State Government
Leadership Foundation

Senators moved forward Wednesday on promoting renewable energies in the state with a bill that would give incentives to companies -- initially a Kansas wind energy company -- to develop in rural Nebraska. Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop said he prioritized the bill (LB104) to remove a barrier to the development and export of wind energy in Nebraska. "It is going to be a boon for rural Nebraska," he said. "You can't bring more money and more development to rural Nebraska by any other way than the development of wind farms."

The bill advanced to a second round of debate on a 30-0 vote. Nebraska has an opportunity to see $300 million to $400 million of investment yet this year, Lathrop said. It is a preferred investment location for TradeWind Energy of Lenexa, Kan., but the company needs LB104 to get to the finish line, said Executive Vice President Frank Costanza. It has been developing the Rattlesnake Creek Wind project in Dixon County, the first export project in Nebraska, for more than two years.

JEFFERSON CITY • Missourians would pay higher sales taxes and lower state income taxes under a bill passed by the House on Wednesday. The sponsor, Rep. Andrew Koenig, R-St. Louis County, said the package of tax changes would help Missouri compete with states like Oklahoma and Kansas, which have reduced their income tax rates. “This bill would move our state forward,” he said. “If we want Missouri to remain competitive we need to reduce our income tax.”

Opponents said the bill would cost state coffers hundreds of millions of dollars, spurring budget cuts when the state is unable to adequately fund public schools and other services now. “I’m pretty sure most Mizzou alums would rather lead than follow any state, especially Kansas,” said Rep. Courtney Curtis, D-Berkeley. The House passed the bill on a vote of 90-68, which was far less than the 109-vote majority needed to override a veto of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. The governor has criticized an earlier version of the bill, saying it would favor corporations and hurt working families and seniors on fixed incomes.

Even within the same school, lower-achieving students often are taught by less-experienced teachers, as well as by teachers who received their degrees from less-competitive colleges, according to a new study by researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the World Bank. The study, using data from one of the nation's largest school districts, also shows that student class assignments vary within schools by a teacher's gender and race. In a paper published in this month's issue of Sociology of Education, the researchers present the results of a comprehensive analysis of teacher assignments in the nation's fourth-largest school district, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Their findings identify trends that may contribute to teacher turnover and achievement gaps nationwide.

Previous research indicates that high-quality teachers can significantly improve education outcomes for students. However, not all students have equal access to the best teachers. "It is well-known that teachers systematically sort across schools, disadvantaging low-income, minority and low-achieving students," said Demetra Kalogrides, a research associate at the Graduate School of Education's Center for Education Policy Analysis and one of the study's three authors. "Our findings are novel because they address the assignment of teachers to classes within schools. We cannot assume that teacher sorting stops at the school doors." The authors note that more research needs to be done to see whether such patterns exist within schools across the country. The assignment of teachers to students is the result of a complex process, involving school leaders, teachers and parents. While principals are constrained by teachers' qualifications – not all high school teachers, for instance, can teach physics – they also may use their authority to reward certain teachers with the more desirable assignments or to appease teachers who are instrumental to school operations.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Republican senators have made it clear that there will be no Medicaid expansion in Missouri this session. The Republican-led Senate voted down a Democratic attempt Monday night to insert $890 million of federal funds into Missouri’s budget to expand Medicaid eligibility to an estimated 260,000 lower-income adults.

The vote was just the latest in a series of similar defeats in the Missouri Legislature for the Medicaid expansion backed by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon and called for under President Barack Obama’s health care law. But this vote carried a bit more weight. That’s because it ensured that neither the Senate nor the House version of the budget includes the Medicaid expansion. Under legislative rules, negotiators cannot insert money into the final budget that wasn’t in either chamber’s plan.

As the federal Affordable Care Act begins to take effect, ever-fewer California employers are offering medical insurance to their workers, according to an annual survey by the California Healthcare Foundation. From 2002 to 2012, the proportion of employers offering such coverage declined from 71 percent to 60 percent. Meanwhile, the costs of health care insurance have risen by just under 170 percent since 2002, more than five times the overall inflation rate. The average premium for single-person coverage was $545 per month in 2012, substantially more than the national average of $468, while family coverage cost an average of $1,386 in California and $1,312 nationally, the foundation said.

