In addition to the major blow that would be to Louisiana's
economy, it could also significantly alter the state's political landscape.
Due to its low-wage economy and underperforming schools, Louisiana's population
has been declining over the past decade, leading demographers and political
experts to speculate that the state might lose one of its seven Congressional
seats - and federal dollars along with it - after the 2010 census. Now,
they say, that prospect is a virtual certainty. The hurricanes could also
bring big changes at the state level. Just days after Katrina made landfall,
Baton Rouge replaced New Orleans as the state's largest city. If displaced
residents refuse to return to Orleans Parish, its influence over state
politics - with 21 seats in the House and Senate located either inside
or adjacent to its borders - could be reduced. Where New Orleans evacuees
choose to reside could also have implications for the state's Democrats
in general, who control both the Legislature and the governor's office.
According to Roy Fletcher, a political consultant who helped elect former
Republican Gov. Mike Foster, if large numbers of former residents of New
Orleans' Ninth Ward - a solidly Democratic bloc of 30,000 mostly black
voters - were to relocate to suburban or rural areas, "It would give a
whole lot of a stronger foothold to Republicans in the Legislature and
statewide." Elaborating, Fletcher said, "Louisiana has always been a swing
state, a purple state that's both blue and red. You take the Ninth Ward
out of that equation and you get a real shot of Republicans winning statewide
office." (NEW YORK TIMES)
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
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OF PAGE
The
Week in Session
States in Regular
Session: DC, MA, MI, PA, US, WI
States in Skeleton Session:
OH
States in Special Session:
CT "b", MS "a", NM "a", PA "a", SD "a"
States in Recess:
CA, IL, NH, NJ
Special Sessions in Recess:
CA "a", DE "a", OK "a"
States Adjourned in 2005:
AK, AL, AR, AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD,
ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT,
VA, VT, WA, WV, WY
States in Special Session
Adjourned in 2005: AK "a", AL "a", CT "a", GA "a", KS "a", ME "a",
ME "b", MN "a", MO "a", MS "a", MS "b", MS "c", MS "d", NV "a", TX "a",
TX "b", UT "a", VT "a", WI "a", WV "a", WV "b", WV "c", WV "d"
Letters
indicate special/extraordinary sessions
Compiled
By JAMES ROSS| Data current as of 10/07/05 | Source: State
Net database
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PAGE
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Budget & taxes
KATRINA SPURS GOP RETURN TO ROOTS:
With estimates of the federal costs for Hurricane Katrina relief
and reconstruction approaching $200 billion -- on top of a current budget
deficit of $330 billion -- Republican congressional leaders have begun
work on a package of spending cuts to Medicaid and other programs. The
leaders say they want to trim as much as $40 billion in spending when they
resume budget talks this month. And they say the cuts will likely affect
every domestic program, except for defense, homeland security and "entitlement"
programs like Social Security. As potent a motivating force as Katrina
is, the cost-cutting effort appears to have been prompted by more than
just economic necessity. "This is an opportunity for the Republican Party
to reconnect itself with the country on an issue that matters -- the issue
of not borrowing money to solve every problem that happens on our watch,"
said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SOUTH CAROLINA), who serves on the Senate
Budget Committee. That sentiment was echoed by Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OHIO),
chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, who characterized the move
as the way "we can best get back to our Republican principles of smarter,
leaner government." And supporters of this return to traditional Republican
ideals are using the leadership disruption created by the indictment last
week of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TEXAS) as leverage to make it
happen. "As long as the leadership displays a renewed commitment to fiscal
discipline, they will enjoy the confidence of the members," said Rep. Jeff
Flake (R-ARIZONA). But the spending cuts will not be easy politically,
given that Congress just made $35 billion in cuts in the spring. Further
reductions in Medicaid funding will be particularly difficult after
the abject poverty exposed by Katrina. "It's unconscionable," said former
presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MASSACHUSETTS). "A cut to Medicaid
pushes more people into poverty. It takes more kids off of healthcare.
It's moving in the wrong direction for the wrong reasons." (BOSTON GLOBE)
BLANCO PITCHES RECOVERY PLAN: At
a meeting last week with business and community leaders from across the
state, LOUISIANA Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) outlined a series of initiatives
designed to lure people and businesses back to New Orleans. The proposals
consisted mainly of generous federal income tax breaks, including a 50
percent tax holiday through 2010 for earned income from wages, rental payments
and other forms of earnings, and a home reconstruction tax break of up
to $50,000. Rather than requiring huge outlays of federal dollars, the
proposals would simply oblige the federal government to take in less revenue
from the state's residents. But one major issue that remains unresolved
is what specific areas of the state will be eligible for the tax breaks.
