http://www.progressivestates.org/dispatch Thursday, June 28, 2007Nation's Most Comprehensive Health Plan Approved in Wisconsin SenateConference Call: How States are Taking the Lead
Progressive States Network has just released a first of its kind report, Taking the Lead: An Interim Report on State Legislative Successes in Enacting Progressive Policy. Today we will be hosting a conference call to discuss the best policies of this year’s state legislative sessions as highlighted in Taking the Lead, with the goal of showing that states are setting the path to a more progressive America and how these individual legislative achievements can be reproduced in other states. Maryland Delegate Tom Hucker, Colorado Representative Morgan Carroll, and New Mexico Representative Mimi Stewart will speak about the progressive successes of their states -- including Maryland’s first-in-the-nation living wage law, Colorado’s health care and electoral reform measures, and New Mexico's energy and environmental advances -- and share how those victories were achieved.
In Today's Dispatch:
Nation's Most Comprehensive Health Plan Approved in Wisconsin Senate
In perhaps the boldest move on health care reform ever in a state, Wisconsin Senate leaders included in the state budget a plan ensuring health care coverage for all residents. The plan, called Healthy Wisconsin, would provide comprehensive coverage and preserve freedom of choice of doctors for all residents who are under age 65 and don't qualify for expanded Medicaid programs. Under the plan, there would be no monthly premiums and only minimal co-pays and low annual deductibles. Healthy Wisconsin would be financed with a simple payroll tax paid by employees (2-4% of social security wages) and employers (9-12% of wages). Similarly, sole proprietors would pay 10% of Social Security wages and unemployed individuals not eligible for public programs would pay 10% of the adjusted gross income. To ensure affordability for low-income residents, Healthy Wisconsin expands BadgerCare, the state's Medicaid program, to 300% of income for families and to 200% for childless adults.
Comprehensive Benefits and Maximum Choice: The benefit plan would preserve residents' freedom to choose providers and mirror the state employees' and legislators' own health plan. It is fee-for-service and would guarantee coverage for comprehensive care, including prescription drugs, mental health parity, free preventive care, preventive dental care for children, and incentives to choose high quality providers and manage chronic illnesses like diabetes. Cost-sharing would include a $20 co-pay for non-preventive care services, annual deductibles of $300 per individual adult and $600 per family, Rx co-pays from $5 to $40 after the deductible, and maximum out-of-pocket expenses of $2,000 per individual adult and $3,000 per family. Political Prospects: While the plan faces an uncertain future in the face of right-wing leadership in the Assembly, its inclusion in the Senate's budget is a huge step for reform and ensures the plan will be debated on its merits. Senate leaders and advocates are pledging a campaign swing across the state to educate the public and build support for the program. Already some business executives are speaking out in favor of the plan. One human resources director of an 800-employee firm estimated that the plan would save his company $4.4 million a year on employee health care. If Senate leaders can get Healthy Wisconsin through budget negotiations intact, it would be hands down the boldest and most comprehensive health care reform from any state.
Green Jobs Corps in Oakland, CA
Oakland's City Council unanimously approved allocating $250,000 as seed money to create the nation's first Green Jobs Corps. Oakland's Green Jobs Corp will provide complete job training for residents that have had barriers to employment. The job training includes case managements skills and vocational training in areas such as bio-fuels manufacturing and solar panel installation. Participants in the program finish with paid internships in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The program was envisioned by the Oakland Apollo Alliance and will eventually recruit green businesses to settle in Oakland to build links between businesses and job training programs-- a move that not only provides good jobs but is a huge boost to Oakland's economy.
The blue-green marriage has long been promoted by the Apollo Alliance, who point to the benefits that arise when labor and environmentalists work together. The drain of manufacturing jobs has left a void in our economy and jobs tied to renewable energy development can fill that void. The Oakland example is part of a larger trend; Sen. Bernie Sanders successfully pushed an amendment to the Energy Savings Act of 2007 that allots $100 million to train workers in green collar jobs, of which up to $40 million will go for state training partnership programs.
