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N.H. Governor Launches Senate Campaign
by Liza Porteus
New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen has officially launched her campaign for U.S. Senate.
The three-term Democrat already has raised more than $1 million in campaign funds and will face either incumbent Sen. Bob Smith or Rep. John Sununu in November. If Shaheen wins, she will join Republican Judd Gregg, who has been involved in debates over issues such as encryption and Internet taxes, in representing New Hampshire in the Senate.
Shaheen is an ardent supporter of deploying high-speed Internet services to rural areas. Per capita, New Hampshire has more of the fiber-optic cable used for such broadband services than any other New England state, and more than California and New York. The state is also among the top 10 states in the percentage of companies doing business online.
Shaheen spearheaded efforts to form public-private partnerships such as the North Country and Monadnock connects, high-speed telecommunications projects in the state that are expected to lower telecom costs by as much as 60 percent.
In 1997, Shaheen became the first New Hampshire chief executive to lead a trade mission overseas to help state companies, including high-tech businesses, make new contacts and identify potential markets. Her three such missions so far have generated about $500 million in sales for New Hampshire companies, and Shaheen will lead another one to Mexico this May.
Shaheen has been a strong supporter of technological innovations and has won significant reductions in electricity rates. New Hampshire also is making a $100,000 investment over six years to upgrade the state's universities.
Shaheen launched the "Computers in Schools" program, where businesses and individuals donate surplus computer equipment for state inmates to refurbish for state schools. Now 98 percent of the state's schools are wired to the Internet.
Shaheen also serves on the National Governors' Association Technology Task Force.
Connecticut Defends Sex-Offender Registry
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn two lower court decisions that said Connecticut's law giving the public online access to a registry of sex offenders is unconstitutional.
Blumenthal's action comes as the Supreme Court this week agreed to consider whether states that post such registries on the Internet infringe upon the rights of convicted sex offenders who have served their sentences. The case, Ronald Otte v. John Doe, is an appeal of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision limiting an Alaskan law on an Internet sex-offender registry.
The registry in Connecticut has been unavailable to the public since last May, when the U.S. District Court ruled that the state's system violates the due-process rights of sex offenders. An appeals court upheld that decision.
"Public access to the sex-offender registry is essential to public safety," Blumenthal said in a statement. "I am hopeful that the Supreme Court will hear our case, since it is of real and practical significance not just to Connecticut but to all 50 states as they grapple with enacting and refining their versions of 'Megan's Law,'" the New Jersey law that created the first sex-offender registry.
Blumenthal plans to file an amicus brief with the high court in support of Alaska's position that the registry does not violate the Constitution.
In other news, Blumenthal last week had said he would investigate the Comcast cable company's tracking of its online customers' Internet surfing. The company later abandoned such activities, but a Blumenthal spokeswoman could not confirm if Connecticut's investigation would continue.
The Scoop On Homeland Security
The National Governors Association (NGA) has added to its Internet site separate homeland security pages on transportation security and communications issues, the latter including information about cyber security.
The communications page gives an overview of policy issues related to the communications systems and the airwaves used by public safety officials and how interoperable their systems are.
NGA argues that federal, state and local governments need to coordinate their efforts to protect critical infrastructures against cyber attacks and improve upon existing security systems. Effective, secure, rapid communication among health agencies, including high-speed Internet access and satellite-based distance-learning capability, also is needed, NGA says. NGA wants to work with the White House Office of Homeland Security and other key agencies to provide states with cyber-security guidance.
The communications page also details related federal legislation and the spending requests for cyber-security initiatives that President Bush made in his fiscal 2003 budget.
The transportation security page analyzes funding request for the newly created Transportation Security Administration and initiatives to comply with aviation and port security laws enacted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A Plug For E-Commerce Taxation?
State revenues will decrease 3.8 percent this year, led by a 17.9 percent drop in corporate taxes and a 6.4 percent reduction in personal income taxes, according to an Economy.com study to be released at NGA's winter meeting, which begins Saturday.
Economy.com said an antiquated state tax structure is the long-term problem, particularly as consumer spending shifts from goods to services because goods are more likely to be taxed than services. "Similarly, inter-jurisdictional issues regarding Internet-based retail sales have limited the ability of states to tax e-commerce," the report states. "As electronic sales increase in scope, states will be increasingly cut off from tax revenues flowing not only from consumer spending but also from business-to-business sales."
Also at the NGA conference, Southern governors will meet to discuss research and development activities and the use of telemedicine in homeland security. New England governors will discuss border and airport security, trade issues and defense procurement.
Privacy And Punch-Card Machines In California
California Gov. Gray Davis said on Sunday that he would continue the freeze on the sale of the state's birth and death indices until a state privacy law is enacted.
Davis halted the release of the records on Dec. 5, after the birth index, which contains information on about 24.6 million California natives, was sold to one of the country's largest online genealogy companies and posted on its Web site.
The state health department asked Davis to consider whether California should release such indices to the public, whether it should delete maiden names and Social Security numbers from them, and whether access should be restricted to government and other authorized officials. Davis said he hopes the legislature will address privacy this session.
In other California news, a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles last week ruled that California must eliminate punch-card machines by the 2004 election. The decision is the first in the nation requiring the elimination of obsolete voting machines since the November 2000 election controversy. Similar suits are pending in other states.
California Secretary of State Bill Jones said the deadline is "impossible" to meet and will force some counties to curtail plans to adopt state-of-the art election technology.
Get Your Tax-Free Technology Here!
Pennsylvanians celebrated the "Tax-Free PC Plus" holiday this week, buying computers, scanners, printers, Internet-access devices and other accessories for non-business use without having to pay any state or county sales taxes on the purchase.
The holiday also exempts from taxation some licensed software for single users, as well as service-purchase contracts. The state Department of Revenue worked with retail associations and computer retailers such as Gateway and Circuit City to promote the holiday by providing posters and fliers.
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