The governor's emergency declarations did not specify particular parishes,
and several of her proposals currently state that benefits would apply
to people located in a region defined only nebulously as the "Hurricane
Katrina impact area." (TIMES-PICAYUNE [NEW ORLEANS])
MS APPROVES CASINO MOVE TO DRY LAND -- ALMOST:
The MISSISSIPPI Senate agreed last week to a House plan (HB
45) that would allow the state's hurricane-battered coastal casinos to
move 800 feet onto shore. The measure approved by the House two weeks ago
was nearly derailed in the Senate by the long-running religious debate
over gambling as well as efforts by various members to alter its provisions.
But pleas from coastal legislators finally won passage of the bill
last Monday on a 29-21 vote. That was welcome news to Larry Gregory, director
of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, who said plans were already in the
works for "buildings bigger and better than what was on the Coast a month
ago. It will be a first-class resort destination with plenty of jobs, opportunities
and hope." Things took another turn, however, the following day when the
chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee, Jack Gordon (D), held
up HB 45 to leverage a deal on tideland leases that many casinos pay the
state. The Senate completed that deal, passing a bill that would require
casinos to pay 1 percent of their gross gaming revenues into the state's
tidelands fund. But the House balked at the arrangement and, at press time,
conferees from the two chambers were meeting to work out their differences.
(CLARION-LEDGER [JACKSON], ASSOCIATED PRESS, BOSTON GLOBE, SUN HERALD [BILOXI]
BUDGETS IN BRIEF: The U.S. Supreme
Court -- led by new Chief Justice John Roberts -- began deliberations last
week on whether KANSAS can tax distributors who sell fuel to a gas station
located on an Indian reservation. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in Denver, COLORADO ruled that the tax violated tribal sovereignty despite
the fact that it was not directly imposed on the tribe. Thirteen other
states that tax gasoline and have Indian reservations within their borders
have filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Sunflower State (ASSOCIATED
PRESS, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, KANSAS CITY STAR). * Last week, New Orleans
Mayor Ray Nagin laid off 3,000 city workers and warned that additional
layoffs might be necessary. The city's tax revenue base is gone and negotiations
for state and federal funding have so far proved fruitless (TIMES-PICAYUNE
[NEW ORLEANS]). * MCI Inc. has agreed to pay $331 million to 16 states
and the District of Columbia to settle fraud accusations stemming from
the telecommunications giant's tax filings from 1999 to 2002. State officials
had alleged that transfers between the company's subsidiaries were illegally
classified as business expenses, exempt from state taxation (RUTLAND HERALD).
* NORTH CAROLINA's Court of Appeals upheld a September 2001 law establishing
a new 8.25 percent tax rate for the state's highest wage-earners. The taxpayers
who sued to block that law plan to appeal the decision (ASSOCIATED PRESS,
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL). * The Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked
more than 7,600 FLORIDA residents to give back $30.3 million in emergency
aid they received in connection with last year's hurricanes. FEMA
says many of those residents obtained insurance settlements after receiving
the federal money and FEMA, by law, cannot duplicate insurance coverage
(ORLANDO SENTINEL). * MICHIGAN Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) signed a $41
billion state budget that does not raise taxes, provides more money for
K-12 education -- the first such increase in three years -- and spares
low-income residents from being cut from the state's Medicaid and welfare
programs (ASSOCIATED PRESS, LANSING STATE JOURNAL).
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
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Politics &
leadership
LABOR STRONG-ARMS SCHWARZENEGGER SUPPORTERS:
For the past 6 months, CALIFORNIA's powerful labor unions have been battering
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) with television attack ads, which have sent
his approval rating tumbling. Now, with a special election on the governor's
"reform agenda" just weeks away, the unions have turned to a new tactic
which has actually managed to raise the level of hostilities between the
opposing camps. One of the Schwarzenegger-backed measures slated for the
Nov. 8 ballot -- Proposition 75 -- would bar public employee unions from
using dues for political purposes without the consent of their members,
which unions fear would strengthen the power of big business at their expense.
