An Annoying Hiccup to Complete New Jersey’s Budget Deal

Good morning! It's Monday, July 2 and state budget news leads our roundup of state and local government news from around the United States. But scroll down for more, including news from places like Elko, Nevada; Kansas City, Missouri; San Francisco, California; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Miami-Dade County, Florida and Spartanburg, South Carolina ...

STATE BUDGETS | Lawmakers in New Jersey struck a last-minute budget deal on Saturday night to avert a state government shutdown. But there were some loose ends to tie up on Sunday with the $37.4 billion plan. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy summoned legislators to Trenton at 7 a.m. where they found out that the “technical aspects of [Saturday] night’s budget deal have not been worked out,” requiring a “considerable time to correct the issues” before a final vote. But all worked out by the end of the weekend: "We came, we waited and we got it done," State Senate President Steve Sweeney, also a Democrat, said Sunday night. [Politico New Jersey; New Jersey Globe; NJ.com]

Next door in Delaware, state leaders got their new budget—one that includes one-time bonuses for current and retired state employees—wrapped up on Friday with Democratic Gov. John Carney signing a $4.27 billion operating budget bill. This year, there wasn’t much budget drama in Dover: “The relatively easy passage came in stark comparison to last year's budget signing, which ran past its June 30 deadline for the first time in decades.” Last week, Carney signed an executive order that will study potential new “fiscal controls and budget smoothing mechanisms” that aims to help Delaware “take a more sustainable, long-term approach to annual budgeting.” [News Journal / DelawareOnline.com; Gov. John Carney]

Only a few weeks after he assumed Missouri’s governorship following Eric Greitens’ resignation, Gov. Mike Parson signed a $28.6 billion fiscal 2019 budget legislative package on Friday, with 21 line-item vetoes. Parson, a Republican, approved a provision that blocks Medicaid reimbursement to health care providers that perform abortions, which was included as an amendment by state House lawmakers to target Planned Parenthood. [The Kansas City Star]

LAW ENFORCEMENT TECHNOLOGY | Following Thursday’s mass shooting at The Capital-Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, law enforcement in Anne Arundel County used facial recognition technology to identify the uncooperative suspect, Jerrod Ramos, among 10 million photographs in the Maryland Image Repository System. [Baltimore Sun; Ars Technica]

The police department in Grand Forks, North Dakota is among the few law enforcement agencies in the nation to manage its own storage for body-camera video footage. That is something that requires more staff resources—”it's time consuming, and there's always some ongoing equipments costs, but it makes the footage more accessible to officers and the public.” [Grand Forks Herald]

Among cities where leaders have recently OK’d new police body camera purchases: Hartford, Connecticut and Elko, Nevada. Meanwhile, Kansas City, Missouri is inching closer to having its own program, though there’s no current timeline for implementation. [NECN; Elko Daily Correspondent; The Kansas City Star]

WILDFIRES | Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area woke up Sunday to find the region enveloped in wildfire smoke and ash from various Northern California wildfires. The “thick, blazing yellow sky looked eerie, like a scene out of a dystopian film” and ashfall blanketed streets in San Francisco. As firefighters continue to battle the Pawnee Fire in Lake County, the County Fire flared up in Yolo County this weekend fueled by hot and windy conditions. More than 32,500 acres have been impacted by that fire. [San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate; Los Angeles Times]

Numerous wildfires continue across western states, including multiple blazes in tinder dry Colorado covering approximately 100,000 acres; in Utah, where a new fire started Sunday afternoon near Strawberry Reservoir southeast of Salt Lake City; and in Curry County, Oregon, where a human-caused blaze started Sunday and quickly grew to 300 acres. [The Denver Post; Deseret News; Statesman Journal]

ELSEWHERE …

• Lansing, Michigan:  Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is supporting a Michigan group's goal to “terminate gerrymandering.” [MLive.com]

• Spartanburg, South Carolina: A South Carolina funeral home left a body to rot for years in a “corrupt” system that protects operators. [The Post and Courier]

• Duluth, Minnesota: City and county officials have put the local price tag for President Trump’s recent visit to Duluth at $90,000, which includes about $46,000 in overtime pay. [Duluth News Tribune]

• Raleigh, North Carolina: The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned a six-week session on Friday and is scheduled to return after the November elections for a lame-duck session, but the agenda is unclear. [@NCCapitol / WRAL]

• Miami-Dade County, Florida: At a hurricane shelter drill, county workers rehearsed new roles. What to do they do if ICE shows up? [Miami Herald]

• Mesquite, Nevada: A small water district wants a golf course in the Virgin River watershed to pay more, but the golf course went to court. In the middle of the dispute is Lake Mead and the Colorado River. [The Nevada Independent]

• Long Island, New York: Long Island’s two county executives and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio don’t talk often. [Newsday]

• Los Angeles, California: Mayor Eric Garcetti checked out the future Van Nuys Boulevard light-rail train route through the San Fernando Valley—by bus. [Los Angeles Daily News]

• Phoenix, Arizona: Phoenix-area renters must earn almost $20 an hour to afford an apartment. [Arizona Republic / AZCentral.com]