green groups what they want.

The climate-change settlement is just one in a series of recent so-called sue-and-settle agreements since Obama took office. Between 2009 and 2012, EPA has settled at least 60 lawsuits from outside groups, leading to dozens of new environmental regulations. A 2010 deal in another Sierra Club lawsuit led to a 2012 regulation on mercury emissions from coal plants. A 2009 settlement with environmentalists led to a 2012 regulation governing pollution from cement manufacturers. While EPA could fight the suits, they often line up with the administration’s agenda—to fight climate change and promote clean-air laws—so why bother? In many cases, the federal government, as the loser in the legal settlements, has then paid the green groups’ legal fees.

CARSON CITY — Former Nevada Gov. Robert List and other top Nevada Republicans are calling on Congress to approve an immigration plan that provides a route to citizenship for the 11 million people who are in the country illegally. List said in a Thursday telephone news conference that he was encouraged that a new Harper Polling survey of 678 Nevadans found 64 percent support the immigration bill before Congress. The poll, taken June 3-5, found 51 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats support the bill. But Republican support for immigration reform increases to 82 percent if Congress approves tougher border security, and makes those in the country illegally pay fines, learn English, go through background checks and wait as long as 13 years before acquiring citizenship, he said.

“America has always been a nation of immigrants and always will be,” List said. “We truly need to secure the border,” added former Republican Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury. “We need a bipartisan solution.” But another new poll, taken by University of Nevada, Las Vegas political science professor David Damore for Latino Decisions, found what any politician knows: most Hispanic voters don’t like Republicans. Forty-six percent of them have never voted for even one Republican. Damore said the Hispanic distrust of Republicans is so great that it might be a generation before many feel comfortable voting for Republicans. That is important in a state like Nevada where 15 percent of voters in November were Hispanic.

State health officials are developing a website that will allow people to determine in real time whether they’re eligible for Medicaid coverage. The system, which is expected to launch Oct. 1, will dramatically reduce the time it takes someone to learn whether he or she qualifies for Medicaid, a government health program for the poor and medically needy. It will also determine eligibility for a children’s insurance program known as CHIP. “People like to get that immediate response when they can,” said Jan Stall, eligibility and operations administrator for the Wyoming Department of Health. “That’s definitely a benefit. If you have someone who is in the need of health care coverage or in need of a health care service, it will get them that decision much faster.”

Wyoming already allows people to apply online for Medicaid. But state workers must process the information, leading to waits that typically run a week for CHIP and 30 to 45 days for Medicaid. It will take the average person about 15 minutes to complete an application once the new, Web-based system is running, Stall said. After users access the website and fill in the proper information, they’ll know with a simple mouse click whether they qualify for Medicaid. “It will be a much faster process for a majority of those folks,” she said. Health officials expect that about 60 percent of people who use the system will get an immediate answer. In certain instances, such as when the system cannot verify a person’s immigration status, applicants might still need to send paperwork to the state. The federal health reform law known as the Affordable Care Act tasked states with developing an online tool that will decide in real time whether someone is eligible for Medicaid. In addition to speeding up the process, the digital system will communicate with the federal health insurance exchange that will begin enrolling Wyoming residents in October.

Legislative Republicans used the final hours of the just-ended legislative session to shove through a series of changes in election laws that could give them advantages in future elections. The measure in which they are all packed, now on the desk of Gov. Jan Brewer, started out as a procedure to stop sending early ballots to some who do not use them. But the measure quickly ballooned into a catch-all for other Republican priorities. And GOP leaders were so anxious to get this through that they even had a staffer from the National Republican Congressional Committee with Arizona roots call one of the legislators who was balking.

