"Drill Now" Usual Rightwing Diversion from Real Energy Independence Policy

Thursday, June 26, 2008

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NCSL ANCILLARY EVENT: BUILDING A PROGRESSIVE MAJORITY IN THE STATES

WHAT: An event coinciding with the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislators sponsored by PSN and the National Labor Caucus. Participants will develop and share strategies to advance real solutions to the issues that matter most to Americaâ€™s working families, including the growing economic crisis, workerâ€™s rights, health care, fair immigration reform, and smart growth and clean energy.
WHERE: W New Orleans Hotel, New Orleans, LA
WHEN: 9:00am to 1:30pm, Monday, July 21, 2008
SIGN-UP: www.progressivestates.org/annualmeeting

Growing-Economy

"Drill Now" Usual Rightwing Diversion from Real Energy Independence Policy

"Drill now" for oil off our state coasts may make for cute, well-polled political rhetoric, but it is sadly typical of the oil-industry-funded propaganda that has diverted attention from real energy solutions for decades. This particular campaign is the brainchild of Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives who resigned his office in disgrace, and now John McCain is aping Newt's rhetoric. Here's the reality of the proposal for offshore drilling:

No Help for Gas Prices Now: McCain's own top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, admitted it would have no immediate effect on supplies or prices and McCain himself said the plan would have mostly "psychological" benefits. In fact, the Energy Information Administration says that new offshore drilling wouldnâ€™t have â€œa significant impactâ€? on gas prices until 2030 (yes, that's twenty-two years from now).
Little Help in the Future: Combine estimates of offshore oil and drilling in Alaska's ANWR reserve and you still, decades from now, add only an additional 1 percent of world production in the far off future -- an amount that economist Dean Baker estimates would lower prices by about $0.08 on a $4.00 gallon of gas.
But "Drill Now" is a Big Fundraiser for the Rightwing: On the other hand, Newt Gingrich's new "American Solutions" front group has reportedly raised millions hyping this rhetorical distraction on his fundraising page.

At best, instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the hands of countries and companies based thousands of miles overseas, consumers will be pumping a portion of those billions to Exxon Mobil running rigs a hundred miles or so offshore.

No energy jobs for most communities from drilling, but plenty from kicking the oil habit: That kind of "energy independence" won't create jobs in most communities, since those oil dollars will still be pumped right out of your community and state. As U.S. PIRG highlights in a new report published just this week, Squandering the Stimulus, the federal stimulus checks are not helping local economies since increased gas prices mean families are essentially just signing their checks over to big oil companies like Exxon Mobil or sending them to oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, high gas prices can be transformed by state policymakers into local green jobs with the right political will. For example:

As General Motors and other companies promise to deliver plug-in electric cars within two years, it's worth remembering that the electricity powering those cars can then come from local sources -- solar, wind, cogeneration, biofuels -- which will create jobs in states across the country.
Expanding mass transit means not only power can come from local sources, but there will be jobs building the mass transit network, something many cities are recognizing.
If we retrofit homes and businesses to use less or no oil fuel, we will create tens of thousands of new construction jobs, replacing many jobs lost with the current subprime meltdown of new construction.

Americans are spending hundreds of billions of dollars ever year on oil and gasoline. Instead of propping up that oil habit with false promises of offshore drilling, we can instead spend that money on green transit and heating options that will not only help save the planet from a climate catastrophe, but will also create green jobs in every community.

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Increasing-Democracy

Two States With Tarnished Images Make Strong Gains on Ethics in 2008

Many states have suffered from public officials being involved in ethics scandals. While sometimes there is talk of reform and other overtures, comprehensive reform is most often elusive. However, some states have managed, either in response to one particularly egregious event or a history of problems being overturned in a wave of dissatisfaction, to truly make a fundamental change. This year Connecticut once again moved forward with a multi-year ethics reform initiative, and Louisiana enacted one of the most far-reaching ethics overhauls any state has in generations. These impressive accomplishments will hopefully serve as models upon which progressive leaders in other states will build.