Tax Investigation of Wal-Mart in New Mexico
When the Wall Street Journal revealed that Wal-Mart was using investment vehicles, Real Estate Investment Trusts, to "rent" property to itself and evade billions of dollars in taxes, it sparked outrage in statehouses across the country. On the legislative front, New York and West Virginia joined eighteen other states in enacting combined reporting, a requirement that corporations file a joint tax return for all subsidiaries in a state to prevent the Wal-Mart kind of tax avoidance schemes. Other states still in session like North Carolina are debating introducing combined reporting as well. However, legislators in states like New Mexico that have finished their sessions are still pushing to stop the Wal-Mart tax abuse. The top leadership of both legislative chambers and nineteen of their colleagues have signed onto a letter asking their governor to investigate Wal-Mart and shut down the tax loophole administratively:
The reason states need such investigations is that in almost all states, companies don't have to publicly report how much corporate income tax they are paying. An exception is Wisconsin, where records show that Wal-Mart paid only $3 million in taxes on an estimated $852 million in Wisconsin profits between 2000 and 2003, a tax rate of only 0.35 percent. In related action, Maine's Governor John Baldacci signed the Informed Growth Act, LD 1810, the first law in the nation to require an economic impact analysis of big-box retail stores to assure that tax and other benefits generated by such stores balance out any subsidies or other tax subsidies used by companies building them. Research RoundupResearch Roundup
Two new studies document the progressive views of younger adults, promising a more progressive future for the country. The New Politics Institute released "The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation", which sketches a portrait of Americans born after 1978, as a 50-million voting block in 2008 that is civic-minded, politically-engaged and concerned about economic inequality, has a desire for a multilateral foreign policy, and holds a strong belief in government. Similarly, a New York Times/CBS/MTV poll finds young people more in favor of government-run health care, more open immigration, and legalization of gay marriage. A new report by the Integrated Benefits Institute shows that health care "market solutions" like increasing co-pays for prescription drugs often cost insurers and employers more due to less use of those drugs, resulting in later illness that often costs far more.
Responding to recent moves by the nuclear power industry to tout nuclear as
the solution to global warming, the Oxford Research
Group argues
in a new report that not only would building so many new nuclear plants be
logistically impossible, it would create multiple flashpoints for nuclear
terrorism, both in leaking uranium to terrorists and being choice targets
for attack. Highlighting the rise in economic inequality, the Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report shows that individuals owning more than $1 million in assets increased their total holdings by 11.4% between 2005 and 2006, for a total collective wealth of $37.2 trillion among the super-wealthy. A report by the Communication Workers of America's SpeedMatters campaign highlights how far the United States is falling behind other countries in high-speed Internet access. Using speed tests by 80,000 computer users around the country, they show that in all of the fifty states, Americans are getting slower and more costly broadband Internet services than countries like Japan, Sweden and South Korea. Because of the legacy of Colorado's Taxpayer Bill Of Rights (TABOR), Colorado continues to lag far behind other states in investments in state services like K-12 education, Medicaid and basic infrastructure like transit, according to a new study by the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute. The report is a sobering, cautionary tale for other states considering tax limitation initiatives. A new report by the Commonwealth Fund, Closing the Divide: How Medical Homes Promote Equity in Health Care, shows that ensuring general access to health care coverage is only part of the solution for eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Ongoing relationships with medical providers that work with them to manage chronic conditions and provide preventive care are critical in helping make racial and ethnic disparities in access and quality disappear. Please email us leads on good research at research@progressivestates.org ResourcesNation's Most Comprehensive Health Plan Approved in Wisconsin Senate
Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Healthy Wisconsin Resource Center (with Plan Details, Talking Points, Bill Language, Frequently Asked Questions) Healthy Wisconsin, Cost and Coverage Impacts (The Lewin Group) and Legislative Language www.WisPolitics.com, WisPolitics Budget Blog and WisOpinion.com Green Jobs Corps in Oakland, CA
Ella Baker Center, Reclaim the Future Economic Round Table, Jobs in L.A.'s Green Technology Sector Apollo Alliance, The Ten-Point Plan for Good Jobs and Energy Independence The Nation, Bernie Sanders Fights for Green Collar Jobs Progressive States Network, Blue and Green: So Happy Together Tax Investigation of Wal-Mart in New Mexico
Progressive States Network, Reforming the Corporate Income Tax Citizens for Tax Justice, New Research Shows Wal-Mart Rigs the System to Skip Out on $2.3 Billion in State Taxes Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Combined Reporting: How Does Your State Stack Up? Maine Informed Growth Act, LD 1810 Wakeup Wal-Mart, Research on Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Watch, Model State Policies Eye on the Right
In an embarrassing twist of irony, the California GOP recently had to use an
H1-B visa to hire Australian Michael Kamburowski as their new chief operations
officer. It certainly says something when the nation's most populated state
can't find a qualified resident, or even another American, to head it's
operations, but the real madness lies in the hypocrisy. 3 Steps Forward1. New Jersey Approves $450 Billion Ballot Initiative for Stem Cell Research 2 Steps Back1. Bill Giving Undocumented Residents Connecticut Tuition Rates Is Vetoed by the Governor Jobs & InternshipsCheck out current opportunities with Progressive States on the Jobs & Internships Page. MastheadThe Stateside Dispatch is written and edited by: SuggestionsPlease shoot me an email at jbacino@progressivestates.org if you have feedback, tips, suggestions, criticisms, or nominations for any of our sidebar features. John Bacino Progressive
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Progressive
Financing - Savings Achieved: By replacing premiums with a payroll
tax tied to each person's ability to pay, Senate leaders and advocates
estimate the
The Broader Opportunity: The potential for Green Jobs
Corps is not limited to Oakland. A 
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