State Legislatures articles from March 2005

State Legislatures archives from March 2005

Staff have something to say.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Editor: I'm a faithful reader of State Legislatures and I appreciated seeing a few legislative staff members quoted in the January issue. As members of NCSL, legislative staff appreciate the partnership--at the forums, on the executive...

Making a better Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Editor: I read with interest your article by Chris Frates ("Fiscal Folly," January 2005), in which he largely blames Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights for the state's budget challenges. Unfortunately, he failed to mention that the...

Who has the most women legislators?(Update)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... UPDATE WHO HAS THE MOST WOMEN LEGISLATORS? Final tabulation changed the statistics about women legislators reported in the January issue. There are now 1,662 women serving in the 50 states, representing 22.5 percent of total...

Wyoming senator is health care expert.(Brief Review)
March 1, 2005... Fixing Our Broken Health Care System by Charles Scott. 2004. Endeavor Books--Mountain States Litho, Casper, Wyo., 232 pages, $19.95. (800) 548-9340 or msl@mtslitho.com It's apparent that Wyoming State Senator Charles Scott paid attention...

Saving on pharmaceuticals.(Statestats)
March 1, 2005... A fast-growing drug pricing program for health centers, disproportionate share hospitals, and clinics for family planning, migrant health and HIV/AIDS, also can save states money when the patients are on Medicaid. To be eligible, the local...

Tennessee Democrat John Wilder, the nation's longest serving state legislative leader, won his 18th term as speaker of the Senate.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Tennessee Democrat John Wilder, the nation's longest serving state legislative leader, won his 18th term as speaker of the Senate. Wilder's victory is especially significant since Republicans took control of the chamber for the first time since...

Wyoming's first-ever Northern Arapaho to serve in the state Legislature has started his first term and is one of only two minority members.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Wyoming's first-ever Northern Arapaho to serve in the state Legislature has started his first term and is one of only two minority members. Representative Patrick Goggles is the executive director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing. "People...

North Dakota also has some very young lawmakers.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... North Dakota also has some very young lawmakers. Representative Stacey Hotter and Senator Nick Hacker are both 23 and represent districts that include the University of North Dakota. The two freshmen Republicans are interested in keeping young...

It was a family affair when freshman Representative Jerry Weiers nominated his brother Jim Weiers for speaker of the Arizona House.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... It was a family affair when freshman Representative Jerry Weiers nominated his brother Jim Weiers for speaker of the Arizona House. Jim Weiers, who knows the ropes, won without opposition. He served as speaker in 2001 and 2002, and served the...

The South Carolina House has elected its first-ever female whip.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The South Carolina House has elected its first-ever female whip. Representative Shirley Hinson, elected to the House in 1996, said, "This will be a big job with the number of major initiatives the caucus plans to undertake this year." The GOP...

Vermont House Republican Leader Richard Hube, who won the post in December, resigned it in January, citing health reasons.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Vermont House Republican Leader Richard Hube, who won the post in December, resigned it in January, citing health reasons. "It's one of the toughest decisions I've made, but I have to address my health," he said. Hube will remain in the...

Nineteen Democrats in the Georgia House broke ranks on the opening days of session to help elect the first Republican speaker in two centuries.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Nineteen Democrats in the Georgia House broke ranks on the opening days of session to help elect the first Republican speaker in two centuries. Representative Glenn Richardson now wields the gavel, following the GOP's election day victory that...

Speaking of switching parties, Kentucky Senator Bob Leeper has done it not once, but twice.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Speaking of switching parties, Kentucky Senator Bob Leeper has done it not once, but twice. Leeper switched from the Democrats to the GOP in 1999, helping the Republicans to take control of the Senate for the first time in nearly a century....

Twenty-two new senators were sworn into the 56-member Georgia Senate.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Twenty-two new senators were sworn into the 56-member Georgia Senate. One of them, Senator Tommie Williams had a memorable night before he took his seat. His first child was born late after he and his wife attended a legislative reception the...

Utah's longest serving lawmaker, Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, underwent surgery to remove a third of his lung.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Utah's longest serving lawmaker, Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, underwent surgery to remove a third of his lung. Senate Minority Whip Ron Allen and Senator Gene Davis, will fill in for Dmitrich on his committees. He was first elected to...

School finances still in court.(Trends And Transitions)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Education finance litigation continues to be a huge challenge for states. Sixteen are battling adequacy lawsuits, while cases in 20 other states have been decided or settled in the past five years, according to Education Week's 2005 Quality...

Pricing prescription drugs.(Trends And Transitions)(Rx Outreach, Together Rx Access)
March 1, 2005... Citizens with low incomes, including those age 18 to 64, can get discounted prescription drugs through two new programs--Rx Outreach and Together Rx Access. They are part of a growing list of special programs developed by the pharmaceutical...

Tax reform TABOR style.(Trends And Transitions)
March 1, 2005... WHAT: Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1992, is the toughest tax-and-spend limitation of its kind in the nation. It limits the amount of revenue the state can take in to what it was allowed...

Lights on!(Trends And Transitions)
March 1, 2005... Reports show that driving with your lights on reduces the chance of a day-time crash. 14 States that require headlights on when using wipers: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New...

Term limits severe for unicameral.(Trends And Transitions)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Nebraska legislators are considering altering or doing away with their voter-approved term limits law. Nebraska is one of 15 states with term limits for legislators, but because their legislature is unicameral, they face some of the most severe...

