State Senates thread

[RoseWilder]

I thought I would start a thread where we could talk about things going on at the state level. This article is about Hawaii, but if you have anything you want to talk about that's happening in the senate in other states, please add. 

A Republican rep from Hawaii is leaving the Republican party: 

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/02/01/breaking-news/hawaii-rep-beth-fukumoto-leaving-the-republican-party/

Quote

Republicans in the state House of Representatives have ousted their minority leader Rep. Beth Fukumoto over her criticism of President Donald Trump, including recent comments that she made at the Women’s March in Honolulu last month.

Fukumoto, 33, said today that she is now considering switching over to the Democratic Party following this week’s actions by her Republican colleagues, which would further deplete the party of young leadership. She had been described as a rising star in Hawaii’s Republican Party, which holds only six seats in the 76-member Legislature.

Fukumoto (R, Mililani-Mililani Mauka-Waipio Acres) said that she had been told by a faction of her Republican colleagues that if she didn’t commit to not criticizing Trump for the rest of his term, they would oust her as minority leader.

She said she refused.

“I believe it is our job as Americans and as leaders of this body to criticize power when power is wrong,” she said during today’s House floor session.

 

[CTRLZero]

Good for Representative Fukumoto.  She will not be silenced by her colleagues, and is contacting her constituents about the switch.  It's a good article.

Here is a little bit more I clipped from NPR.org (before it's defunded):
 

Quote

 

Here's how Fukumoto described the situation in an address to her peers:

"They told me they would keep me in this position if I would commit to not disagreeing with our president for the remainder of his term. Mr. Speaker, I'm being removed because I refused to make that commitment, because I believe it's our job as Americans and as leaders in this body to criticize power when power is wrong."

When she appeared at the recent Women's March event in Hawaii, Fukumoto spoke about how she had been booed and insulted at her party's convention last summer for refusing to endorse Donald Trump's candidacy because she "thought his remarks were racist and sexist," as she said last month.

"Everyone deserves respect," Fukumoto said in a Facebook post about the event. "That should be a non-partisan message."

 

Maybe we need an award, because here's a perfect example:  "She was warned.  She was given an explanation.  Still, she persisted."  Thank you, Representative Fukumoto!

 

[RoseWilder]

I just saw this on twitter: 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Not my state, but good grief: "Utah Republican argues against equal pay for women: It’s ‘bad for families’ and society"

Quote

In a letter criticizing a bill that addresses pay gap in the workforce, a Utah Republican said that men have traditionally earned more than women and, citing “simple economics,” argued that things should stay that way.

James Green’s letter to the editor, published in two local publications earlier this week, immediately prompted such outrage that within two days, Green had written an apology and resigned from his post as vice chair of the Wasatch County Republican Party.

Green said in his letter, published Wednesday by the Park Record and the Wasatch Wave, that men make more than women because they’re “the primary breadwinners” of their families, and paying women equally would somehow ruin the makeup of a traditional family where “the Mother” remains at home raising children.

“If businesses are forced to pay women the same as male earnings, that means they will have to reduce the pay for the men they employ, simple economics,” Green wrote. “If that happens, then men will have an even more difficult time earning enough to support their families, which will mean more Mothers will be forced to leave the home (where they may prefer to be) to join the workforce to make up the difference.”

And having more women in the workforce would create competition for jobs, “even men’s jobs,” Green wrote. That will, in turn, lower the pay for all jobs and force “more and more Mothers” into the workforce, he argued.

That’s “bad for families and thus for all of society,” Green wrote. “It’s a vicious cycle that only gets worse the more equality of pay is forced upon us. It’s a situation of well-meaning intentions, but negative unintended consequences.”

Green’s comments were directed at Senate Bill 210, which would make changes to laws related to employee pay in the state. The bill, authored by state Sen. Jacob Anderegg, a fellow Utah Republican, would commission a study on whether there’s a pay gap between male and female workers in the state. It would require certain employers to adopt a uniform criteria that will be used to determine whether someone should get a raise based on performance, and would create a pay index that states the average pay range for each occupation based on years of experience.

