On June 30th New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed the Vote by Mail Law of 2008,
which allows all voters to permanently register to vote-by-mail,
referred to as permanent absentee voting. The law, sponsored by Senator
Raymond Lesniak and Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, also replaces New
Jersey's multiple absentee voting systems with one streamlined system
for all mail-in voters.
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Overall, federal recovery spending is working as intended, helping states provide needed services and avoid layoffs that would be worsening unemployment rates. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
estimates that these funds are providing states with 40 percent of what
is needed to help their budgets in balance over the next few fiscal
years. The recovery plan has provided states with flexibility in
addressing key programs and priorities. Unfortunately, a number of states have wasted budget funds on trying to steal jobs from one another, as highlighted by Good Jobs First.
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This week, the New Jersey legislature approved permanent absentee voting legislation [A 2451 by Rep. Joan Quigley and Sen. Raymond Lesniak] after minor reconciliation and scheduling delays kept the bill in a holding pattern for half a year.
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In a positive step forward for federal respect of state regulatory powers, President Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider a previously denied waiver to allow California to set more stringent auto emissions and fuel efficiency standards than required by federal law. In a statement by the White House, President Obama said "the federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." The directive represents not only greater respect for state authority, but also a sharp break from the climate policies of President Obama's predecessor.
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In New York State, 31% of uninsured residents are young adults between
the ages 19 and 29. To help this population and reduce the state's
uninsured rolls, Governor Paterson wants to require private employers
to offer health insurance to workers' dependents
who are between the ages 19 and 29. The proposal would expand
eligibility to some 800,000 uninsured New Yorkers and the Governor's
Office projects about 80,000 would take advantage of the new rule.
According to the New York Times,
business groups appear to be supportive of the idea, which would not
require employers to help pay for coverage, merely to make it available.
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With legislative sessions getting underway around the country, this
Dispatch provides a list of key bills and policies that we encourage
legislators to consider introducing. While not exhaustive of the range
of needed reforms in states, they emphasize initiatives of strategic
importance that are being considered in multiple states. Working with
our various partners, Progressive States Network is providing staff
support for these policies and will work to use movement in multiple
states to generate national media and attention. This in turn will
create greater momentum to assist individual states in pushing bills to
passage. The following is a quick checklist of key policies with links
to model legislation and policy summaries.
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As states face mounting deficits, corporate lobbyists have been promoting the idea that privatization of public services and assets is a free lunch -- services can be delivered more cheaply than by public employees and public assets like highways can be sold or leased for a hefty return to the taxpayer. As PSN has detailed in our December 2007 report Privatizing in the Dark: The Pitfalls of Privatization & Why Budget Disclosure is Needed, the promises of privatization too often yield to a reality of lost money and degraded services, weak oversight and lost expertise, assets sold off for short-term gains but long-term loss, lost democratic accountability, and the corruption of the political process.
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In the past few years states have become increasingly unwillingly torely on the chance that volatile global investment markets will chooseto invest in their local communities. Instead, states are choosing todirectly invest themselves in local emerging opportunities. The greatadvantage of direct investment, instead of simply raiding the statetreasury and giving away corporate welfare, is that by making directinvestment in local businesses, states create a financial stake infirms. If these businesses are successful, they will return equity tothe tax payers that can be reinvested in other projects. According to the National Association of Seed and Venture Fund, as of 2006, all but six states had state venture capital funds.
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Addressing the recession affecting New Jersey, as well as many other states, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine last week presented a plan for reviving the state economy. Some of the proposals
- such as speeding up work on infrastructure projects and putting $500
million of state pension money in community banks to spur lending to
local businesses - are smart and desperately needed.
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After an Arizona federal district court, relying on a recent US Supreme Court decision, declared
a provision of that state’s clean elections law unconstitutional,
other states are having to decide how to move forward on clean
elections in their states.
Given that this was just one decision by a lower court, the California legislature approved AB 583 on August 30th, one day after the Arizona ruling. This legislation, sponsored by Rep. Loni Hancock,
creates a public financing pilot program for the Secretary of State
race in 2014. For the law to go into effect it must first be approved
by voters next year. On the other hand, New Jersey legislators
overreacted to the decision and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. announced that he would not seek to renew clean elections legislation (AB 100) in the upcoming session.
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The benefits of a post-secondary degree are plentiful. For example, an employee with a four year college degree earns 60 percent more than a worker with only a high school diploma. Paying for college, however, has become a daunting task and strain for many American students and families. The cost of higher education across the country is rapidly increasing, at almost double the rate of inflation, outpacing increases in financial aid and many families ability to pay. The combination of these factors result in too many students being unable to earn or complete their degrees due to financial constraints.
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Even with many states having short sessions, the 2008 state legislative
sessions have already had some impressive milestone victories for
families and communities across the country. This Dispatch
covers a few of the key issue victories this year -- and points out
that states are still taking the lead on issue after issue. Most of
the bills highlighted became law, while a few, falling short of final
passage, were innovative enough and showed enough movement to promise
greater things for 2009.
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With gas prices now topping $4 per gallon and rising concern over global warming, the public policies that accommodated and often subsidized wasteful driving habits in the past need to change.
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Florida Governor Charlie Crist recently signed an economic stimulus plan for the state that redirects $1.95 billion of the state's pension fund
into direct investments in Florida's economy. The amount is limited to
1.5 percent of the state's pension money, but even that limited
percentage can add up to massive investments in jobs for the state's
residents.
In creating the program,
legislators and the Governor pointed to the success of similar programs
in other states, particularly the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largest pension fund. A recent study
found the California fund's in-state investments had fed an estimated
$15.1 billion into in-state economic activity in 2006 and created
124,000 jobs, more jobs than the construction or motion picture
industries.
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In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked the US health care system 37th in the world despite spending more than any other country. In 2007, according to the US Census Bureau, the US ranked 42nd in life expectancy.
If you are a person of color, a low-wage worker, non-English speaking,
or live in a low-income community, the picture is much worse. For
instance, the life expectancy for African-Americans
is 73.3 years, five years shorter than it is for whites. For
African-American men, it is 69.8 years, just above averages in Iran and
Syria, but below Nicaragua and Morocco.
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On April 2nd, the Maine Senate passed a National Popular Vote bill, LD 1744, that would guarantee that the Presidential candidate who receives the most votes in all 50 states wins the Presidency. The
bill is an interstate compact, which would take effect only when states
possessing a majority of the membership of the Electoral College (that
is 270 of 538 electoral votes) enact similar statutes.
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In the wake of a bitter 2004 Governor's election and state Supreme Court races that took in more money from third-party groups than any other high court campaign in the country, Washington State's House took the first step toward public financing by passing HB 1551. Introduced by Senator Joe McDermott, HB 1551 allows cities, counties, and other jurisdictions to provide local candidates with government financing. The bill only allows local taxes to be tapped for the public campaign accounts and the public funds cannot be used for campaigns for state offices or school boards.
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With only 10 dissenting votes, the New Jersey Legislature has made the state's hate crimes and anti-bullying laws two of the strongest in the country. S2975 is notable for its unequivocal inclusion of transgender people in the state's hate crimes law, becoming the 12th state to do so, and for stronger anti-bullying measures in its safe schools law.
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After discussing the possibility of privatizing major state highways last year, New Jersey Governor John Corzine instead made a proposal
earlier this month that called for significant increases in tolls that
would provide nearly $30 billion to decrease state debt and invest in
state transit projects. Unlike rhetorical promises around privatization
money in other states, this plan actually laid out how money would get
raised.
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