The survey also found that larger employers with high proportions of full-time workers were most likely to offer health insurance to workers and that deductibles tended to be much higher among small employers than among large ones. Finally, 21 percent of employers reported that they had increased the share of insurance costs borne by employees during the preceding year, while 17 percent either reduced workers' costs or absorbed increases.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington state Senate has passed a measure that would help fund K-12 education by lowering the state's debt limit and eliminating voter-approved cost-of-living raises for schoolteachers. Bill supporters say it would help the state with its obligation to meet a Washington Supreme Court demand that it fully fund K-12 education, and that it would do so without raising taxes. Opponents object to moving hundreds of millions of dollars from the capital budget to go toward funding education, asserting that it sacrifices construction jobs and projects in the effort to pay for schools. The measure passed Tuesday by a 25-23 vote and heads next to the Democratic-controlled House, where a majority favors raising tax revenues to help boost education funding.

AUSTIN — Public education would get more than $2 billion above what's already been included in legislative budget proposals under a deal backed unanimously Tuesday by Texas senators, who also voted to put $4.9 billion into water and transportation. The Texas Senate voted 31-0 for Senate Joint Resolution 1 to take $5.7 billion from the rainy day fund and put $2.9 billion into transportation, $2 billion into water and $800 million into public education. In addition, senators said new figures showing increases in local property tax revenue would free $1.4 billion in state funds that they expect to put back into public schools.

Schools are financed through state aid, local property tax revenue and some federal money. When property values increase, yielding more local tax revenue, the state has to put less money into schools. Senators said they would put the savings realized from the last property valuation increase back into schools. “This is going to allow us to put a substantial amount of new money into public education,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.

SJR 1 by Williams also will require approval by two-thirds of the Texas House to be placed on a statewide ballot for voter consideration. The rainy day fund is projected to have $11.8 billion at the end of this fiscal period if left untapped. The funding would be a boost for public education, which has been a focal point of this legislative session after lawmakers two years ago cut $5.4 billion from what schools otherwise would have expected.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina's economy is improving slowly and steadily, the legislature's chief economist said Tuesday, but April revenue figures that are needed to prepare the two-year state budget are more uncertain than in past years due to federal and state tax changes. State government revenues through March, or three-quarters of the fiscal year, are $110 million above the targeted amount needed to carry out the current year's $20.2 billion budget, according to a presentation for House and Senate finance committee members. Income tax collections are 1.5 percent ahead of expectations, while tax collections are below the target by a nearly identical percentage, the report from economist Barry Boardman said.

Boardman held out the possibility of a large swing in either direction as Department of Revenue workers keep opening tax return envelopes. April 15 was the due date for 2012 tax payments and for companies and individuals to make estimated payments for the first three months of 2013. The "April surprise" is important because an unexpected surplus would give legislators more money to spend in the budget now being drawn up for July 1 through mid-2015. A shortfall would mean less money is available. April usually brings in more than $3 billion in tax collections, or twice as much any other month, Boardman said. Boardman told legislators the April 15 collections are particularly volatile this year because of a 2011 law that allows business owners to exempt their first $50,000 of net income from income taxes. He said it's also unclear how much taxpayers shifted their incomes to the 2012 calendar year in December to avoid tax increases and changes approved by Congress in early 2013.

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie tonight said he is poised to unveil a plan to reform the state worker's compensation system because neither workers nor employers are following the rules. “We’re going to be coming up with a package of proposals that’s going to work both sides of that,” Christie told a caller on his monthly NJ 101.5 FM radio show tonight.

“The employers who may not be stepping up and meeting their obligations and also the employees who are committing fraud on the worker’s comp system," he said. The Republican governor said his office and the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development have been working to address problems in the system.

A caller who identified himself as David from Forked River asked Christie: “Is there a way to change the way the workers comp guidelines are if an employer does not provide treatment and benefits they way they’re supposed to under law?” Christie advised him to look for reform proposals soon.

WASHINGTON — Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as “Obamacare.” It could mean exposing businesses to Internal Revenue Service penalties and leaving low-income citizens unable to afford coverage even as legal immigrants get financial aid for their premiums. For the poorest people, it could virtually guarantee they remain uninsured and dependent on the emergency room at local hospitals that already face federal cutbacks.

Concern about such consequences helped forge a deal in Arkansas last week. The Republican-controlled Legislature endorsed a plan by Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe to accept additional Medicaid money under the federal law, but use the new dollars to buy private insurance for eligible residents. One of the main arguments for the private option was that it would help businesses avoid tax penalties. The Obama administration hasn’t signed off on the Arkansas deal, and it’s unclear how many other states will use it as a model. But it reflects a pragmatic streak in American politics that’s still the exception in the polarized health care debate.

