Elections
Covering topics such as governors, legislatures, local government, redistricting and voting.
The payoff from effective personnel policies is a heightened sense of residents’ confidence in government and quality of life.
With three statewide measures on the Nov. 2 ballot, voters will have to decide on a retail marijuana sales tax increase, a property tax cut and legislative oversight of state spending.
The governor wants Congress to expand Medicaid coverage to those eligible at no cost to the state government. The workaround could be passed through the Medicaid Saves Lives Act or as part of the annual federal budget.
The pay increase would affect about 146 workers and would cost about $300,000 per year. The resolution would make Santa Fe the first government in New Mexico to offer a $15 minimum wage for employees.
New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the stay-at-home and other emergency orders enacted by officials in response to the coronavirus pandemic likely saved thousands of lives in the region.
Hotter days are increasing in Baltimore and can put vulnerable populations at risk. To combat the heat, the city is opening cooling centers, replacing blacktop with heat reflective material and expanding tree coverage.
With a 6-2 vote, the Texas city has overridden the mayor’s veto of issuing $96 million in nonvoter approved debt. As of August 2020, El Paso was Texas’ top-ranked city for outstanding certificates of obligation debt.
The Pierce County, Wash., auditor confirmed that five dead people voted in the 2020 presidential election, and three people are being tried for the “tribute votes.” The confirmation only shows that voter fraud prevention efforts worked.
The goal of having nonpartisan elections is not to remove all politics from governing but to remove a conflict point that keeps a school board from doing its job.
Hurricane Ida has done immense damage to Louisiana’s power infrastructure, leaving millions without power. Some lawmakers hope the damage will help convince some GOP members to support the proposed infrastructure package.
The state’s Health Department has changed the way it reports COVID-related death data to the CDC which gives an appearance of a pandemic in decline, despite the continued spread of the delta variant.
A “light density” proposal that would loosen zoning laws to allow duplexes and lot splitting in residential neighborhoods across the state is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Many suburban homeowner groups oppose the bill.
Counties range in size from thousands of residents to millions, with varied levels of responsibility and efficiency. Some advocate shrinking the number of them, but that raises questions both practical and sentimental.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has reopened conversations about the state’s marijuana cultivation, distribution and sales program that was created in March, saying that regulating and starting the program will be a priority.
Several state lawmakers have voiced their support for the voting rights bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week. But the bill must still pass the Senate and remains highly partisan.
States are launching cyber navigator programs to help election officials protect their systems from cyber threats, by helping break down the highly technical skills of cybersecurity into practical next steps.
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