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PSN Highlights
Research Roundup
- July 2nd, 2009Research Roundup: State Budget Troubles Worsen, The Impacts of Foreclosure on Families and Communities, Anticipated Results of the 2009 Healthy Families Act, and Much More
The Latest at PSN
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With two landmark health care reform bills now on her desk, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has to decide whose side she is on -- small businesses and families struggling under the weight of high health care costs, or the state's health insurance industry, which has a big stake in preserving the costly status quo. Will she allow precedent-setting health care reforms to proceed, or will she, for the second year in a row, be the "Governor of No"?
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06/24/09 | Posted in: Inside PSN UpdatesLast Wednesday, Progressive States Network brought state legislative and advocate leaders to Washington, D.C. to meet with the White House and Capitol Hill leaders to promote comprehensive national health care reform. PSN's delegation brought with them a letter, signed by over 700 state legislators from 48 states, which demanded federal health care reform that includes the choice of a public health insurance plan, strong affordability protections, and shared employer responsibility for health care costs.
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06/23/09 | Posted in: Issue UpdatesWashington became the fifth state to pass the national popular vote (NPV) compact when Gov. Gregoire signed the legislation on May 6th. 61 electoral votes, 23% of the 270 needed to achieve a national popular vote are now committed to the compact. Washington joins Maryland, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Illinois as members of the compact. This is the first state to pass NPV into law in 2009.
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06/23/09 | Posted in: Issue UpdatesWhile immigration continued to be debated in states across the country this session, most anti-immigrant bills were defeated and more positive approaches to new immigrants were debated. Even in sessions dominated by budget crises, positive policies were enacted in many states.
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From the Dispatch
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July 2nd, 2009As with most states this year, the budget process and response to the recession dominated Colorado's legislative session. Within that lens, lawmakers are getting high marks from Colorado advocates like the Bell Policy Center and the Colorado Center on Law and Policy for advancing key priorities like unemployment insurance, health care coverage and budget reform while limiting the deficit's impact on the state's most vulnerable residents. Notably, lawmakers extended health care to 100,000 low-income and uninsured Coloradans. Still, advocates note some disappointments and missed opportunities, like failing to make qualified undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition rates and neglecting to better regulate payday lenders.
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July 2nd, 2009The Nebraska Legislature ended three days ahead of the originally scheduled adjournment date. During the 2009 session, 236 bills were passed, including budget bills and issues ranging from encouraging wind energy development and establishing lethal injection as the state’s method of execution.
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July 2nd, 2009Kansas underwent a change in leadership at the top when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius joined the Obama administration as Secretary of Health and Human Services and was replaced by her lieutenant governor, Mark Parkinson, a former chair of the state Republican party before switching parties to serve under Sebelius.
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July 2nd, 2009While not under the fiscal pressures of most states due to rising prices for minerals, the 60 day session proved too fleeting, and the legislature and governor had to use two brief special sessions to complete their work. They did manage to pass some promising election reforms and a solar tax credit, but big reforms of health care didn't materialize and environmental policy moved backward on a couple fronts.
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June 29th, 2009Despite the economic downturn, Vermont lawmakers made important gains in several areas, notably in gay marriage, reducing Rx costs, renewable energy, transportation, and an economic stimulus package that utilizes federal stimulus resources.
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June 29th, 20092009 proved to be one of the most challenging sessions yet for Minnesota lawmakers, with the legislature and the Governor clashing over how to balance the budget. Governor Tim Pawlenty had originally advocated borrowing $1 billion, a plan that met with near universal disdain in the House, which voted 130-2 against. Lawmakers held listening sessions throughout the state to hear from over 10,000 citizens on how best to handle an unprecedented deficit of $6.4 billion. Ultimately, after the legislature passed two omnibus budget bills including a balanced budget and failed to overcome the Governor's veto, Pawlenty decided to use his unilateral power of unallotment to slash $2.7 billion of funding over the next two years, hitting cities, counties and health services the hardest.
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June 29th, 2009The contentious 120-day Nevada legislative session was marked by the Governor vetoing approximately 48 bills, 25 of which were overridden by lawmakers.