Connecticut Puts Additional Pieces of Ethics Reform in Place: Four years after former Governor Rowland plead guilty to ethics violations and was sent to jail, Connecticut enacted the final pieces of ethics reform legislation put forth as a response to that scandal. Connecticut did not have notably weak ethics laws prior to the scandal, but, with the support of advocates including the Connecticut Citizenâ€™s Action Group and Common Cause of Connecticut, lawmakers and the governor have moved deliberately to craft policies that set even higher standards. In 2005 the legislature enacted comprehensive public financing of campaigns for the legislature and statewide office. This was the first instance in the country of state legislators enacting a clean elections system that applied to their own campaigns. The system has garnered broad candidate participation and reduced uncontested races significantly.

As part of the 2005 reforms, the state also enacted a model pay-to-play law that is among the best in the country. The statute prohibits campaign contributions from all state contractors and lobbyists. The state also reorganized its ethics commission, establishing a Citizenâ€™s Ethics Advisory Board to oversee the new Office of State Ethics.

The latest round of reforms:

Allow the Attorney General to request that corrupt public officials have their pension revoked.
Ban gifts to public officials except for those offered at â€œmajor life eventsâ€? such as weddings, and these gifts cannot have a value greater than $1,000.
Prohibit state contractors from offering jobs to government employees who participated significantly in awarding a contract to the firm.
Require lawmakers to receive ethics training.
Designate the governorâ€™s spouse as a public official for the purpose of complying with ethics laws.

Passage of the ethics package was in doubt all session as key lawmakers battled over whether the pension revocation provision should be retroactive, and whether such revocations would violate collective bargaining agreements. In the end, retroactivity was excluded and a judge will determine if any collective bargaining agreement stands in the way of stripping an officialâ€™s pension.

Lawmakers in Connecticut now have a few feathers in their ethics reform cap. And Good Jobs First has ranked the state number one when it comes to disclosure of economic development subsidies, procurement contracts and lobbying. However, the stateâ€™s campaign disclosure requirements for officials choosing to run privately funded campaigns are still quite weak, garnering the state a D grade on the Center for Public Integrityâ€™s disclosure rankings. Disclosure for municipal lobbying is also not required, and this is an area that advocates are urging the legislature to address. With that in mind, progressive legislators in Connecticut should keep the pressure on to finish the job of making the state a model of accountable government.

Louisiana Overhauls Ethics Laws Hoping to Clean-Up Image and Boost Investment: Louisiana is a state long infamous for endemic political corruption. This reputation lives on and state leaders worry it has been an obstacle to hurricane recovery with the federal government and private donors wary of possible problems in how rebuilding funds are handled. Local advocates such as the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and the Council for a Better Louisiana have been beating the drum for basic ethics reform for years. In this instance the business community joined in the push for reform through the LA Ethics 1 and Blueprint Louisiana initiatives. Recently-elected Governor Bobby Jindal is also convinced that the stateâ€™s negative reputation keeps businesses from locating or investing there, and government ethics and competent administration were the major planks in his campaign platform.

Upon being elected, the governor quickly called the legislature into special session to pass an ethics package. He put forth several dozen changes to current law, the majority of which where designed to increase the stateâ€™s position on independent watchdogsâ€™ rankings of disclosure and ethics laws (by the Better Government Association and the Center for Public Integrity). While much of the package passed, lawmakers were especially resistant to strong financial disclosure requirements. They ended up growing the list of officials covered under the requirement significantly, even adding volunteer members of small state agencies to the rigorous disclosure requirements. This has already stirred calls to amend the law. Lawmakers also vociferously opposed a move to ban all gifts, and even a $50 limit on meals purchased by lobbyists drew scorn, though it eventually passed and certainly hasn't kept the legislators from eating well.