Among the additions: - Making it a crime for volunteer political workers and organizations to collect early ballots from voters and take them to polling places; - Increasing the number of signatures that minor party legislative and congressional candidates need to get on the ballot; - Imposing higher legal standards on voter-sponsored initiatives, making it easier to throw them off the ballot if they do not strictly comply with each and every provision of the law; - Adding some procedural requirements to recall laws.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top welfare official will meet with Medicaid's federal overseers on Monday in hopes of getting Republican Gov. Tom Corbett the flexibility he's seeking to determine whether to expand the state's program. The meeting “is a continuation of ongoing discussions,” said Jennifer Branstetter, Corbett's policy director. “Our team goes into every meeting hopeful that they will have a meaningful discussion around building a program that works for Pennsylvania.” Beverly Mackereth, the acting secretary of the state Department of Public Welfare, will meet with officials from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the agency Corbett has been negotiating with to decide whether to expand the health insurance program for low-income people. Expansion is an option for states under the federal Affordable Health Care Act, often called Obamacare. About half of states tentatively agreed to expand. There's a “misunderstanding” that Corbett, who was one of the attorneys general to unsuccessfully challenge the federal health care law, has rejected expansion, Branstetter said. Corbett was elected governor in November 2010.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system championed by President Barack Obama and passed by Congress three years ago, calls for expanding Medicaid to cover uninsured people who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That’s $15,856 for an individual, $32,499 for a family of four. Many of the potential beneficiaries are the working poor. They might be the cashiers on the other side of a fast-food counter, the laborers at one of the Roanoke Valley’s many warehouses or the migrant workers harvesting apples or tobacco. “Health care is a human necessity, and there’s no question that the cost of health insurance is well beyond what the people who would qualify for Medicaid could actually afford,” said Jim Lindsay, a member of the health care committee of Virginia Organizing, a citizens advocacy group pushing for the expansion. However, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law last summer, it ruled that states cannot be forced to go along with the Medicaid expansion. Since then, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 21 states have decided to expand their programs, which are funded by both state and federal tax dollars. Virginia is on the fence. A two-year budget approved by the General Assembly in March allows for the expansion, but only if major improvements are made to the program.

Here in the Buckeye State, we've made major economic strides over the past two and a half years. Facing an $8 billion budget deficit in 2011 and unemployment over 9%, Gov. John Kasich and the state legislature have since balanced the state budget without raising taxes, instituted common-sense regulatory reform, and even eliminated Ohio's estate tax. As a result, state-wide unemployment is down to around 7% —and companies across the country are taking notice.

According to Chief Executive Magazine's 2013 ranking of "Best and Worst States for Business," Ohio has improved more than any other state over the past year, jumping 13 places to 22nd in the nation from 35th in 2012. Still, a ranking of 22nd out of 50 states leaves plenty of room for improvement and begs the question: What do the top 10 states for business—Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Arizona, Virginia, South Carolina, Nevada and Georgia—have in common? All are right-to-work states. Ohio is not. Right-to-work laws, also known as workplace-freedom laws, make union membership a worker's choice rather than a mandatory condition of employment. Twenty four states—most recently, Ohio's neighbors Indiana and Michigan—have already enacted right-to-work laws. These 24 states have a significant competitive advantage when it comes to attracting jobs.

LANSING — The Republican-led Michigan House voted late Thursday to make hundreds of thousands more low-income adults eligible for Medicaid, sending the legislation across the Capitol to a chamber where its prospects are less certain. Lawmakers, on a bipartisan 76-31 vote shortly before 10 p.m., approved expanding Medicaid eligibility in 2014 to 320,000 adults making up to 133 percent of the poverty line. Nearly a half-million Michiganders could enroll by 2021 under the federal health care law, according to estimates from Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who supports providing the government-funded health insurance to more people.

“I believe it’s time for us to stop playing defense with something that is the law of the land and begin to play offense,” said Rep. Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, who was a staunch opponent of Medicaid expansion before changing his mind. “This is a very unique opportunity for us to negotiate from a position of strength to get reforms in what have been long-held entitlement reforms, real reforms that will help people and help taxpayers.” The measure heads to the Senate, where passage could prove more difficult because the chamber is dominated by Republicans, 26-12, while GOP control of the House is narrower. Under legislative rules, the House had to vote this week if the Senate is to approve the bill before lawmakers break for the summer in a week.

TALLAHASSEE -- Two House Republicans unwittingly revived hopes this month that lawmakers could compromise on a proposal to expand Medicaid. “Lawmakers say Medicaid expansion not dead,” read the headline in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, highlighting comments from Manatee County Reps. Greg Steube and Jim Boyd. But the reality is no different today than it was when the legislative session ended: Medicaid expansion, or some alternative, remains a long shot. “All I was simply trying to say was, we all agree it’s an important issue,” Boyd told the Herald/Times about his remarks at a June 6 luncheon. “We thought we had a pretty good plan.” That plan, championed by House Speaker Will Weatherford, included saying no to $51 billion in federal money over 10 years. Instead, House Republicans proposed using up to $300 million in state funding to subsidize basic coverages for about 130,000 people.