EAST LANSING — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder kicked off an education summit today by saying the system for preparing students for the workplace – both at the state level and nationally – is broken. But Snyder made no reference in his opening remarks at the Governor’s Education Summit to a growing controversy over an education reform group headed by a top Snyder official. “The world has changed,” Snyder told business people and educators at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. “The world is much more demanding in terms of specifying what you need to get a position,” he said. “We’ve built a system that doesn’t work anymore in terms of helping people be successful.” It’s the 18th summit since former Republican Gov. John Engler launched the annual event. The goal this year is to build on an oft-stated Snyder goal of improving links between business and educators to help assure a better match between the skills possessed by graduates and those in demand in the marketplace.

LITTLE ROCK — Teamwork, not only between the state Senate and House but also between the Legislature and the governor’s office, were key in getting the health care expansion plan adopted during the legislative session that is scheduled to recess on Tuesday. Passage of the plan defied expectations of unyielding Republican opposition to any form of health care expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act. It also stood in stark contrast to gridlock in Washington.

Last fall, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe said he supported expanding Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act. The law proposed expanding state Medicaid rolls to include everyone earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level not currently on Medicaid — an estimated 250,000 people in Arkansas. Beebe, a 20-year veteran of the state Senate who gain a reputation for being a legislative leaders and consensus builder, argued that federal health reform was going to happen and millions of taxpayer dollars could be spend on improving care for needy Arkansans or shipped out of state to help others. The federal government would pay the full cost of the expansion for the first three years, after which the state’s share of the cost would increase gradually to 10 percent.

The home of the Hollywood liberals is the nation’s newest battleground on fracking. California is the latest state to embark on a fierce debate over whether and how to regulate the oil- and gas-extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing — a controversy already roiling politics in rural Pennsylvania and inspiring an endless soap opera in New York state.

But California could provide an even bigger stage for the drama: It’s not only the most populous U.S. state but also a Democratic stronghold, known for its strict air pollution regulations and some of the world’s most advanced green energy projects. And industry supporters have drawn encouragement from recent comments by Gov. Jerry Brown, who has expressed openness to the technology while speaking about the “extraordinary” potential of the state’s fossil fuel deposits. This would be the first state that many view as being a strong Democratic state and fairly progressive that would potentially move forward with the activity on a large scale,” said John Krohn of the industry campaign Energy in Depth. “If and when that happens, it will be a lot harder to paint the practice as an extreme process that risks the health and safety of individuals.”

TALLAHASSEE -- The House and the Senate aligned their position on teacher pay raises Sunday, putting the Florida Legislature on a collision course with Gov. Rick Scott. The two chambers have agreed to spend $480 million on salary increases for educators — the same figure Scott has in his budget. The key difference: the Senate and the House are insisting on performance-based raises, while Scott is championing $2,500 across-the-board increases for every classroom teacher in Florida.

The governor is holding firm on his proposal, one of his top priorities for this year’s legislative session, which ends in early May. House and Senate leaders said they didn’t see Scott’s plan becoming reality. "The Governor has priorities. The Legislature has priorities," said Scott spokeswoman Melissa Sellers late Sunday. "There's still enough time left to determine how successful this session will be for all of us." Said House Education Appropriations Chairman Erik Fresen, R-Miami, earlier in the day: "Regardless of how you look at it, [teacher raises] will have a methodology that ties the increases to merit," said House Education Appropriations Chairman Erik Fresen, R-Miami.

Reaching consensus didn’t come easily for the two chambers. Initially, the House had wanted to spend $676 million and then adjusted the number to $628 million late last week. But on Sunday the lower chamber decided that $480 million would be OK. There had also been some discrepancies over how much flexibility the districts ought to have with the cash. The House wanted to give school systems more freedom than the Senate. But Fresen said the House and Senate were close to reaching consensus on that front, too.

HELENA – Come 2014, it’s up to voters to decide the fate of Montana’s primary election system and late voter registration date. The Montana House and Senate cleared two referendums last week that could change the state’s voting laws. The measures passed largely along party lines, with Republicans voting in favor. Senate bills 408 and 405 are the same proposals that led Senate Democrats to pound on their desks and shout at the Republican Senate president earlier this month as they sought to halt legislation’s passage.

The first of those measures, SB 408, would establish a “top-two” primary in Montana elections. Under such a system, voters would not have to choose which party’s primary ballot to fill out; rather, they would receive a single ballot and could vote for candidates from any party. The two people receiving the most votes — regardless of party affiliation — would advance to the general election. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Alan Olson, R-Roundup, said his proposal ensures that the winning candidate receives most of a district’s overall vote. “I won my seat with 42 percent of the vote,” he told the House State Administration Committee. “So that means that 58 percent of the people who voted didn’t vote for me. I kind of wonder sometimes if that’s fair.” In a similar sentiment, Jeff Laszloffy of Laurel, a former state legislator and anti-abortion activist, stressed that elected officials must reflect the people they represent.