And although unions have amassed over $70 million to fight Schwarzenegger's
proposals -- more than twice as much money as the governor has raised --
Prop. 75 is currently favored by a majority of the state's voters, according
to polls. That state of affairs evidently inspired labor leaders to send
a letter last month to potential corporate donors to the Prop. 75 campaign
-- including Bank of America, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard and dozens of others
-- warning that union members would be informed about which companies supported
the measure. The message was not well received by the president of California's
Chamber of Commerce, Allan Zaremberg. "The letter was clearly intended
to intimidate businesses and threaten them," he said. Schwarzenegger's
communications director, Bob Stutzman -- not one to mince words -- called
the letter "complete thuggery." That comment prompted an equally belligerent
retort from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D): "A lot of people I'm talking
to feel they're being shaken down by the governor's fundraising team. They're
being threatened. And so, if anybody is using thuggery to get around, it's
the governor's fundraising team." Stutzman, unsurprisingly, shot back,
saying, "the only time I've ever heard the word `shakedown' used in this
town is after people get off the phone with the speaker himself. He'd know
a shakedown when he sees one." (LOS ANGELES TIMES, KCRA.COM)
POLITICS IN BRIEF: Charles "Ken"
Zisa's narrow victory in the Sept. 15 special election to fill NEW JERSEY's
37th District Senate seat was invalidated last week, when a superior court
judge ordered the counting of five disputed ballots. The ruling effectively
gave the seat, vacated by retiring Sen. Byron Baer (D), to Assemblywoman
Loretta Weinberg (D). Zisa plans to appeal the decision (NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER
[NEWARK], RECORD OF BERGEN COUNTY). * Also in NEW JERSEY, Gov. Richard
J. Codey (D) has stripped Attorney General Peter Harvey of much of his
control over the state's Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT). The move came
in response to an ongoing turf battle between the attorney general and
state police over anti-terror authority and funding, culminating in Harvey's
unauthorized transfer last Monday of 25 state troopers from the OCT to
the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (TIMES [TRENTON], NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER
[NEWARK]). * CONNECTICUT Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) has called for a special
session on Oct. 11 to consider campaign finance reform. The announcement
earned the governor a gentle rebuke from the state's Jewish lawmakers,
who were "surprised and mildly perplexed" that the session was scheduled
so close to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown Oct.
12 and ends after sunset Oct. 13. Rell responded that there was nothing
to prevent lawmakers from breaking to observe the holiday (HARTFORD COURANT).
* MINNESOTA Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) sent a letter to the four top leaders
of the Legislature last week that "cordially invited" them to meet with
him in his office to discuss the possibility of a fall special session
on new stadiums for the state's professional sports teams, among other
things. The governor had sent the leaders a "menu" of potential special
session items the week before, but none of the leaders made any selections.
Sen. Minority Leader Dick Day (R) placed the odds of a session at no better
than 25-30 percent, saying that his caucus is burnt out from the regular
session and has no desire to return to St. Paul (MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE).
* The chairman of TENNESSEE's Black Caucus said last Monday that the group
is considering whether to allow nonblack lawmakers to join. The deliberations
were prompted by a white Republican lawmaker's comment two weeks ago that
the caucus was more restrictive than the Ku Klux Klan (COMMERCIAL APPEAL
[MEMPHIS]).
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
TOP OF PAGE
Governors
State Net Capitol Journal Editor Rich Ehisen is on vacation.
This column will return the week of October 24, 2005.
TOP
OF PAGE
UPCOMING STORIES
Feds push IPv6: Will
states follow?
Bear of a problem: de-listing
the grizzly
TEXAS telcos get free
pass into cable; will other states follow suit?
And many more...
TOP OF
PAGE
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Hot issues
State Net Capitol Journal Editor Rich Ehisen is on vacation.
This column will return the week of October 24, 2005. TOP
OF PAGE
UPCOMING
ELECTIONS
(10/06/2005 - 10/27/2005)
10/11/2005
Mississippi runoff if needed
House
086
TOP
OF PAGE
|
Once
around the statehouse lightly
"RACHE" The Los Angeles
Times found that word scrawled across its request for an interview with
CALIFORNIA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those familiar with the Sherlock
Holmes adventure "A Study in Scarlet" know that it isn't the name "Rachel"
written by a distracted victim of ADD. It's the German word for "revenge."
Schwarzenegger, responding to a request from an often ignored Capitol Correspondents
Association, recently granted a series of 30-minute interviews with newspapers.
The big battalions were treated to private sessions while "smaller papers"
were lumped together for their sit-downs. But, reports Capitol Weekly,
the state's largest newspaper was shunned altogether; the Times wasn't
invited because the governor is miffed at the way the paper has covered
his administration. Meanwhile, another print behemoth had to endure the
insult of being labeled "small," despite the fact that the San Diego Union-Tribune
owns the third largest circulation in the state.