...

Green did not return a call from The Washington Post on Saturday. But he told KSTU that he has been in “hot water” since his letter was published.

“You wouldn’t believe the hateful, vile comments and messages I’ve received,” Green told KSTU, adding that he decided to resign from his position as vice chair of the Wasatch County GOP because he “didn’t want to hurt the party,” which he said was getting blamed for his comments.

[For one group of women, the gender wage gap keeps getting worse]

Green then wrote a second letter saying his comments are not representative of the Wasatch County GOP or the Republican Party in general and apologizing to those who have been offended.

“I want to clarify that the main focus of my letter was to express that I don’t feel the government should be dictating to private establishments what they must do in regard to employment, hiring, or wages,” Green wrote, according to KSTU. “There was no offense intended toward Women, whatsoever. And yet some took it that way. To those who were offended, I profusely apologize. I sincerely did not mean to do that.”

He also said he values women’s contributions in the workforce, and that he was only pointing out the “historical reasons for pay disparity.”

“While I worked my fingers to the bone (with numerous extra side jobs) so my Wife could say in the home and raise our two Sons, who are now both Physician/Surgeons (plus one also has a Law Degree), I realize not everyone is so fortunate,” Green wrote.

A spokeswoman for the Utah GOP told the TV station on Friday afternoon that Green had resigned. Efforts to reach the Utah GOP on Saturday were unsuccessful.

He doesn't just need to resign, he needs to be voted out of office. What an ass. Poor widdle baby didn't like that people took issue with his caveman attitude.

[PsyD2013]

Things could be getting worse for Iowa public workers.  Koch brothers puppet Terry-ble Braindead would like a committee to take a look at IPERs, our state pension program.  This after gutting out collective bargaining laws.  Our gov is off to China where Voldorange has appointed him ambassador.  Of course his replacement Kimmy will follow in his footsteps.  Iowa public workers are so fucked.

[47of74]

2 hours ago, PsyD2013 said:

Things could be getting worse for Iowa public workers.  Koch brothers puppet Terry-ble Braindead would like a committee to take a look at IPERs, our state pension program.  This after gutting out collective bargaining laws.  Our gov is off to China where Voldorange has appointed him ambassador.  Of course his replacement Kimmy will follow in his footsteps.  Iowa public workers are so fucked.

@PsyD2013 Did you noticed that one of the Republican Senators  is trying to purge Democrats from the state institutions of higher learning?

iowastartingline.com/2017/02/20/senator-chelgren-aims-purge-democrats-iowa-universities/

Quote

The party affiliation on your voter registration card could block you from employment at Iowa’s state universities were a newly proposed bill by Senator Mark Chelgren to become law. Senate File 288, proposed by the Ottumwa legislator, could bring about a Soviet-style purge of liberal-leaning college staff in Iowa. Chelgren wants to impose an ideological litmus test in order to create a “partisan balance,” based on how Iowa has voted in past elections.

The legislation proposes that a “person shall not be hired as a professor or instructor member of the faculty at such an institution if the person’s political party affiliation on the date of hire would cause the percentage of faculty belonging to one political party to exceed by ten percent the percentage of faculty belonging to the other political party.”

The Secretary of State’s office would be directed to provide voter registration lists to the colleges so that new job applicants’ party affiliation could be checked before the hiring process gets underway. Graciously, Chelgren allows for people registered as No Party to slip through the process without facing the litmus test.

The obvious impact and purpose of this bill would be to ban Democrats from getting hired anymore at Iowa colleges. If you took a survey right now, it’s highly likely that Iowa professors are registered as Democrats at a much higher rate than Republican. So any new hires would be strictly limited to Republican or No Party voters

 

[CTRLZero]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

The party affiliation on your voter registration card could block you from employment at Iowa’s state universities were a newly proposed bill by Senator Mark Chelgren to become law.

I would never have been able to conjure up such a bill in my most vengeful moments.  Is this even legal in a public institution?  I suppose the way to get around it is to have everyone sign as No Party voters.   Sheesh.