For 35 years, Michigan law has protected health care providers who refuse to perform an abortion on moral or religious grounds. Hospitals and clinics can’t be sued. Doctors and nurses can’t lose their jobs for objecting to terminating a pregnancy. Legislation that could be voted on as early as this week in the Republican-led Legislature would extend the same legal protections for any medical service such as providing contraception or medical marijuana, or taking someone off life support. Employers and health insurers — not just medical providers — also could opt out of paying for services as a matter of conscience.

Supporters say the legislation protects religious freedom and is needed particularly in the wake of the federal health care law mandating employer-provided birth control in their health plans. Opponents counter that the bill is an overreach that wrongly lets health workers and organizations impose their beliefs on patients, putting their treatment at risk. “We feel like it’s the right balance between patient care and the rights of individuals who work in that field to have a clear conscience,” said Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, sponsor of the bill pending on the Senate floor.

Call it Alaska’s great gamble. The state will forgo billions of dollars in tax revenue in hopes of reversing sour economic fortunes. Alaska, whose economy runs almost solely on oil, has fallen from its perch as the nation’s oil king at a time when energy production is surging across the lower 48 states, fueling budget surpluses in North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. This new boom puts the U.S. on track to become the world’s largest oil producer and a net exporter of natural gas by 2020.

For a variety of reasons, Alaska is losing ground in this expansion. On the last day of its session this week, Alaska’s Republican-led legislature approved a massive tax cut for top oil producers that supporters say will jumpstart a production lag threatening the state’s long-term ability to provide services. It was a major victory for GOP Gov. Sean Parnell, a former ConocoPhillips lobbyist who has spent years trying to overhaul a progressive tax championed by former Gov. Sarah Palin in 2007 at a time when few Americans recognized her outside of the state.

Arizona’s economy would get a shot of adrenaline from the $4.5 billion in border-security spending in the immigration bill introduced Wednesday in the Senate, state business leaders say. At the same time, the further militarization of the border in the bill, along with what one federal public defender called a “zero-tolerance policy” against border crossers, raises red flags for civil-rights and immigrant-advocacy groups.

The bill would fund more fences, more Border Patrol agents, more drones and more surveillance technology along the whole Southwest border, but those efforts would focus on what it terms the three “high risk” sectors (out of nine) now seeing the most apprehensions of undocumented migrants: the Tucson Sector and the Rio Grande and Laredo sectors in Texas. As a result, southeastern Arizona would see new jobs and new construction tied to tighter security. “It’s a huge economic plus for Arizona,” said Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “How much of an effect is tough to say, but the commitments to secure the Tucson Sector come with a lot of new dollars, and those dollars will wind up in the southern Arizona economy.”

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina House is set to debate a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. The measure hits the House Elections Committee Wednesday after bill architects changed the proposal to allow for free state-issued IDs for all. The first possible vote also comes amid the release of new State Board of Elections data cutting by nearly half previous projections that 612,000 voters lack identification. Opponents argue any barrier to voting is unconstitutional and the problem of fraud at the polls is virtually non-existent. Some critics say the recent change allowing for free IDs without claiming financial hardship is designed to help the bill clear court battles, and the new projections don’t justify any new restrictions.

A former state health commissioner joined Oklahoma House Democrats on Monday in calling on GOP Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican legislative leaders to expand access to Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor. “This is a moral and ethical issue,” said Dr. Mike Crutcher, who served as state health commissioner from 2003 until 2009.“It is the morally and ethically right thing to do — to strive to provide health care to as many as Oklahomans as is absolutely possible,” said Crutcher, who is director of medical quality at Variety Care, a nonprofit community health center that provides health care to low-income families. “Other people in the world do it. Other states in the Union do it, and we should be able to do it also.”

Fallin decided last year not to expand Medicaid coverage, saying it would be unaffordable, costing the state of Oklahoma up to $475 million between now and 2020, and would also further Oklahoma's reliance on federal money that may or may not be available because of federal fiscal problems. The federal Affordable Care Act originally required that states, beginning in January, expand Medicaid to cover people younger than 65 with income below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. But in June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a part of the health care law that penalized states for not expanding Medicare, which meant states could decide whether to participate.

House Democrats plan to offer an amendment today to reinstate Gov. John Kasich’s Medicaid-expansion proposal, in hopes that they will draw a few Republican votes on the 31-member Finance Committee. Rep. John Patrick Carney, D-Columbus, said he thinks the proposal could get enough votes to pass the committee, which has 11 Democrats and 20 Republicans. He also said a majority of the House and Senate would approve a stand-alone Medicaid bill, whether an outright expansion or some type of waiver that allows for federal money to purchase private insurance — assuming that such a hybrid plan is backed by human-services experts.

