Utah’s
Billion-dollar surplus divides lawmakers
Utah’s governor is Republican, and Republicans outnumber Democrats in the Legislature by a 2-to-1 margin. Despite that rock-solid GOP majority, Utah’s Legislature was bitterly divided during the 2006 session over how best to spend an unprecedented $1 billion surplus.
The biggest sticking point was Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.’s proposal to overhaul the state’s tax system. His plan was derailed when his tax reform commission underestimated its cost by $35 million.
The Legislature adjourned without deciding what to do with $70 million it had set aside for the governor’s proposal. Huntsman is considering calling a special session in June to reconsider his proposal, but some lawmakers just want to cut taxes by $70 million instead.
Lawmakers did vote overwhelmingly in favor of a major economic development program called Utah Science, Technology and Research (USTAR). The $250 million program, which passed both chambers by large majorities, is designed to boost the state’s scientific research and technological advancement by luring teams of high-tech researchers to Utah State University and the University of Utah.
Utah also adopted ground-breaking legislation to prevent identity theft. The new rules require the major credit bureaus to give consumers a personal identification number — or PIN — they can use to freeze or unfreeze their credit report if they suspect identity theft.
Utah also voted to change its presidential primary election from June to the first week of February, joining other states with the earliest date on the primary election calendar. At least eight other states are considering moving up their primary or caucus elections to have greater impact on the presidential nominee selection process.
Vermont’s
Health care reform tops last-minute deals
Final-hour negotiations between Vermont’s Democratic-controlled Legislature and Republican Governor Jim Douglas led to passage of a sweeping health care reform bill that aims to provide low-cost health insurance to 25,000 uninsured Vermonters.
The plan, passed just before the session closed May 10, requires private insurers to offer the health coverage for primary and preventive care while a state commission will oversee the program. Last year, the Legislature passed a more comprehensive health care reform plan, but it was vetoed by Douglas.
In the face of Douglas’ threat to veto the Legislature’s $4.5 billion budget unless it included a college scholarship program, both sides eventually agreed to a one-time $5 million injection in surplus funds from the 2006 budget. The money will be divided among Vermont State Colleges, the University of Vermont and the Vermont Student Acceptance Commission and could create 250 scholarships of $5,000 in 2007.
Virginia
Narrowly avoids fiscal crisis
A bitter dispute in the Virginia General Assembly left the state without a new budget until June 28, only days before the end of the fiscal year and more than three months after the original deadline.
The Assembly was divided over the source of the state’s transportation funding. State senators and first-year Governor Timothy M. Kaine (D) pushed for higher taxes to provide long-term funding, while members of the House of Delegates opposed taxes and advocated using the budget surplus and borrowed funds to pay for transportation projects.
The Assembly’s regular session ended March 11, and a special session devoted to the budget began March 27. The $72 billion, two-year spending plan is the longest-delayed in state history.
The budget contains an additional $568 million for transportation, which comes largely from the state’s $1.2 billion budget surplus. The House and Senate have agreed to meet in a special session this fall to discuss long-term financing options for Virginia’s $100 billion in backlogged transportation projects.
Lawmakers eliminated Virginia’s estate tax, set aside $200 million to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and established a registry for dangerous dogs. As in several other states, lawmakers made it a crime to disrupt funeral by protesting, and placed a constitutional amendment on the November ballot defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
WashingtoN
Democrats call the shots
With Democrats controlling the Washington state House, Senate and governor’s office, the dominant party claimed a series of victories in the state’s 59-day legislative session.
In a session Governor Christine Gregoire called “historic,” the Legislature passed laws on gay rights, water rights, elections, medical malpractice, energy, environment, sex offenders, education and unemployment insurance.
Breaking through decades-old logjams, the Legislature brokered a compromise between farmers and environmentalists on water storage. And 29 years after it was first proposed, a measure adding sexual orientation to the state’s anti-discrimination law was passed.
Washington also imposed the nation’s first ban on phosphates in dishwashing detergent.