The Senate and Gov. Rick Scott rejected the idea out-of-hand, just as House Republicans swatted away any attempt to include federal money to expand health care to 1 million or more Floridians. Both Boyd and Steube told constituents they would be open to a special session to try to reach some agreement. But several House members told the Herald/Times that is unlikely unless Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, hears an offer he likes. House leaders insist it’s the federal government, not they, that needs to bend. They want the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to approve plans that qualify for some, but not all, of the Medicaid expansion funding. In particular, House Republicans are hesitant to provide subsidized health care to childless adults.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House passed an $8.8 billion state budget that includes Medicaid expansion early Thursday and puts Gov. Jan Brewer one Senate vote away from a huge political victory as she embraces a signature part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. A newly formed coalition of Democrats and GOP moderates forced the budget and Medicaid expansion proposal to move in the Arizona Senate and House during a day filled with debate. The Senate took a break after giving its initial approval Wednesday afternoon, while the House toiled into the night as conservative Republicans railed against the Medicaid proposal and accused members of their party who supported Brewer of being turncoats before taking a final vote that ended after 1:30 a.m. PDT.

The Senate is set to take up the budget and Brewer's contentious Medicaid proposal for its final vote sometime after 9 a.m. Thursday. Votes last month and Wednesday show it has more than enough votes to pass and a budget could be on Brewer's desk by the afternoon.The action means Brewer, a Republican, is close to securing a huge victory that will provide health insurance to an additional 300,000 poor Arizonans by embracing a key part of the Affordable Care Act. The expansion is optional under last year's Supreme Court decision upholding the law, and many Republican governors rejected it. Brewer was one of the most vocal governors opposing the Affordable Care Act but acknowledged in January that it was the law of the land and would help Arizonans get care, lower the amount of uncompensated care hospitals must absorb and help cut what she called a hidden health care tax people who buy insurance pay in higher premiums to cover others' uncompensated care.

The 2013-2015 state budget passed by the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) last week will reduce taxes and fees on Wisconsinites by $677 million according to a new memo from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB). Net taxes in the state will decrease by $684.9 million, a majority of which comes from Rep. Dale Kooyenga's (R-Brookfield) income tax cut. The income tax cut will provide $647.9 million in total tax relief. The Committee increased Governor Scott Walker's income tax cut by more than $300 million. The income tax cut passed by JFC will decrease rates for all brackets, reduce the amount of brackets from five to four, and change or delete about 20 tax credits.

On top of the income tax cut, the JFC budget will provide $30 million for a private school tuition tax credit, $8.5 million for individuals to carry forward operating loss deductions on their taxes up to 20 years, and $5.5 million to expand the veterans and surviving spouses tax credit. The Committee's budget also reduces taxes on small businesses by eliminating the economic development surcharge on farms, partnerships, and individuals, which will provide $16 million in tax relief.

Frustrated by what she deemed extensive delays in the House and Senate, Gov. Jan Brewer called a special session for the Legislature to pass a budget and her Medicaid expansion plan. The Legislature introduced 10 budget bills on Tuesday night, over the objections and protests of conservative lawmakers. Some denounced the governor’s decision to call a special session as unnecessary and antagonistic, while many avoided the floor and instead sat in the gallery. Others left their respective chambers in protest. “

This is just the first step. I think what we continue to see is there is a strong coalition, a strong bipartisan coalition in both the House and Senate to support the governor’s Medicaid plan. And I think over the next couple of days that will come to fruition,” Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said. Negotiations over the budget and Medicaid expansion had been stalled in the House since the Senate approved a budget on May 16. Benson said Brewer decided to call the special session on Tuesday afternoon after House Speaker Andy Tobin adjourned the House until Thursday, and Senate President Andy Biggs announced that he would convene the Senate on Wednesday and then adjourn until next week.

Concerned that a threat of litigation by six northeastern states could give the Environmental Protection Agency cover to regulate hydraulic fracturing at the federal level, attorneys general from 13 energy-producing states have sent a letter to the agency upholding state primacy in overseeing fracking.

Non-Shale States’ Threats
The letter, produced at the urging of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is further evidence of a growing rift between states with rich shale deposits of oil and natural gas, on the one hand, and the Obama administration and predominantly northeastern states, on the other. Pruitt was joined in the letter by his counterparts from Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Wyoming, and West Virginia.

