Relative of Kansas Gov. Slams His Budget Proposal; Colo. Lawmakers May Pursue Tax Hike

STATE BUDGETS | Cindy Brownback, who is married to a cousin of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, is steamed over the Republican governor’s plan to increase taxes on alcohol and tobacco to help fix the state’s struggling finances. Why? Cindy Brownback is the general manager of seven Cigarette Outlet locations in Kansas. “I’ve been in this business for 21 years,” she said. “Every time the state has an issue, this group of people are the ones they always attack, which is totally unfair. If the governor cannot balance his budget, then he needs to propose a tax that every person that lives in the state of Kansas pays their fair share." [The Garden City Telegram]

STATE LEGISLATURES | Colorado’s transportation infrastructure needs over the next 10 years are so great, lawmakers in the Centennial State are considering an idea that would normally have been dead on arrival: a tax increase. A bipartisan effort is underway to craft a measure for the November ballot to increase taxes to fund needed road projects. [The Denver Post]

As Washington state lawmakers struggle to figure out a way to properly fund public education and comply with the state Supreme Court’s McCleary ruling, some of the discussion has turned to a voter improved initiative to reduce classroom size and add guidance counselors, school nurses and social workers. State lawmakers in Olympia, knowing they couldn’t afford the costs of I-1351, voted to suspend parts of the initiative in 2015, but some want to revisit that decision. Republicans would like repeal all of I-1351. [The News Tribune]

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has proposed a major package of ethics reforms for the state legislature. The Republican governor said during a news conference of the steps of the State House that the proposal follows through on his promises of "cleaning up the mess of Annapolis and restoring integrity to our state capital." [The Baltimore Sun]

At the Idaho State Capitol, lawmakers might consider two bills that call for a U.S. Constitutional Convention, though both measures are expected to have an uphill fight. [The Lewiston Tribune via Idaho Statesman]

CITY HALLS | Members of the Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved the hiring of a city hall “immigration advocate,” the latest municipal effort in the nation’s second-largest city to help shield immigrants from deportation by the Trump administration. [Los Angeles Times]

In San Bernardino, California, plans are underway to vacate the seismically vulnerable city hall. Independent engineering assessments have indicated that city hall would collapse in a magnitude 6.0 earthquake. Municipal offices will relocate to multiple locations by April, when the last local agency is set to relocate to a safer building. [San Bernardino Sun]

LAW ENFORCEMENT | A police cruiser was the apparent target of an explosive device that went off outside a police station in South Boston on Friday. “Someone set this deliberately to blow up one of our cruisers,” Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told reporters. “It’s troubling that anyone would do this.’’ The explosion, fueled by a propane tank, didn’t cause any injuries. [The Boston Globe]

INFRASTRUCTURE | A significant fracture on a bridge truss has prompted transportation officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to close a major crossing of the Delaware River that links the two states upriver from Philadelphia. "This was a unique and complete fracture, which may have happened quickly due to changing weather conditions," according to the chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. "We are stabilizing the bridge now to prevent further movement. However, out of an abundance of caution and to protect traveler safety, the bridge must remain closed until a full-scale analysis and repair plan have been completed." [The Inquirer / Philly.com]

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT | Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency following severe storms that ripped through portions of his state over the weekend, killing at least 11 people, including seven people at a mobile home park. Four people were killed In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, when a tornado tore through southern Mississippi. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Hattiesburg American]

Emergency managers in Southern California ordered evacuations for residents living near areas burned in recent wildfires ahead of Pacific storms that are expected to dump major rainfall on the region. The storms, which could cause mudslides in mountainous and hilly areas, are expected to be the most powerful to hit the Los Angeles area since 2014. [Southern California Public Radio / KPCC]

SOCIAL MEDIA | When Pat McCrory left the North Carolina governorship at the beginning of the month, the Republican administration didn’t give its Democratic successor passwords and account information for the governor’s official social media accounts. "My understanding is there were conversations with the transition team about turning them over," said Ford Porter, a spokesman for the administration of new governor Roy Cooper. "Ultimately, they did not." [NCCapitol / WRAL-TV]

WATER QUALITY | A retired general practitioner who helped jump-start a community health study in Ohio and West Virginia water systems downriver from a DuPont chemical plant that discharged toxic perfluorooctanoic acid into the Ohio River says that many local water suppliers downriver aren’t taking the threat from perfluorooctanoic acid, of C8, seriously enough. The water manager in Portsmouth, Ohio, says that his agency isn’t planning to test for C8 unless there is more guidance from the Trump administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. [The Columbus Dispatch]

The EPA has fined the operator of a dockside terminal in Honolulu $725,000 following a 2013 incident that saw 233,000 gallons of sugarcane molasses spill into the harbor and kill 25,000 fish. [Honolulu Civil Beat]

MARIJUANA | Members of the city council in Springfield, Massachusetts, are considering a one-year moratorium on the sale of recreational marijuana to give the city enough time to draft local regulations following voter approval of recreational marijuana in the commonwealth in November. [The Republican / MassLive.com]