In this week’s Research Roundup: Reports from Center for American Progress Action Fund, Good Jobs First, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Demos, and more.
Virginia's Senate leadership chose the occasion of Martin Luther King Day on Monday to push through a partisan redistricting bill, taking advantage of the absence of a legislator attending President Obama's inauguration. A separate effort in Virginia to change the way the state awards electoral votes in presidential elections ran into bipartisan opposition, even as lawmakers in other states were considering doing the same:
With a Supreme Court decision and a presidential election now come and gone, conservatives in many states seem to be having second thoughts about their opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, progressive lawmakers in Iowa and Michigan signaled they were set to introduce legislation on Medicaid expansion:
Governors and lawmakers who call themselves "anti-tax" are kicking off new state legislative sessions by proposing drastic cuts or even the elimination of state income taxes — offset by increases in sales taxes that would hit the middle class and low-income families and which would do nothing to boost state economies:
PSN rounded up recent movement on state gun proposals following President Obama's announcement of support for the most wide-ranging federal action on gun violence prevention in decades:
For information on Public Education policy in the states or to receive the latest updates from the National Working Group on Public Education, please contact Ann Pratt, Executive Director (apratt@progressivestates.org)
For information on Economic Security policy in the states or to receive the latest updates from the Working Group of State Legislators for Economic Security, please contact Joel Foster, Political Director, Progressive States Action (jfoster@progressivestatesaction.org, 202.730.7437)