The Arizona Senate has reversed course and approved an expansion of a school voucher program that allows students to use public funds to attend a private school. SB1363 failed on a 15-14 vote Thursday because it lacked accountability standards but was brought up for a second vote Thursday night and passed 16-13. Democratic Sen. Barbara McGuire changed her vote. The House previously approved the bill and it now goes to Gov. Jan Brewer for her signature. The program established in 2011 was also expanded last year. Only students with a disability, whose parents are in the military or who attend very low-performing schools qualify. The new bill adds kindergartners and increases funding for students who leave charter schools for private schools. The program is being challenged in court.

…After Katrina the Recovery School District (RSD) operations were expanded. Created in 2003, the RSD takes over failing or underperforming schools and can either close the school, directly operate it, or choose to charter it. Five New Orleans schools were already in the RSD when Katrina hit, but afterwards there was a total overhaul. 107 schools were handed over to the RSD and currently there are 112 schools under the RSD control. Before Katrina, New Orleans public schools were plagued by corruption, financial mismanagement, FBI probes, and poor academic performance. They were consistently among the worst schools in the state. For example, in 2005 Orleans Parish ranked 67 out of 68 Louisiana parishes for student achievement. 70% and 74% of 8th graders weren’t proficient in Math or English, respectively. Furthermore, 77% of students were attending failing schools. This year New Orleans RSD schools were first in student growth, increasing 6 percentage points in the number of students meeting the state proficiency goal. From 2000 to 2013 New Orleans schools have closed the student performance gap from 26 percentage points to just 6 percentage points.

Businesses as well as individuals will soon be able to take advantage of a tax credit for contributions to private-school scholarships. More money will be available for the credits under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. House File 625 expands the state’s existing school tuition organization tax credit, raising its annual cap to $12 million, from $8.75 million, and making it available to estates, trusts and businesses that are organized as partnerships, limited liability companies, s-corporations. Under current law, only individuals can receive the tax credit. The program provides a tax credit worth 65 percent of the amount a taxpayers gives to a student tuition organization that is set up to provide scholarships for students attending private schools. The measure had wide and bipartisan support, passing unanimously in both the House and Senate last month.

Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday afternoon that he would "stay true" to the agreement reached with lawmakers last week regarding the expansion of voucher schools across the state — specifically the cap on the number of students who will be allowed to participate in the program. "We worked with people in good faith on this, even some who didn't want any expansion," Walker told reporters after a Milwaukee speech to about 90 leaders of voucher schools and prospective voucher schools. "We were able to get to an agreement ... and I don't see any changes that would tie into that agreement."

As the Joint Finance Committee's proposal stands, 500 students would participate in the statewide voucher program in its first year, increasing to 1,000 students in the second year. The voucher program allows students from lower- and middle-income families to attend private school using state funds. "We worked to find a reason to believe that lawmakers in both the Senate and Assembly could support this," Walker said. "So as I've done in the past in other agreements, I'm going to stay true to that agreement." Walker also said that, in general, he would not announce any vetoes or non-vetoes because, theoretically, the Senate or Assembly could change any proposal before it reaches his desk. He continued on to say that people should remain confident that the cap aspect of the agreement will remain.

Facing a looming budget deadline and a bitterly divided Republican caucus, the state House today takes up Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to expand Medicaid along with a controversial abortion bill some say is designed to kill the governor’s top legislative priority. The House Appropriations Committee will hold what is expected to be a contentious hearing on the two bills, likely ending with the defeat of Senate Bill 1492, which outlines Brewer’s plan to broaden Medicaid eligibility under the federal health-care overhaul. 

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers supporting expansion is already planning ways to revive the Medicaid-expansion bill on the House floor, probably by tacking it onto another piece of legislation. Members of that group believe they have enough votes to pass Medicaid expansion, along with the Brewer-supported budget that cleared the Senate last month and included the Medicaid plan. For the public, today’s hearing is the last chance to weigh in at the Legislature on one of the most significant and divisive public-policy issues Arizona lawmakers have faced in decades, one that will have profound human, fiscal and political impact for years to come. Expanding Medicaid would provide health insurance for about 350,000 poor Arizonans and would be funded mostly by federal dollars and a so-called bed tax on hospitals.

COLUMBUS -- The Republican sponsors of three measures aimed at banning mandatory union membership and dues payments had their first -- and likely only -- committee hearing June 4. Reps. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) and Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) used their joint appearance before the Manufacturing and Workforce Development Committee to tout the potential economic benefits of right-to-work legislation. And Democrats on the panel used the hearing to warn of the potential consequences of such law changes. Neither side appeared to sway the other. Roegner and Maag introduced separate bills last month, one focused on private sector employees and one focused on their public sector counterparts.