 

Quote

We should encourage our Legislators to drop the whole notion. Let the marketplace determine what free-market forces should prevail. It is not the role of government to dictate to businesses what they should pay anyway, either as a Minimum Wage or Equal Pay for men and women.

I was reading James Green's letter to the editor regarding penalizing women with lower pay in the workforce, and he ends with this paragraph.  He wants neither equal pay nor a minimum wage.  Glad he got kicked out the door!

 

[RoseWilder]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

@PsyD2013 Did you noticed that one of the Republican Senators  is trying to purge Democrats from the state institutions of higher learning?

iowastartingline.com/2017/02/20/senator-chelgren-aims-purge-democrats-iowa-universities/

 

I hope Iowa enjoys losing all the revenue when Democrat/liberal college students start boycotting their universities. These morons seems to be forgetting some very important facts; 1. the majority of college age students are Democrats or liberals and 2. college towns make a lot of money of college students beyond just from tuition (out of town students who have flown in buy stuff for their dorms, they buy groceries at local stores, have date nights at local movie theaters and restaurants, etc.) and then when their parents come to either drop off, pick up or visit them, they spend a lot of money (rental cars, hotel rooms, restaurants.) A boycott could have really negative effects on a lot of towns in Iowa. 

[sawasdee]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

@PsyD2013 Did you noticed that one of the Republican Senators  is trying to purge Democrats from the state institutions of higher learning?

iowastartingline.com/2017/02/20/senator-chelgren-aims-purge-democrats-iowa-universities/

 

I am incoherent in trying to respond to this. So your voting pattern affects your employability? Heard of Stalin - Hitler- sunshine? Your vote is supposed to be sacrosanct and private - a registered Republican might vote Democrat on certain issues, and vice versa. For Fxxxxx sake, this is an absolutely authoritarian move towards the fascist state - vote our way, or lose your job!

I am really scared of the way that state senates are seeing the tRump 'victory'as a ukase for any wingnut policy they want to establish.

Shit, I'm scared.

[Audrey2]

Am I the only smart alec who would register as a Republican if I thought I wanted to live in Iowa, then wouldn't vote for them when I got my job? They might be able to make me register as a Republican, but my vote is my own private right. You could also bet, in primaries, I'd vote for the least crazy candidate.

[PsyD2013]

Iowa is getting more and more fucked up.  The Republicans are going after IPERs (public employee pension).  First,  they gut our collective bargaining, take away our health care which means salaries will decrease 20-30%.  Throw in some proposed law that keeps Democrats from being employed in the state universities.  My state is turning into a Koch brother alternative reality.  

[47of74]

2 hours ago, PsyD2013 said:

Iowa is getting more and more fucked up.  The Republicans are going after IPERs (public employee pension).  First,  they gut our collective bargaining, take away our health care which means salaries will decrease 20-30%.  Throw in some proposed law that keeps Democrats from being employed in the state universities.  My state is turning into a Koch brother alternative reality.  

If I could I think I would move to Minnesota or Oregon.  Every time Senator Breadbags McCutyernutzoff or Gov Brainfart open their traps the urge to leave Iowa forever temporarily spikes.

Now in addition to wanting to purge Democrats from our institutions of higher learning, another Refucklican wants to turn the schools into war zones.

kcrg.com/content/news/Bill-for-guns-on-public--414333863.html

Quote

A newly-proposed bill would allow weapons on campus at public universities and community colleges in the state.

Republican Senator Jake Chapman, from Adel, said the bill is necessary so that students can protect themselves, especially in the case of a mass shooting.

Right now, the Iowa Board of Regents has the final say on weapons on campus. Chapman’s bill would strip away that control.

The Board of Regents released a statement opposing the bill Monday, saying it “infringes on the statutory control of the Board of Regents."

 

[Audrey2]

31 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

A newly-proposed bill would allow weapons on campus at public universities and community colleges in the state.