“The key is whether the 275,000 additional lives would be covered, and the entire half-million folks who are planning to come onto Medicaid as a result of the woodwork effect, that they are able to get the full complement of benefits whether it’s the traditional approach versus (a hybrid),” Carney said. The “woodwork effect” is expected when the federal Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people obtain health insurance takes effect, and those who are eligible for Medicaid but not yet signed up will actually enroll. House Republicans last week stripped Kasich’s proposed Medicaid expansion from his two-year budget bill. The plan would have covered people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, bringing in about$13 billion in federal money over seven years under the federal health-care law.

Missouri may be headed in the same direction as Kansas, at least when it comes to tax policy. Separate bills passed the Missouri House and Senate that would slash individual income taxes on business income by half over the next five years. Kansas voted last year to exempt nonwage income from single proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability corporations, and S corporations from state income taxes and lower the top tax rate to 4.9 percent.

Missouri Senate Bill 26 would reduce individual income taxes to 5.25 percent by 2018 and increase personal exemption from $2,100 to $4,100 for people with incomes less than $20,000. It also would allow taxpayers to deduct 10 percent of business income in 2014, rising to 50 percent of business income by 2017. Deductions would vary for people who are shareholders in S corporations or are partners in partnerships, based on how much of the corporation or partnership they own.

The Iowa House passed legislation Tuesday funding the state’s economic development functions for the coming year, clearing the way for House-Senate negotiations over that aspect of the budget. The $45 million budget includes funding for the state Economic Development Authority, Workforce Development and the Department of Cultural Affairs, among other programs. That figure, developed by the chamber’s Republican majority, is substantially less than what the Democrat-led Senate approved.

The Senate passed the budget at $78.5 million. Republican leaders called their budget the more fiscally responsible, while noting it still represents a more than 19 percent increase over current spending. “I don’t view this as a budget that’s just terribly constrained,” said Rep. Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada and chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that crafted the budget. “I think we’ve been able to find a way to fund a lot of the programs that really are working well here in the state.” One big difference in the House and Senate versions is an appropriation for incentives under the state’s High Quality Jobs program. Gov. Terry Branstad initially budgeted $19 million, which the Senate dialed back to $18 million. The House version provides no money at all.

LITTLE ROCK — The failure of tort reform measures to gain much traction among lawmakers this session will leave unresolved a legislative response to a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down part of a 2003 law meant to limit civil lawsuits and damage awards. Now some advocates for action to address the decree say they may have to depend on the high court itself for change.

In 2012, the the state Supreme Court struck down a provision of the 2003 tort reform law that limited who could testify as an expert witness in medical malpractice cases. The decision came on the heals of a 2011 ruling in which the court had stricken provisions in the law that capped punitive damage awards in civil cases. This year, champions of tort reform entered the regular session with the idea of putting in the state constitution parts of the state law that the high court said did not meet constitutional muster. But last week, a joint legislative committee considering proposed constitutional amendments to recommend for referral to the 2014 general election ballot passed over a pair of tort reform proposals.

Senate Joint Resolution 2 by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, would have required that a person who files a lawsuit deemed to be frivolous pay the other party’s attorney fees; that an expert witness in a medical malpractice lawsuit be trained in the same or similar discipline as the person on trial or have similar education and experience; and that an attorney who files a medical malpractice suit file a “certificate of good faith” stating that a medical expert is ready to testify that medical malpractice occurred.

JUNEAU — The Alaska Legislature, on the last scheduled day of session Sunday, passed a multibillion-dollar oil tax cut in the hopes it will lead to more production. The 12-8 Senate vote came in spite of fears that the impacts of SB21 aren’t well understood and will devastate Alaska’s budget. “It just doesn’t add up, plain and simple,” Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said. The Senate had the option of agreeing to changes made in the House or taking the bill to conference committee for additional work. The House passed its version of the bill about 13 hours earlier, just after 2 a.m. Sunday.

Voting against concurrence were Sens. Dennis Egan, Johnny Ellis, Hollis French, Berta Gardner, Lyman Hoffman, Stedman, Gary Stevens and Bill Wielechowski. The bill’s passage is a huge victor for Gov. Sean Parnell and Republicans who wrested control of the Senate from a bipartisan coalition in last year’s elections. Parnell had labeled the coalition-controlled chamber a “do nothing” Senate for not approving tax cuts that he believed were needed to boost oil production, and oil taxes became a major theme in a number of legislative races last year. The House has been under Republican control throughout Parnell’s tenure.