Democrats called the shots, but there were bipartisan votes on major bills, including medical malpractice reform legislation and new sex-offender regulations. Both parties hammered out an agreement to set aside $950 million in reserves during the state’s two-year budget cycle.
West Virginia
Finally agrees to sex offender law
With time running out on the last night of West Virginia’s spring session on March 11, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee pulled the plug on a bill that would have ratcheted up penalties for sex offenders.
But by the time lawmakers took up the measure again in June, the once-contentious bill passed unanimously.
Governor Joe Manchin (D) originally introduced the measure, but Senate Republicans overhauled it. State Sen. Jeff Kessler (D) objected to the proposal, nicknamed “Logan’s Law” after a toddler who was sexually assaulted and killed last year, because he feared its unintended consequences.
After a compromise was reached, Manchin called a two-day special session to revisit the issue.
Tragedies in West Virginia mines — including one that killed 12 men in Sago — cast a shadow over the legislative session this year. Lawmakers acted swiftly to require more safety devices in mines after the disaster. New laws mandate that mines offer more oxygen stations, wireless communications to miners underground and Global Positioning System tracking devices for miners.
Meanwhile, the state’s financial situation improved, thanks largely to increased revenue from taxes on coal extraction. Manchin convinced the Democratic-controlled Legislature to use much of the surplus to pay down the state’s debt for teacher and state trooper pensions. Teachers argued the money should have paid for teacher raises, while Republicans said it should have been used to reduce taxes.
Lawmakers also signed off on Manchin’s proposal to roll out no-frills health clinics, and they clamped down on eminent domain takings.
The Legislature passed a law raising the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over two years. The first increase, to $5.85 an hour, took effect in July.

wisconsin
Denies concealed weapons, OKs minimum wage hike
In a session dominated by social issues, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle vetoed dozens of bills sent to him by the Republican-controlled legislature, including proposals to limit stem-cell research and permit residents to carry concealed weapons.
But in one compromise, the governor raised Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $6.50 an hour after he agreed to a provision that would bar local governments from setting their own rates. Officials in the state capital of Madison and other cities recently passed wage increases as a way to pressure the legislature.
The legislature, which concluded its general business May 4,also barred residents from filing obesity suits against fast-food chains and set a limit of $750,000 on jury awards in medical malpractice cases. Meanwhile, a move to restrict spending by state and local government failed, as did efforts at ethics reform.
Doyle and members of the legislature are up for election in November. They will share the ballot with a binding referendum on whether the state should constitutionally prohibit gay marriage or civil unions, and a non-binding question on reinstating the death penalty.
Wyoming’s
Energy boom a boon to state lawmakers
Wyoming ended the briefest but arguably the most prosperous legislative session of any state on March 11. Record energy tax revenues from the state’s natural gas industry led to a more than $2 billion surplus and allowed state lawmakers to approve record tax cuts and new spending increases during the state’s brief three-week session.
Lawmakers cut $100 million in taxes by eliminating the sales tax on groceries. They also approved $2.1 billion in new education funding for public schools — a 24 percent increase that likely will rank Wyoming first or second in the nation for per pupil education spending.
The state university system and community colleges also received a funding boost of $505 million to hire new faculty and create a new statewide Hathaway scholarship program that will offer a nearly free education to the state’s top high school students.
Lawmakers also boosted funding for transportation and infrastructure projects and set aside $286 million in short-term savings, with the option of putting another $200 million into a permanent state trust fund at the end of the state’s next fiscal year.
“We wouldn’t be talking about any of these new programs if we weren’t in such good financial shape,” House Speaker Randall B. Luthi (R) told Stateline.org.
The state’s Republican-majority Legislature rejected a bill that would have permitted the use of deadly force against attackers as a first resort and another bill that would have allowed any eligible citizen to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. And, despite years of trying, lawmakers again failed to ban open containers of alcohol in cars.
Stateline.org staff writers Eric Kelderman, Kavan Peterson, Christine Vestal, Daniel C. Vock and Pauline Vu contributed to this report. Reporting assistance also was contributed by John Gramlich and Elizabeth Wilkerson.
Stateline.org is an independent element of the Pew Research Center and is based in Washington, DC