Republican Senator Jake Chapman, from Adel, said the bill is necessary so that students can protect themselves, especially in the case of a mass shooting.

Right now, the Iowa Board of Regents has the final say on weapons on campus. Chapman’s bill would strip away that control.

The Board of Regents released a statement opposing the bill Monday, saying it “infringes on the statutory control of the Board of Regents."

Let me think this through. So, this is an age group that, statistically, seems to drink heavily on a regular basis. (I'm not saying all college students do, but remember 25 years ago when I was in college, there were the solid Thursday, Friday, Saturday night partiers. In fact, a student was found dead of alcohol poisoning recently in a residence hall at my Alma Mater.) Let's make it easier for college students to have firearms on campus. What could possibly go wrong with that?

[47of74]

38 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Let me think this through. So, this is an age group that, statistically, seems to drink heavily on a regular basis. (I'm not saying all college students do, but remember 25 years ago when I was in college, there were the solid Thursday, Friday, Saturday night partiers. In fact, a student was found dead of alcohol poisoning recently in a residence hall at my Alma Mater.) Let's make it easier for college students to have firearms on campus. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Of course in order to think it through one would need more than two barely functional brain cells to rub together.  I'm not convinced the average Republican legislator even has that much.

[PsyD2013]

@47of74

Just when I think that the Koch brother puppets can't outdo themselves, it happens.  I want to leave, but a divorce decree has me stuck here until middle school PsyD graduates from high school.  Hoping people start to wake up and vote in 2018.

 

[RoseWilder]

Global investors pressure Texas to withdraw bathroom law: 

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/global-investors-warn-texas-to-withdraw-transgender-restroom-legislation/

Quote

A group of global investors with $11 trillion in managed assets told Texas on Tuesday not to enact legislation restricting access to bathrooms for transgender people, saying it is discriminatory and bad for business.

The “Texas Privacy Act,” or Senate Bill 6, has been marked as a priority for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Republican and conservative Christian who guides the legislative agenda in the Republican-controlled state Senate. He said the measure protected the privacy and safety of Texans.

The bill on a flashpoint issue in the United States is similar to a law enacted last year in North Carolina that led to economic boycotts and the loss of major sporting events, costing the state an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

“The bathroom bill was bad for North Carolina and it will be very bad for Texas,” New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, a Democrat, told a teleconference, adding it was the first time investors of this size opposed the legislation.

 

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, RoseWilder said:

The “Texas Privacy Act,” or Senate Bill 6, has been marked as a priority for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Republican and conservative Christian who guides the legislative agenda in the Republican-controlled state Senate. He said the measure protected the privacy and safety of Texans

There's a reason he's referred to as Taliban Dan in some parts of Texas.

[Penny]

9 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

There's a reason he's referred to as Taliban Dan in some parts of Texas.

Omg! I did not know that! I live in Texas and I hate him more than Rick Perry

[clueliss]

Breaking news from Brownbackistan (or as I refer to it - the broke-ass state of Kansas)

this from a Facebook friend.  

Quote

Kansas friends: the House has successfully voted to override Brownback's veto of the tax plan. Call your Senator NOW if you support the new plan and want the Senate to override the Veto, too. They vote soon.

 

Watch out - looks like the folks in Topeka are in a bit of rebellion.  

[NachosFlandersStyle]

Welp, I knew this thread would be mostly Iowa before I clicked. I used to think we were in better shape, politically, than a lot of neighboring states, but that's changed so fast I've got whiplash. I wish there were more I could do as an activist/citizen, but if the whole Chapter 20 thing showed anything it's that the Rs in the state house don't want to hear what the people have to say. I know so many people who will be personally affected by these bills, and hopefully they in turn can show their neighbors and friends that state elections have serious consequences.

[Cartmann99]

28 minutes ago, Penny said:

Omg! I did not know that! I live in Texas and I hate him more than Rick Perry

You are my new best friend!

[Penny]

Thanks Cartmann99!

[CTRLZero]

2 hours ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

I knew this thread would be mostly Iowa before I clicked.