According to advocates, the major setbacks of the session came in a bill to strip the state ethics board of the power to adjudicate cases, giving that power to administrative law judges. This bill also became the target of a successful amendment that advocates decried which raised the standard of proof for being found guilty of ethics charges. In the end advocates and lawmakers were satisfied with the results and feel the new laws are a big step forward for Louisiana as they rebuild their state.

Major components of the ethics package as compiled by the Public Affairs Research Council:

Legislators, statewide elected officials, local elected officials, members of many state boards and commissions and some top staffers are required to disclose information about their personal finances (HB 1).
Non-governmental entities that receive state funding (HR 2) and â€œ527â€? political groups (SB 29) have to file disclosure reports.
The commissioner of administration is required to develop a Web site to report spending data for each state budget unit, including salary information for top officials (SB 37).
Political advertisements funded by third-party groups have to list the groupsâ€™ full name and contact information and state if a candidate authorized the ad (SB 14).
Top public officials, including legislators, the governorâ€™s executive staff and cabinet secretaries and the spouses of each, will be prohibited from entering into contracts with the state (SB 1).
In cases where a conflict of interest exists for elected officials, SB 5 will require recusal from pertinent votes. Currently, only disclosure of the conflict has to be made, but the vote is allowed.
Tickets to major sporting events and private golf and hunting outings are prohibited (SB 3).
Lobbyist expenditure reports will require information regarding their compensation, the subject matter being lobbied, and business relationships with public officials and their spouses. The reports will have to be made monthly and filed electronically (SB 11).
There will be an Office of the Inspector General with the statutory authority to investigate the executive branch and have subpoena, oath-administration and testimony-taking powers (HB 56).

Other Progress on Ethics in 2008

Another governor elected on a reform platform, but unable to reach a compromise with the legislature on ethics changes, Steve Beshear of Kentucky issued an executive order that limits his discretion when appointing two of his three appointees to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission; removed the Commission from his office; forbids employees from negotiating jobs with people or companies they deal with in their job; and regulates legal defense funds.
In South Carolina the Ethics Commission suggested a series of modest expansions of current ethics laws to include family members in some prohibitions; add state contractors to the revolving-door law; regulate police officer solicitations; and clarify the gift ban of $25 per calendar year. All were passed by the legislature.
As we highlighted last week, Illinois has passed pay-to-play contracting reform through both houses and the bill is now on the governor's desk.

For more on the movement of ethics reform legislation in the states, see Ethics in the News 2008 compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures' Center for Ethics in Government.

While we continue to see regular instances of elected officials and government employees abusing their offices, there is also steady progress in many states toward a more transparent and accountable way of governing. The strong desire among Americans for a new era of clean and competent government presents an exceptional opportunity for progressives to push for strong, comprehensive ethics and campaign finance reforms.

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Valuing-Families

Maine's Dirigo Health Faces Off Against Big Business

Politics, particularly in small states, makes for strange bedfellows. The latest effort to derail Maine's first-in-the-nation 2003 Dirigo Health Reform initiative bears this out. The president of the State Chamber of Commerce and a former member of the Dirigo Health Board of Directors is now treasurer of a lobbyist-driven political action committee waging a campaign to sap Dirigo Health of its funding.

From its inception, Dirigo Health Reform has been opposed by the Right and conservative think-tanks. Dirigo Health, named after the state's motto "I lead", set out to increase access to all residents while improving the quality of care and reducing the cost of health care across the state. One of the key elements is DirigoChoice, a public/private insurance program offering comprehensive health insurance to individuals and small businesses with sliding scale subsidies for members with family incomes up to 300% of poverty. DirigoChoice was largely funded by the Savings Offset Payment, which is an assessment on health insurance claims that is directly proportional to health care savings achieved by various Dirigo Health reforms. Despite its strengths, as we have written -- tying access to cost containment -- the Offset Payment has been one of the most controversial pieces of Dirigo Health Reform.

