With many state legislatures still out of session until the new year, news in the states this past week has focused on legislative proposals and legal actions.
Arkansas released a conservative welfare proposal, Colorado’s staring down a billion-dollar budget deficit, Iowa’s auditor released a bombshell report on state salaries, Michigan’s Legislature proposed changes to its election system and passed new dam legislation, a legal decision in North Carolina upheld stripping the governor of appointment power, and Washington’s Supreme Court struck down the state’s controversial gas ballot initiative.
Here’s what you need to know this week from outside the Beltway:
Arkansas
A legislative subcommittee proposed that the state consolidate operation of workforce and social services like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program into a single, Cabinet-level agency. Legislators in the Hospital, Medicaid and Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee say in a new report that the change would streamline the state’s services and cut out inefficiencies that are costing millions. Members are drafting legislation based on the report that will be filed when the Legislature is back in season in January. Keep an eye on this plan. If it gets to the floor and ends up on Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s desk, it would overhaul the whole system—and likely inspire other conservative states to do something similar.
Colorado
The state Legislature is expecting the third budget deficit in as many years. State economists told lawmakers last week that the shortfall could hit $1.6 billion, with Medicaid spending causing the majority of the budget gap. This isn’t new. A Medicaid program for low-income Coloradans ran nearly $158 million over budget last fiscal year. As the volume of care provided grows rapidly, so do costs. The Legislature wrapped in May. Lawmakers will have some time to think about a solution before next year's session, but not too much.
Iowa
State Auditor Rob Sand, who is also running for governor, released a new report showing that salaries in the governor’s office have increased by 35 percent over the past decade, while other state government employees' salaries have decreased by 7.6 percent. The Legislature approves the budget, including salaries. Gov. Kim Reynolds’s office defended the salaries, pointing to the team of “experienced professionals” working with the governor. Sand is the only statewide elected Democrat in Iowa and is the front-runner in the gubernatorial race. This report could further boost his battle to flip the executive branch.
Michigan
Republican state legislators proposed a bill that would require the secretary of state to recuse themselves from election-related duties if they are also on the ballot that election year. The GOP proponents of the bill are concerned about any potential bias in running elections. But Democrats say the bill simply targets Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is running for governor. Michigan has a decentralized election system, meaning it’s run by local and county clerks who are in turn overseen by the Bureau of Elections. The secretary of state is the chief elections officer and under a decentralized system is responsible for distributing instructional materials to clerks and publishing election-related rules. This proposal hasn’t left the House Election Integrity Committee. The legislature is in session until the end of December.
Legislators also passed a bill expected to expand the state’s dam-safety regulations to address the conditions of many of the state's approximately 2,550 dams. This legislation is tied to the dam failures in 2020 that caused a flood in central Michigan. The bill would give the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy more authority, bringing federally licensed dams under its jurisdiction. This bill was sponsored by state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in July. It passed the Senate, 22-15, and the House, 96-7. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is likely to sign this into law.
North Carolina
The North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld state legislators' decision to remove the power of appointing members of the elections board from Gov. Josh Stein and transfer it to state Auditor Dave Boliek. Stein is a Democrat, while Boliek is a Republican, like the majority in the state Legislature. The decision reverses a ruling last year that rejected the shift and kept the authority with the governor.
Washington
The state Supreme Court struck down a 2024 ballot measure that looked to halt the state’s shift away from natural gas. In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld a lower-court ruling that found the measure unconstitutional because it was about more than one subject. The initiative was 21 pages and spanned topics from state energy code to utility rates. Fifty-two percent of voters approved the measure, but lawsuits immediately blocked it.
What’s to come:
One of the biggest legislative and legal issues involving multiple states has to do with New York’s climate Superfund law that sought to make top polluters pay for climate change. Multiple state legislators spoke to Bloomberg Law earlier this week, expressing their desire to create their own versions of the law. New York’s law has now been struck down twice, with a second federal judge ruling against it Thursday, as reported by The New York Times. Vermont, the only other state with such a law on the books, faces a similar lawsuit. Yet another judge dismissed a lawsuit by Michigan, which accused oil companies of violating antitrust law.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments in Suncor Energy, Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County on Oct. 5, addressing whether federal law prohibits states (in this case Colorado) suing energy companies for climate change.
Each state is addressing climate change differently. Right now there are a lot of irons in the fire, and each legal decision is likely to impact another state’s legislation. Keep an eye out for how the justices seem to take the arguments in the Boulder case and how the Vermont Superfund law shakes out. Each of those legal decisions will be good indicators of how other climate laws will be interpreted.