The two also have offered a proposed constitutional amendment to be placed before voters on the issue. It's separate from another amendment being pursued by Tea Party and related groups, which are gathering petition signatures but likely will not have enough names to qualify for the fall ballot. On June 4, the two GOP lawmakers repeated what they and other proponents have said about right-to-work laws -- that such changes would make the state more competitive and attractive to businesses and help Ohio keep pace with two dozen other states, including bordering Indiana and Michigan, that have comparable laws already in place

WASHINGTON — After seven months of steadily building momentum, the push for a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system enters its most crucial phase this week in the Senate, where Republicans remain divided over how much to cooperate with President Obama as they try to repair their party’s standing among Hispanic voters. Republican leaders are betting that passage of an 867-page bipartisan overhaul will halt the embarrassing erosion of support among Latinos last year that helped return Mr. Obama to the Oval Office. But the party’s conservative activists are vowing opposition, dead set against anything linked to Mr. Obama and convinced that the immigration bill is nothing more than amnesty for lawbreakers.

That intraparty clash will play out for the next three weeks on the Senate floor, as Republican supporters of the bill — aided behind the scenes by the Obama administration — seek modest changes that they hope will secure broad support among both parties. Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, announced on Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she would support the immigration bill, calling it a “thoughtful bipartisan solution to a tough problem.”

More and more, the chances that an expansion of Ohio’s Medicaid program will appear in the state budget appear to be less and less. But the debate is far from over. While they hedge that there are no guarantees, legislators, lobbyists and the administration, continue to talk with optimism that something will be done to provide health coverage for the working poor. The form that could take is uncertain. But legislators in both the Republican-controlled House and the Senate say something could be accomplished before summer. Whatever that ends up being, it seems likely it will not be billed as an expansion of Medicaid, but rather as Medicaid “reform.”

“My expectation all along is that we’re going to find an opportunity to do Medicaid reform,” Senate President Keith Faber, a Republican from Celina, said after the Senate approved its version of the state budget Thursday -- legislation that did not include the Medicaid expansion proposed by Republican Gov. John Kasich. “What that entails, I’m not sure,” Faber said. “Whether it’s quote, unquote, expansion, as some have called it, I’m pretty sure it won’t be. But does [the change] allow more people to be covered at less cost? I’m pretty sure it will be.” But finding the right mix of elements is a tricky proposition. Provisions that might gain support from wary conservatives who steadfastly oppose the federal health care law that includes the expansion must also satisfy Washington if Ohio is to take advantage of promised federal funding for expansion.

New Jersey is making good progress in implementing goals set as part of its federal Race to the Top plan but has had some challenges, according to a report on the first year of implementation in 2012 issued Friday. But some state legislators are asking to postpone full implementation of new teacher-evaluation systems for another year while new curricula and tests linked to RTTT and national Common Core Standards are developed. The report by the U.S. Department of Education said New Jersey already had begun some reform plans before getting the federal grant, which gave the state a head start on the process. The state has received $37.8 million in federal RTTT Phase 3 funds.

Raleigh, N.C. — State House lawmakers agreed Friday to set a March 2015 date for North Carolina to begin issuing permits for shale gas mining, or "fracking." However, the House's version of Senate Bill 76 is significantly more cautious than the Senate's. The Senate's original "fast-track" version would have allowed fracking to begin on March 1, 2015, without legislative approval. The House version allows the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue permits on that date but says lawmakers must approve the state's regulatory framework before those permits would be considered valid. "It was very important for us to put that in there, because in 2011, we promised this House floor it would come back before this body," said Rep. Mike Stone, R-Lee. The House version also would not allow the injection of fracking waste fluid into the ground in North Carolina and would allow DENR to regulate and fine land agents who use misleading or unethical practices to convince property owners to sign leases.

Critics said the new rules amounted to an infringement on free speech and targeting of groups that Schneiderman disagreed with.The head of the conservative State Government Leadership Foundation — a 501(c)4 group — blasted the decision in a Wednesday statement.“Schneiderman is silencing the voices of the people he does not agree with and illegally targeting organizations that are engaging in constitutionally protected conduct as determined by our nation’s highest court,” said executive director Chris Jankowski in a statement. “This is yet another example of nonprofits being targeted by some of our government’s most powerful arms. These actions by the attorney general stifle the First Amendment rights of those who dare to disagree with him,” Jankowski said.