To get beyond the acrimony surrounding the Savings Offset Payment, and the millions of dollars the state has spent in lawyer's fees protecting the funding, the Legislature this year enacted new funding - increases in taxes on soda, beer and wine, and a 1.8% premium assessment on all paid health insurance claims. Angry that legislators stood up for health care over the objections of industry lobbyists, the state's business lobby and organizations representing restaurants, grocers, and beer and wine distributors formed the PAC "Fed Up With Taxes." The group is circulating a petition to place a question on the November ballot that would overturn the new funding law. Working to oppose the override is a new coalition of health care groups, called Health Coverage of Maine, which includes the American Cancer Society, the Maine Medical Association, and AARP. Petitioners need 55,000 signatures and opponents to the override are actively encouraging Mainers not to sign the petitions.

Despite the political environment surrounding Dirigo Health, it has achieved notable success since it was enacted in 2003. A Robert Wood Johnson study of health insurance trends across the US from 2001 to 2005, shows that Maine is stemming the nationwide tide of rising uninsured rates and drops in employer-based coverage. While more Americans lost coverage from 2001 to 2005, the number of Mainers without health insurance dropped, the result of a strong Medicaid program and the state's 2003 Dirigo Health Reform initiative. Additionally, while nationally fewer small businesses offered health insurance through this period, Maine saw an uptick in the number of small employers covering their employees. Massachusetts similarly saw an increase in the percentage of employers offering coverage after its 2006 health care reform law went into effect. Trish Riley, Director of the Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance and architect of the Dirigo Health reforms, said that the reform effort has helped Maine hold down health care costs while providing coverage to over 28,000 residents since 2005. In fact, the Dirigo Health Agency says the reforms have saved the Maine health care system more than $190 million over the past year.

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Research Roundup

Disconnected Families: Some poor single mothers manage to find work after being on TANF or combine work and welfare to make ends meet. However, a brief by the Brookings Center on Children and Families profiles the 40 to 45 percent of the TANF caseload who are long-term recipients and aren't working because they face multiple barriers to securing and keeping employment. Yet, because of time limits imposed by the 1996 federal TANF law, many of those families have been terminated from the program, terminations that will only increase with new rules implementing changes in the law passed in 2006. The brief advocates creation of new state programs to help these long-term disadvantages families outside the traditional TANF programs.

Immigrant Benefit Use: Immigrants living in New Mexico contribute significantly to the state's economy and receive very little in the way of government safety-net programs such as Social Security and Medicare, according to a new report by New Mexico Voices for Children. In fact, immigrants are represented in the state's labor force in higher percentages than are native-born New Mexicans, receive money from federal programs such as Medicare, unemployment insurance and other funds at half the rate of the native-born, and are less likely to seek emergency-room care.

Media & Workers: Critical issues of importance to working families are ignored by the mainstream media, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress, largely because the media systematically fails to even include the perspective of workers in their analysis. On key economic issues, representatives of business are quoted or cited nearly two-and-a-half times Âƒ as frequently as are workers or their union representatives.

Polling on Pre-K: 7 in 10 voters want more federal support for state-funded Pre-K, according to a new national poll released by the organization Pre-K Now. The same 7 in 10 voters want state and local governments to provide voluntary pre-k for all children, but a solid majority felt government overall was doing too little to expand pre-k opportunities.

Cities and Health Care: In a new report, Americaâ€™s Health Care Crisis: Cities on the Front Lines, Families USA looks at the role cities play in organizing, funding and delivering health care services -- and how the rising costs and growing number of uninsured has hit municipal budgets hard. The report surveys mayors across the country, who see health care reform as critical to both their residents and their own fiscal bottom line.

Costly Subsidies: In Take Your Poison: Hemlock Semiconductor Demands Costly New Subsidies from Michigan, Good Jobs First highlights the costs of a new 12-year tax credit for the firm which will cost the state $357 million, or an estimated $900,000 per job for the 400-500 jobs projected for Hemlockâ€™s next expansion, a massive subsidy that will blow a hole in the state's budget.

Please email us leads on good research at research@progressivestates.org

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