Eight years ago, progressives were recovering from an Election Day that saw a full 11 states ban same-sex marriage at the polls. The environment in early 2013 could not be more different. Coming off of historic successes at the polls in four states in November, momentum behind marriage equality efforts continues to grow in state after state in advance of what is likely to be a landmark Supreme Court decision on the issue this term:
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Many states are already considering action on the minimum wage in new sessions — by legislation or by ballot initiative. Polls and studies released this week continued to show both the broad and deep popularity and the positive economic effects of raising the wage:
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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:
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A spate of destructive broadband bills has been sweeping across the country, spurred on by the corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Unbelievably, just as broadband Internet becomes an essential tool for millions of Americans, these states, following the pattern of the model ALEC bill, are making moves toward depriving states of any power to ensure reliable, competitive, and affordable service that serves all state residents — from small businesses to those on the other side of the digital divide. The companies behind these bills want the ability to choose to serve only the locations and the individuals that yield the greatest profits. It is simply not smart governance to leave state authorities without the power to ensure everyone can use such a critical asset.
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Legislators in Arizona conceded defeat this week in an attempt to gut the state’s minimum wage law. House Majority Leader Steve Court admitted that the law, enacted in a landslide 2006 ballot initiative with 65% of the vote, is still unassailable. Court’s decision wraps up a rough couple of months for legislators and lobbyists intent on rolling back minimum wage laws.
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has pursued countless cuts to essential programs, waged an ideological war on state employees and teachers, pushed tax cuts for the rich over the middle class, and advocated for costly and fiscally unsustainable privatization schemes. Even in light of overwhelming public opposition to privatization and the significant pitfalls associated with these types of schemes, the Governor established a privatization task force by executive order earlier this year.
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made national headlines last week by announcing that he is canceling the nation’s largest public works project – and sacrificing nearly 50,000 jobs in the process. The Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel project would double the existing rail-commuting capacity from New Jersey to New York City with a nine-mile tunnel under the Hudson River to midtown Manhattan.
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A trend is slowly but surely creeping throughout the country: eliminating oversight over phone services. Under the guise of reforming or modernizing regulations, telecommunications companies’ efforts may mean an end to the only access that many have to the outside world. Specifically, some telecommunications providers are seeking to preclude their states’ public utility commissions (PUCs) from exercising their authority to ensure that basic services reach all Americans.
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In a blow to states’ leadership over clean energy, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that states cannot sue power plant operators that generate pollution. The Justice Department alleges that: (1) the Environmental Protection Agency has already started to regulate greenhouse emissions; and (2) states lack standing to assert a federal nuisance claim.
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Since he took office earlier this year, New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie has waged an ideological war on state employees and programs,
and advocated for unsustainable and costly privatization schemes. Even
in light of overwhelming public opposition
to privatization and the significant pitfalls associated with these
types of initiatives, the Governor established a privatization task
force by executive order in early April, seeking to identify $50 million in savings.
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On June 15, voters in Trenton, New Jersey, soundly rejected a proposal to sell a majority of Trenton Water Works' infrastructure, including pipes, water towers, and tanks, to a private company. For several years, Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer argued that water privatization would generate immediate revenue for the cash-strapped city and end its obligation to maintain aging infrastructure in surrounding townships. Community activists, unions, and the Stop the Sale campaign, successfully challenged the Mayor's plan. In the weeks leading up to the vote, polling indicated that 95 percent of city residents disapproved of the initiative.
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The choice of whether or not to establish
high-risk insurance pools represents the first major decision that
states are facing with the March 2010 passage of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). While twenty-nine
governors -- 22 Democrats and 7 Republicans -- decided to create the
pools themselves, most conservative governors failed to take advantage
of the option to shape health care for their constituents and instead
just kicked the issue back to the federal government, which will
establish its own high-risk insurance pool in states that fail to take
action.
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April has seen two major industrial accidents that have captured the national eye. Explosions at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana claimed the lives of forty workers and injured thirty-eight. Much of the media attention
on these tragedies has focused on the culpability of employers and enforcement capacity at federal agencies responsible for regulating mine and offshore
drilling safety. However, there are proactive steps states can take to address occupational safety hazards and ensure people do not have to sacrifice their personal safety in exchange for a paycheck.
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According to the American Journalism Review, state house news
reporting is down 30 percent nationally. New Jersey may be adding to the problem by reducing
funding for and privatizing functions of the New Jersey
Network (NJN), the only non-partisan public television and radio
news source that exclusively covers the state.
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Last month, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie unveiled his $29.3
billion FY2011
budget proposal -- an extremely regressive plan that would only
exacerbate the economic pain for the state's working and middle class
families.
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The Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
(FEC) decision earlier this year gave corporations the same First
Amendment rights as citizens with regard to advocating for or against
political candidates, unleashing
a flood of new corporate cash into state races and a range of new
state policy initiatives that aim to protect the integrity of their
elections. In response, states are pursuing other reforms, such as
requiring shareholder approval for corporations spending election cash,
tighter public disclosure and attribution in ads, public financing of
elections, and calling for a federal constitutional amendment to reverse
the Citizens United decision.
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States and local governments may now use federal E-rate funds to
provide the general public access to schools’ and public libraries’
Internet facilities, according to a recent Federal Communications Commission order.
Schools receiving funding under the E-rate program may extend their
services to the general public during non-operating hours, that is,
after school, weekends, holidays, and summer vacation.
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An overseen benefit of public transit is the creation and retention of sustainable jobs. On January 5, 2010, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, Smart Growth America, and U.S. PIRG released What We Learned from the Stimulus, a study that concluded that public transportation generates more jobs than highway construction, although highway construction received more American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds than public transit.
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Local communities are increasingly rejecting punitive anti-immigrant
law enforcement policies such as 287g from the previous administration.
They are walking away from agreements to have local police serve as
federal immigration authorities, rejecting both their budgetary costs
and the way they damage relationships and trust between police and the
communities they serve.
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Perhaps the most impressive recent success story in expanding political
participation has been the dramatic turnaround in public agency voter
registrations in some states. With the prodding of Demos, Project Vote, and others under the umbrella of the NVRA Project,
several states have reinvigorated compliance with this federal law that
requires that certain state agencies offer voter registration to the
individuals they serve. The most well known agencies are motor vehicle
departments, but public assistance agencies are also included and it is
they that can have the greatest impact on bringing low-income and
marginalized citizens into the political process.
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