WAR (YAWN) PROTESTS: Iraqi War protesters
in MARYLAND had hoped to rally support for their cause in the most likely
of places -- a college campus. But as The Baltimore Sun reports, this ain't
your daddy's police action. A generation ago, anti-Vietnam War protests
spilled across campus quads from MAINE to HAWAII. Not so this time. Apathy
seems to be in the way. An attempt to sign up students at Johns Hopkins
University for a national march on Washington netted a total of 45 participants
-- and that included both grad students and faculty. Some 500 did attend
a subsequent campus event featuring protesting mom Cindy Sheehan, but many
came out of curiosity rather than passion. Maybe students would pay more
attention if some of them were being hauled away by a military draft.
MY MISTAKE: Folks in the small town
of Mason, MICHIGAN, were more than a little bent out of shape recently
when it was revealed that one of the 100 Hurricane Katrina victims they
had taken in and sheltered turned out to be...well...not so victimized.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Kim Horn turned up in Mason after
the storm, claiming that her LOUISIANA home had been totaled and that she
had lost everything. It was a particularly poignant story, given that Horn
had been raised in Mason before moving to the Bayou State some 25 years
ago. Townsfolk rushed to her aide, providing a house furnished with everything
from DVD players to clothes and food. Only then did they discover that
Horn's Louisiana home was in Leesville -- far from the mangled coast. More
significant, the house wasn't damaged and she had lost nothing. Horn has
been arrested, and Masonites are focusing their attentions on the 99 other
Katrina victims who have taken up residence there.
COSTLY BRAVADO: Never mind that
driving around in a pickup truck without benefit of a seat belt is bonehead,
knuckle-dragging behavior -- now the practice has cost GEORGIA some $20.7
million in federal highway funds. Because, notes the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Georgia lawmakers refused to require truck owners to buckle up, the state
will forfeit money earmarked for highway safety programs. One legislator
explained that opposition to a mandatory seat belt law is "legend" in rural
Georgia, although some dispute that notion. Meanwhile, the Peach State
remains one of only two states with no mandatory law. The other is INDIANA.
THE RIGHT TO LIE: A three-judge
panel in WASHINGTON state has affirmed the right of political candidates
to lie about their opponents -- under the guise of free speech. According
to the Associated Press, jurists overturned a conviction because the state
law against making "false statements of material fact sponsored with actual
malice" does not require that the defamed person suffer any damage to his
or her reputation. So, in Washington now, it's okay to accuse an opponent
of, say, having once committed murder if, in fact, that opponent isn't
harmed by the accusation. That would seem to make it open season on politicians
because any charge hurled during the heat of a political campaign is likely
to be ignored by the public anyway and could, therefore, never damage someone's
reputation. It's just political white noise.
-- By A.G. BLOCK
TOP OF PAGE
In
The Hopper
State Net tracks
tens of thousands of bills in all 50 states and Congress at any given time.
Here's a snapshot of what's in the legislative works:
Number of 2005 prefiles
last week: 83
Number of 2005 Intros
last week: 344
Number of bills enacted/adopted
last week: 408
Number of 2005 prefiles
to date: 35,330
Number of 2005 Intros
to date: 159,056
Number of enacted/adopted
overall in 2005: 38,720
Compiled
By JAMES ROSS | Data current as of 10/06/05 | Source: State Net database
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PAGE
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In case you missed
it: Intelligent Design
In recent years,
many opponents of evolution have been pressuring school boards across the
country to require teaching the theory of intelligent design -- the concept
that life is to complex to have developed without the help of an intelligent
creator --alongside Darwin's theory in science class. Supporters say ID
is based on legitimate science; many teachers and scientists complain it
is a back-door way to force religion into the classroom.
In case you missed it, the
full story can be viewed on our Web site at www.statenet.com
(See
archives under the Resources tab)
TOP OF
PAGE
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Editor: Rich
Ehisen
Associate Editor: Korey
Clark
Contributing Editor: A.G.
Block
Editorial Advisor: Lou Cannon
Correspondents: Richard Cox (CA),
Steve Karas (CA),
Bruce McKeeman (CA), Linda Mendenhall (IL),
Lauren King (MA) and Ben Livingood (PA)
Design: Richard Hansen, Heather
Conway
Copyright 2005 State Net
ISSN: 1521-8449
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