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As property tax bills rise, states look for long-term solutions
Property tax relief is high on the agenda of many lawmakers from states in the Mountain West, where property values have skyrocketed in part because of an influx of residents from the East and West coasts. This escalation in real estate costs has resulted in rapidly rising property tax bills for millions of people in states such as Colorado and Montana. Fixed-income retirees and low-income homeowners face a heightened challenge, as property taxes often consume a significant portion of their income.
State, local govs crack down on menthol cigarettes by pumping prices up
Two years after the Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes, the Biden administration last week said it would delay adopting the ban. The decision sparked outrage among many public health officials and lawmakers who cited the negative health impacts and racial health disparities of smoking that will worsen in the absence of federal action.
AC, power banks, mini fridges: State equips Medicaid patients for climate change
This story was first published by KFF Health News. Read the original here. Oregon is shipping air conditioners, air purifiers, and power banks to some of its most vulnerable residents, a first-in-the-nation experiment to use Medicaid money to prevent the potentially deadly health effects of extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and other climate-related disasters.
New Maryland law enables local jurisdictions to impose higher taxes on vacant properties
This story is republished from Maryland Matters. Read the original here. Last week, Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, signed a host of bills into law aiming to solve the ongoing affordable housing shortage across the state. Three of the measures were part of his own priority legislation to address the issue.
Measuring and managing risk in the quest for resilience
You're reading Route Fifty's Public Finance Update. To get the latest on state and local budgets, taxes and other financial matters, you can subscribe here to get this update in your inbox twice each month. You can find a full archive of these newsletters here. ***. The collapse of the...
E-bikes are a ‘game changer’ for bike shares
Heartland Bike Share, a nonprofit that operates in the Omaha metropolitan area, introduced its first e-bikes in 2018, when the technology was still relatively novel for most cyclists. But last year it relaunched its 400-bike system with exclusively e-bikes. “The e-bikes are preferred nearly 100% of the time over the...
Federal broadband subsidy cut amid fears over its future
A federal subsidy that helps more than 23 million people across the country connect to broadband internet has been significantly cut back as of yesterday, even as state and federal officials acknowledge its benefits. The Affordable Connectivity Program, a $30-a-month subsidy to help low-income families pay for home internet service,...
LGBTQ students wonder what’s next as conservative states seek to block new Title IX rules
This story was first published by Chalkbeat. Read the original here. For LGBTQ youth whose rights have been under attack by Republican state officials, new federal regulations protecting them from discrimination at school were a welcome sign that someone in power had their back. But within two days of new...
A water crisis in Mississippi turns into a fight against privatization
This story was first published by Grist original here. In the summer of 2022, heavy rainfall damaged a water treatment plant in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, precipitating a high-profile public health crisis. The Republican Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, as thousands of residents were told to boil their water before drinking it. For some, the pressure in their taps was so low that they couldn’t flush their toilets and were forced to rely on bottled water for weeks.
Virginia's 'tech tax' ignites debate on business taxes
Many states in recent years have extended their sales tax to include digital services consumers use in an effort to bring their tax codes into the 21st century. But Virginia ventured into unexplored territory earlier this year when budget negotiations also applied the tax to business-to-business transactions. The plan was...
State-level conservation action sparks hope for nature
Recent headlines about the state of our planet’s health have been pretty grim. Over one-third of animal and plant species in the U.S. are now at risk of extinction. Climate change is accelerating, and we’re losing a football field’s worth of natural area to development every 30 seconds. Meanwhile, political news out of Washington can make it seem like there’s a bitter partisan divide over whether or not to protect more land, water and wildlife—obscuring the strong support for conservation that Democrats and Republicans share. Thankfully, there’s hope. In state capitals around the country, leaders are stepping up and demonstrating how the nation can tackle the nature crisis head-on.
This state’s ‘unsexy’ AI policy takes transparency to the next level
Connecticut is advancing sweeping legislation and rules to regulate artificial intelligence, not just with strong requirements on consumer protection, deepfakes and false political messaging, but also on transparency. The Connecticut Senate last week approved a bill along party lines to regulate AI in the state. The legislation now goes to...
States rethink data centers as ‘electricity hogs’ strain the grid
This story was first published by Stateline. Read the original here. State Sen. Norm Needleman championed the 2021 legislation designed to lure major data centers to Connecticut. The Democratic lawmaker hoped to better compete with nearby states, bring in a growing industry, and provide paychecks for workers tasked with building...
US long-term care costs are sky-high, but one state's plan to help pay for them could be nixed
This article is republished from The Conversation original article. If you needed long-term care, could you afford it?. For many Americans, especially those with a middle-class income and little savings, the answer to that question is absolutely not. Nursing homes charge somewhere around US$100,000 a year, while frequent visits from...
90 years after 'Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,' are workers any safer?
Many of us have seen the iconic 1932 photograph, “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper.” Taken during the construction of the building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, it shows 11 workers casually eating lunch on a steel beam 850 feet above ground, with no harnesses or safety provisions. The photograph, which was actually a publicity stunt, is iconic for various reasons: Some celebrate it as embodying the spirit of our country’s workers and their contributions to building our cities. Others may find it shocking: the courage of the workers, the danger they faced and the appalling lack of measures to ensure their physical well-being.
States take aim at local basic income programs
12 million households in the U.S. in 2022, most of their paychecks went toward rent, underscoring the nation’s dire housing affordability crisis. And with little money left over to cover other expenses, like medical bills or car maintenance, one expert says, families are at a higher risk of experiencing eviction or, in worst cases, homelessness if they fall behind on payments.
How states can take a ‘quantum’ leap in economic development
Artificial intelligence has clearly captured the imagination of state and local government leaders. But it wasn’t AI that brought CIOs and tech leaders together in Washington, D.C., last week. Rather, it was a lesser known emerging technology called quantum. Compared to AI, quantum technology is still very much in...
Republican attorneys general mount a new attack on the EPA’s use of civil rights law
This story was originally published by Grist original here. For much of its 53-year history, the Environmental Protection Agency let civil rights complaints languish. From Flint, Michigan, to the industrial corridors of the Deep South, communities attempting to use federal civil rights law to clean up the pollution in their neighborhoods were largely met with years of silence as their cases piled up in the agency’s backlog. That changed in 2020, after a federal judge ruled that the EPA must conduct timely investigations of civil rights complaints, and staffers began looking into cases where they identified potential discrimination.
State legislators are taking the maternal mortality crisis into their own hands
This story was originally published by The 19th. As efforts to address the country’s maternal mortality crisis have stalled at the federal level, advocates and lawmakers are increasingly turning to statewide maternal mortality review committees to make progress — and try to save lives. Guttmacher Institute, one of...
Southern governors raise pressure in fights with auto unions
Republican officials are gearing up for more fights over unionization efforts at auto plants after a historic vote in Tennessee last week. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law Monday that bars companies that get big tax incentives from the state for building mega-projects, such as auto factories, from voluntarily recognizing unions without a secret ballot. Alabama lawmakers followed suit later in the week, approving a similar measure there. The bills are based on a Tennessee law passed last year, which the conservative group the American Legislative Exchange Council has been promoting.
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