Poor Iowa!  Some of my husband's relatives lived in Gravity before moving to the west coast.  Over on the "Nevertheless, She Persisted" thread, I see Iowa corn farmers are hoping Mexico doesn't go forward with their threat to buy their corn elsewhere.  A long time ago (well, in Trump Time), this was one of the first things to go awry because of his political ugliness.  The Mexican government hasn't forgotten.

[GreyhoundFan]

5 hours ago, clueliss said:

Breaking news from Brownbackistan (or as I refer to it - the broke-ass state of Kansas)

this from a Facebook friend.  

Watch out - looks like the folks in Topeka are in a bit of rebellion.  

It looks like it fell three votes short. The WaPo had this: "Republicans’ ‘real-live experiment’ with Kansas’s economy survives a revolt from their own party". Here's the first part of the article:

Quote

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s ambitious tax overhaul — which slashed taxes for businesses and affluent households, leading to years of budget shortfalls — narrowly survived a mutiny Wednesday afternoon when about half of Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in an effort to overturn it.

Brownback, a Republican who once called his tax policy a “real-live experiment” with conservative principles, had vetoed a bill that would have repealed the most important provisions of his overhaul. While the state House voted to override the veto earlier in the day, proponents of the bill came up three votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed in the Senate. Fifteen Republican senators voted to override the veto, while 16 voted to sustain it.

In the House, 45 GOP legislators voted in favor of the increase, while 40 voted to uphold the governor’s veto.

The state is facing a $350 million budget shortfall. Brownback’s critics say the state’s persistent deficits are evidence that the economic benefits from reduced taxes are not always adequate to make up for reductions in revenue, as advocates of supply-side changes have sometimes claimed.

“I'm disappointed in the actions of our Senate today,” said state Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Republican from Fairway, Kansas, who supported the bill. “This was a balanced compromise that provided the revenue necessary to fund the basic needs of our budget and restore some semblance of solvency and sustainability.”

For both Brownback and his critics, the changes are a model for the policies that Republicans in Washington, D.C., might pursue on a national level now that they are in control of the federal government. One of President Trump’s advisers on economic policy during the campaign, Stephen Moore, also helped Brownback develop the changes he enacted beginning in 2012. Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the speaker of the House, served as Brownback’s legislative director when Brownback was in Congress.

Ryan’s and Trump’s proposals for tax reform have important features in common with Brownback’s policies. Both reduce the number of income-tax brackets. Brownback’s policies and Ryan’s proposal treat income from legal entities typically used by small businesses more favorably than ordinary income. Likewise, the plan Trump advanced as a candidate appeared to reduce the tax rate on such earnings, known as “pass-through income,” but his proposal was ambiguous on this point.

In the case of Brownback’s overhaul, pass-through income has been completely exempt from taxation. In 2012, the state had projected that about 200,000 pass-through entities would take advantage of the exemption. In fact, about 330,000 ostensible small businesses profited from the rule. That data suggests the reform encouraged tens of thousands of Kansans to claim their wages and salaries as income from a business rather than from employment.

That avoidance has contributed to repeated budget deficits, forcing state policymakers to take emergency measures, exhausting the state’s reserves and diverting money dedicated to maintaining highways to keep the state’s government operating.

The bill in Kansas would have eliminated the exemption for pass-through income and increased income taxes (although not to the rates that prevailed before Brownback took office), while eliminating tax reductions planned for the future. The state projected that the legislation would have increased revenue by $590 million in 2018.

....

The article goes on and includes verbiage that the experience in Kansas should be a cautionary tale for Repudians in the US House and Senate who want to push the exemption for pass-through income as it is very expensive for the government. Of course, we all know that Ryan and McConnell don't care about anyone other than themselves (and maybe the Kochs), so they won't actually take lessons from anyone.

[clueliss]

Be very afraid of anything that looks like what has gone on in Kansas in the last 5 - 10 years.  (aka the Brownback administration).  The state is on the verge of bankruptcy.  And I'm still trying to figure out how that man got elected to a second term.