Kasich Has No Medicaid Back-Up Plan in Ohio; Iowa Looking at Big Changes to State Pensions
Ohio Gov. John Kasich
Connecting state and local government leaders
Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: Supporters of federal public lands rally in Montana; Tenn. governor pushing broadband proposal; and lack of transparency at issue in Salt Lake City.
MEDICAID | Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s recently released two-year budget proposal would maintain Medicaid health coverage for 3 million state residents who were included in the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid. Amid all the current uncertainty of what will ultimately happen with Obamacare with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, Kasich has no back-up plan should states like his lose Medicaid coverage. [The Columbus Dispatch]
PENSIONS | Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad confirmed Monday that a task force would be established to examine possible long-term changes to the state’s public employee pension systems. “I think it is appropriate to look at it,” the governor said. “A lot of private-sector companies have made a transition from the old system of defined benefits to defined contributions, and an advantage of that is portability.” [The Des Moines Register]
PUBLIC LANDS | Upwards of 1,000 people in support of protecting federal public lands rallied at the Montana state capitol in Helena on Monday. Senate Majority Leader Fred Thomas, a Republican, disputed the protesters’ views and said Montana would not sell public lands if they were transferred to the state. “They have their opinion and I respect their opinion, but there is no merit to their position,” he said. “If the state were to own these lands, they’d be better managed, so their position is completely fake.” [Billings Gazette]
CRIMINAL JUSTICE | Alaska legislators are weighing changes to a controversial criminal justice reform bill passed last year. The measure was supposed to save the state an estimated $380 million. It was aimed at rehabilitating offenders considered to be “low risk,” rather than sending them to jail. But some law enforcement officials are blaming the legislation for spikes in crime. Other experts say crime increases are tied to a heroin epidemic in Alaska and state budget cuts. [Alaska Dispatch News]
MARIJUANA | State lawmakers in California are expressing doubts about whether agencies will be able to create a regulations and licensing system for the sale of recreational marijuana before the deadline, the end of this year. Voters approved recreational use in a ballot initiative in November of last year. Now, it’s up to state officials to figure out how to oversee that industry by Jan. 1, 2018. [Los Angeles Times]
BROADBAND | Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is supporting a legislative effort to allow private and non-profit electric co-ops to provide broadband services, though not allow them to subsidize the internet offerings by using electricity assets. The legislation would not lift the state’s prohibitions on city governments from providing broadband outside their municipal limits. [Ars Technica]
DISASTER RECOVERY | North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper visited Fayetteville as part of a visit to areas impacted by Hurricane Matthew last fall. "All of these are complex problems, but you only fix them if the community, state and federal officials work together,” the governor said. Thus far, nearly 82,000 North Carolina residents have requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency following the hurricane. [Fayetteville Observer]
TRANSPARENCY | The Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and the City Council its Black Hole Award for closing meetings, siting four new homeless shelters, to the public. So much for transparency in government. [Standard Examiner]
LOCKDOWNS | A group of local attorneys are arguing Miami-Dade County violated the First Amendment by locking down County Hall and having police block off streets, when a group of protesters marched on the government building. The protesters took issue with Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s decision to uphold President Trump’s immigration executive order. [Miami New Times]
RELIGION | Spokane, Washington’s City Council unanimously voted 7-0 to defy President Trump should he ever require the municipality to keep a Muslim registry. Hundreds of people packed into City Hall for discussion of the emergency ordinance. [KHQ-TV]
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