Tree talk.(Trends And Transitions)
March 1, 2005... 2.6 MILLION Acres of trees planted annually in the United States. 1.6 BILLION Number of trees grown in forest tree nurseries annually. 1930 The first year the United States kept tree planting records. In that year 138,970...

Mouse click for moose.(Stateline)
March 1, 2005... The thrill of the hunt may be changing. A rancher in Texas wants hunters to be able to take aim at his animals from the comfort of their own homes via the Internet and with a camera and rifle that can be remotely aimed. He already offers target...

A narrow view.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Almost 92 percent of the past election coverage aired by the national networks was devoted to the presidential contest, according to figures from the Alliance for Better Campaigns. Two percent of the stories examined ballot initiatives or...

Violence for sale.(Stateline)(sexual games )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich wants to make it tougher for young kids to get their hands on violent video games. He's believes selling violent or sexual games to anyone under 18 should be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison...

Hawai'ian comeback.(Stateline)(Hawaiian language and culture)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Over the past 25 years, a trio of professors in Hawai'i have made it their mission to resuscitate the Hawai'ian language and culture. State law from the late 1800s prohibited teachers from using Hawai'ian as the classroom language in elementary...

Another report card.(Stateline)(Public schools)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Three years after passage of the No Child Left Behind Act finds most states well short of setting solid academic expectations for their public schools, according to the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. The foundation found only three...

Fit but wet.(Stateline)
March 1, 2005... Seattle has been named the fittest city in America. (Come to this year's NCSL annual meeting there and find out why.) Men's Fitness magazine compared 50 cities on 14 factors, including fast food restaurants per capita, TV watching, air quality,...

The spirit of beer.(Stateline)(Malt beverages)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... There's beer and then there's spirits. The problem is in classifying malt beverages such as Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice and Zima for tax and license purposes. Nebraska has been struggling with what to do with these "malternatives" for...

Mitigating the mercury menace.(Stateline)(mercury switches, junkyard cars)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Maine has rescued at least 16,896 mercury switches from junked cars since the state approved the nation's first mandatory switch recycling program two years ago, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Maine legislators created the...

Walk the talk.(Stateline)(Drug abuse)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Here's a novel punishment. A man in Pennsylvania was sentenced to walk near schools once a week for eight weeks with an anti-drug message strapped to his body, billboard-style. He violated his probation for a drug offense and tested positive...

Play fair.(Stateline)
March 1, 2005... In New York, condoms and hair loss remedies used by men are tax-exempt medical "necessities." Menstrual products, however, are not. The 5.2 million New York women who use them are paying more than $10 million a year in sales taxes. Two dozen...

Pretty in pink.(Stateline)
March 1, 2005... Snort it, and it turns your nose fluorescent pink. Inject it, and bright pink shows up at the injection site. Touch it, and your hands show the tell-tale color. Best of all, anhydrous ammonia treated with it renders any methampbetamine it was...

A view from the states: state legislatures magazine went to a group of state leaders to get their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities 2005 presents. Here are their responses.(Conversations)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... THE BIG ISSUES SL: What are the two or three most pressing issues you are facing this year in your legislative sessions? Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth: The most important thing we have to do is revamp our public school finance...

How secure is the safety net? The future of the nation's community health care centers and public hospitals is grave.(effects of Medicaid and uninsured patients, K-12 education)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... The community health center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, serves a largely rural clientele with up to 9,000 patients a year. More than half are on Medicaid or uninsured. Almost a third are at or below the poverty level. In the scope of its...

The Medicaid spending morass: Medicaid continues to grow at alarming rates causing states to seek solutions.(Federal Medical Assistance Percentage)
March 1, 2005... Medicaid costs will strain state budgets considerably in the coming year. The top fiscal issue for the 200S sessions is rising costs for health care and Medicaid, say legislative fiscal officers. Sixteen states expect overruns in Medicaid early...

I blog, you blog, we all blog: state lawmakers are beginning to see the advantages of having a blog to record their views on issues and their experiences at the statehouse.
March 1, 2005... Representative Ray Cox does not consider himself particularly computer savvy. In 2002, he had just won election to the Minnesota House by 20 votes in a very competitive race--his district leans Democrat and he's a Republican. He wanted a way to...

Tribes bet on gaming: Indian gaming has allowed a few tribal governments to strengthen their communities and provide for their people. And it often helps states and local governments as well.
March 1, 2005... Editor's note: This is the last in a series on gambling. See "Gambling on Gaming" in the January magazine and "Counting on Gambling" in the February issue. The 600-member Rincon Tribe in California opened a high-rise hotel-casino outside...

How to be a media darling: there's no getting away from it. Reporters and legislators need each other. Here's a primer on your rights and responsibilities when giving an interview.(Tools Of The Trade)
March 1, 2005... More complicated than the federal tax code and as mysterious as an old episode of the X-Files, the relationship between legislators and the media may never be fully understood. It's a classic love-hate connection where trust, respect and...

Juneau the capital of Alaska? Whether you know the capital of Alaska or not, some believe it's just too hard to find.
March 1, 2005... Old timers may grumble that Alaska's growing population and modern conveniences have chipped away at its last frontier status, but try telling that to the state's lawmakers as they make their annual journey to the most inaccessible capital in...

As they see it.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... "I will give you exactly 20 minutes to stop that." --Indiana Representative Bruce Borders, in the Indianapolis Star, joking with a 60-year-old nursing home resident who grabbed his leg while he was gyrating and impersonating Elvis Presley....