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Top State Stories 12/15
LA: Louisiana governor will add COVID vax to school shots list, overriding lawmakers
Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards notified state lawmakers that the Department of Health will move forward with adding COVID-19 vaccination to the list of shots required for students to attend schools and universities, overriding the legislature’s attempt to block the new regulation. The rule is set to be effective at the start of the 2022-23 school year and will apply to eligible age groups.
WI: Wisconsin attorney general won’t enforce any abortion ban
Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said in an interview that he would not investigate or prosecute anyone for having an abortion should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and a currently unenforceable state ban, enacted in 1849, takes effect.
CT: Connecticut’s strict vaccine mandate for medical staff doesn’t apply to prisons
More than 600 employees at the Department of Correction may opt to test weekly in lieu of being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Connecticut Mirror analysis has found, because the state is not requiring prison medical staff to apply for medical or religious exemptions.
MN: Surgery delays grow severe amid COVID hospital crowding in Minnesota
Delayed surgeries are a downstream consequence of the pandemic and the pressure it has placed on Minnesota’s hospitals, which reported 1,636 COVID-19 cases in inpatient beds and only 21 open adult intensive care beds. Patient demand over the past month has been the highest in the 21 months of the pandemic.
CA: California isn’t cutting its greenhouse gas emissions fast enough. Here’s why.
California is not cutting greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet a 2030 deadline for reductions, according to a new report. At the state’s current rate of progress, California will miss that deadline by several decades.
WY: Whistleblower names Wyoming GOP chair, others as Oath Keepers
Wyoming Republican Party Chair William “Frank” Eathorne is one of the nearly 200 Wyoming citizens listed by a whistleblower group as members of the far-right antigovernment Oath Keepers group. While no active state legislators appeared in the leaked documents, Ken Pendergraft, who sought political office in 2020, was listed as an enrolled member.
NJ: New Jersey public pensions face fiscal peril as new police and fire retirees grow, report says
New Jersey’s pension system for public employees costs more than most other states while offering “generous” benefits that are increasingly going toward more retirees than active employees, according to a new report.
MO: Missouri projecting revenues to reach record high next year
Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson and state legislative leaders have agreed on a financial framework for the upcoming budget that assumes state revenues will grow to a record amount. It projects that net general revenues will reach a record $11.4 billion in the 2023 fiscal year—a growth rate of 2.1%.
OR: Oregon adds 10K more jobs
Oregon job growth picked up in November, with the state adding another 10,000 jobs. That’s more than double last month’s total and 50% above the state’s pace in the prior six months. The state has now recovered 4 out of every 5 jobs lost to the pandemic.
MI: Michigan lawmakers pass bill to bar redistricting commission closed meetings
The Michigan House passed legislation that would prohibit the redistricting commission from citing the Open Meetings Act as the legal justification for meeting behind closed doors. The passage of the measure comes amid concerns about the transparency of the Michigan redistricting commission’s work drawing new congressional and legislative districts.
AK: 4 lawsuits challenge Alaska Redistricting Board’s new legislative map
Four lawsuits have been filed against the Alaska Redistricting Board, seeking to change parts of the legislative map it adopted last month. Each lawsuit argues that communities were wrongly placed in the same district as communities with which they have little in common. Three of the lawsuits were filed by municipalities.
CO: Thousands of local government employees could get union rights in Colorado
Democratic leaders in the Colorado legislature plan to introduce a bill that would allow many more public employees to unionize. The bill, to be introduced in the upcoming session, would remove a longstanding exemption that has stopped the employees of most cities, counties and universities in the state from organizing.
GA: Georgia court rejects property owners’ right to boot unauthorized cars
In a unanimous opinion, the Georgia Supreme Court flatly rejected a shopping mall’s assertion that a law established centuries ago allowed it to immobilize cars and trucks until their owners pay a fine to have the boot removed.
NY: Former New York governor ordered to forfeit millions in book income
A New York state ethics board ordered former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to turn over millions of dollars in profits from his coronavirus pandemic memoir, giving him 30 days to comply. The extraordinary directive is the latest development in a fall from grace for the former governor, who is now facing a criminal trial after being accused of groping an aide in the Executive Mansion.
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