Transgender Inmate Sues Over Florida DOC 'Cruelty'; L.A. Wants Airbnb Taxes Now
Connecting state and local government leaders
Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: Kentucky gov.'s probe allowed to continue; Anchorage fights homelessness; and terminating 250 jobs won't save N.J. city much
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
LGBT | State men’s prisons deny transgender women medical treatment, according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections. Lee County Jail stopped 22-year-old Reiyn Keohane’s hormone therapy that she began at age 19. The DOC’s treatment of Keohane has led her to attempt suicide and self-castration. "In the years I have been incarcerated, I have been made to endure more cruelty by the State of Florida than I ever imagined the government could commit. I am a transgender woman—but to the classification officers there is no such thing," Keohane wrote. "I have been forced to strip with men, and been slapped and hit for telling the officers in charge of the search that the rules say I must be searched separately. I have been handcuffed, thrown to the ground, and held down so officers could shave my head. I have been called a punk, a sissy, and a [explicit]; I have been beaten while handcuffed for asking to see mental health professionals." [United Press International]
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
AIRBNB | A coalition of labor groups wants the city to void Airbnb’s agreement to pay hotel taxes for its short-term rental hosts. Hotel and affordable housing advocates argue taxation without regulation legitimizes an illegal industry. Airbnb isn’t required to disclose certain information required for tax audits. The tax revenue collected will go toward “rapid re-housing” vouchers helping the homeless with housing costs. “I do not want to delay for a second collecting funds that can get people off the streets and into homes…” said Councilman Mike Bonin. [MyNewsLA]
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY
PROBE | A legislative committee upheld Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s $500,000 contract with a law firm to investigate former Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat. "The appearance of what you are doing with this contract is the greatest abuse of public power I have ever witnessed in my 50 years of being in Kentucky state government," said state Sen. Julian Carroll, a Democrat and former governor. The firm Taft, Stettinius & Hollister has numerous Republican connections, but state Republican lawmakers argue it’s no different than when Beshear contracted out to his old firm. Still, Bevin is not awarding the cheapest bid but rather the larger firm with more resources and attorneys who have donated to Republican candidates— drawing accusations of pay to play. [WCPO]
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
HOMELESSNESS | Modeled after a creative approach by Washington’s King County, Anchorage has launched a program to get more of its homeless residents out of tent camps and into homes and apartments. As part of the program, Andy Mergens—the city’s “landlord liaison”—calls up city property managers and landlords to make a pitch. Mergens wants these men and women to agree to relax screening criteria and consider renting to tenants who may have bad credit, patchy job histories, and mental health or substance abuse problems. In exchange, these landlords can access a 24-hour help hotline, can contact case managers if problems arise and will be reimbursed by the program if property is damaged. "The idea is to basically provide a backstop to the landlord that says, 'OK, I'm willing to take on this more high-risk person,' in the event things go south," Mergens said. [Alaska Dispatch News]
PATERSON, NEW JERSEY
LAYOFFS | If a layoff plan in Paterson goes through, almost one quarter of the civilian employees in city government could be out of their jobs by January 15. Because the cuts would take place more than halfway into the fiscal year, and the city would have to pay laid-off workers’ unemployment benefits, the overall savings from this measure are relatively sparse. Terminating 250 jobs would produce just $587,223 for the current budget. City officials have not yet produced a list of which jobs are at risk, but they have said that cuts would not target police officers and firefighters—the two largest portions of the salary appropriations. These terminations may be avoided if the City Council manages to approve a $149.2 million preliminary tax levy, but the measure proposed by the administration has been rejected three times in the past six weeks. [NorthJersey.com]
NEXT STORY: Decried as Unfair, Taxes on Groceries Persist in Some States