Issue 7 -- December 3rd, 2003
ALICE offers the best high road progressive practices in state and local legislation.
High Road: San Francisco Passes $8.50 Minimum Wage
San Francisco Voters support a living wage. By a 60% to 40% margin, voters approved an $8.50 citywide minimum wage, raising pay for 54,000 low-income workers and putting an estimated $45 million per year back into the San Francisco economy. San Fran joins Santa Fe and New Orleans in recently approving minimum wage increases. For more information, visit ACORN.
Low Road: Connecticut Tax Breaks Getting Second Look
Last
week $40 million was pledged to a liquor company to move a corporate
headquarters from Stamford
to Norwalk. "It's a game of checkers and we're really just reshuffling
the
pieces, and the taxpayers are being asked to pick up the tab," state Sen.
Andrew
McDonald (D-Stamford) told The Hartford Courant. "And frankly, in
very
tough economic times, cracking open the cookie jar for such a rich project
is
hard for many people to understand."
Record-Journal.
Trailblazers
Michigan: Legislation would keep 'e-waste' out of state's landfills. Lansing State Journal.
Rep. Chris Kolb, D-Ann Arbor, wants to keep lead - plus smaller amounts of mercury, cadmium and other toxic metals - from polluting the land, air and water.
New Jersey: Car legislation would set tougher pollution limits. The Philadelphia Inquirer
The bill would require dealers to offer an increasing percentage of zero-emission or hybrid vehicles, including 4 percent of their sales fleet by 2006 and 10 percent by 2012.
Illinois: Government overhauls ethics laws. CNN.com
Illinois could be a national leader in some areas, including Internet disclosure of lobbyist expenses and officials' financial interests. The legislation, passed and soon to be signed into law, requires groups to disclose all money spent on political ads.
Pennsylvania: Governor to sign bill to ease costs for prescriptions. The Philadelphia Inquirer
The bill will widen eligibility for the state program Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly and a companion program called PACEN.
Indiana: Senate balks at contract bill. The Indianapolis Star
A Plan to ensure only U.S. citizens get job for state projects is called excessive.
Arizona: High on Hydrogen. The Arizona Republic
Vast arrays of solar panels could generate electricity to crack hydrogen from water, garbage or natural gas, enabling the state to produce enough fuel for its own vehicles and other states.
New York: Coverage of contraceptives. Times Union
The controversial Women's Health and Wellness Act, passed last year, requires employers to pay for health insurance that includes birth control. The law is not unconstitutional, according to a judge who rejected efforts of 10 religious groups to block it.
US: State Drug Reimportation
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced "Illinois will remove from its preferred drug lists any brand-name drugs made by companies that threaten to limit supplies to Canada, if safe equivalents are available." Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced he will move forward to establish an on-line service to buy prescription drugs over the Internet.
State News
US: Rendell pushes Internet tax compromise. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
State officials urged Congress to extend the moratorium on Internet taxes without devastating the already-cash-strapped budgets of states and localities. Under the measure, the 5-year-old moratorium on Internet taxes -- which expired Nov. 1 -- would be extended two years.
US:
State anti-spam laws to get canned. Stateline.org.
Congress is poised to delete 36 state anti-spam laws. Early next month,
the
U.S. House and Senate are expected to give final approval to a new federal
law
that will preempt state laws aimed at curbing unwanted e-mail.
Alabama: Lawmakers propose tax increase. The Birmingham News
Elected officials will likely propose raising taxes by as much as $600 million a year, legislative leaders said last week. The state has suspended jury trials to save money and is now set to release 5,000-6,000 prisoners early, unable to pay to keep them in bulging prisons.
Missouri: Whistleblower describes tax credit scam. News Tribune
Potential legislation may make programs more accountable, both to prevent abuse and fraud, and ensure the state gets its money's worth from the programs.
Michigan: State cuts hurt poorest. Lansing State Journal
Leaders of the Salvation Army in Michigan said they have absorbed $2 million in governmental cuts and warned that more cuts could shred the state's safety net.
California: Child Advocates Angered. Contra Costa Times
Schwarzenegger's plan to freeze the state's Healthy Families – a program that provides low-cost health insurance for children – has child advocates outraged. Currently, there are "about 300,000 children" on the waiting list for the program.
High Road Reports
The Jobs Are Back in Town: Urban Smart Growth and Construction Employment: Job-related arguments against smart growth are dead wrong. Rather than diminishing the number of construction jobs, smart growth is creating employment for workers who build residential and commercial structures as well as transportation infrastructure.
Low Pay, High Risk: State Models for Advancing Immigrant Workers' Rights. The Immigrant Worker Project Report reviews creative campaigns undertaken to advance immigrant workers' rights in five areas: language access, drivers' licenses, confidentiality, post-Hoffman Plastics issues and workers' compensation. Click here for more.
For a better understanding of welfare issues and the pending Temporary Assistance for Needy Families reauthorization, check out EPI's Welfare Issue Guide, a downloadable online resource that includes data, fact sheets, and links to other sources of information on this issue.
State Budget Deficits Continue to Threaten Public Services. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a new report showing states face large budget shortfalls for state fiscal year 2005, exceeding $40 billion nationwide.
NCSL has summarized state election reform bill, and made the database searchable by state, category, years, or in your own search terms. To see election reform in 2003, click here.
The Social Health of the States presents a different view: How each state is doing with regard
to the social health of its citizens. To see how Maine received 6 A's, 4 B's, 2 C's and 4 D's, check out the Boston Globe.
A report by the United Auto Workers titled "States in Crisis" lays part of the blame on the federal government for not ponying up funding for federally mandated, expensive new programs "such as President Bush's 'No Child Left Behind' education act, the new election reform law, Medicaid, welfare and homeland security."
The mission of ALICE is to offer best practices in high-wage, low-waste, worker-friendly, publicly-accountable state and local policy. Our website serves as a collaborative clearinghouse for state elected officials, activists, organizations and issue experts who want a map and a vehicle to take the high road. If you have innovative state legislation you like to share with the rest of the country, send it to Andy Gussert, ALICE National Director, care of andy@highroadnow.org
