Page 136 – State Affairs

ADOT launches Safety Message Contest

Posted on July 22, 2024 by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

On Tuesday, July 23, ADOT will bring back its popular Safety Message Contest for its eighth year. The contest allows the public to submit their own traffic safety message suggestions and vote on their favorites from a pool of 10-12 finalists ADOT selects. The two messages with the most votes will be crowned the winners and displayed on overhead message boards statewide. On July 23, a news release with more information will be shared. ADOT representatives will be available for interviews at ADOT’s Traffic Operations Center, where the Dynamic Message Signs are programmed. Visuals will include a wall of monitors with feeds from ADOT’s highway camera system. Please RSVP or let ADOT Communications know if you are interested in attending by emailing [email protected] . Event details: What: ADOT launches Safety Message Contest Who: Interviews with ADOT representatives in the Traffic Operations Center When: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday, July 23 Where: 2302 W Durango St, Phoenix, AZ 85009

Legislative Town Hall: “The War for Water: Why It Matters, and How to Win It”

Posted on July 22, 2024 by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – Arizona State Representative Alex Kolodin reminds the public and media about the upcoming legislative town hall on the critical issue of water conservation and augmentation, titled “The War for Water: Why It Matters, and How to Win It.” This special event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in Room 1 of the Mountain View Park Community Center, located at 8625 East Mountain View Road in Scottsdale. Event Details Date: Wednesday, July 24, 2024 Time: 6:00 p.m. Location: Mountain View Park Community Center, Room 1 8625 East Mountain View Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85258 Featured Participants

State Representative Alex Kolodin
Tyler Francis, District and Association Council Member, Salt River Project
Mark Lewis, VP Engineering, Water Resource Institute
Regina Cobb, Former State Representative
Amanda Monize, Board Member, Central Arizona Water Conservation District

Special Guest Emcee James T. Harris, Morning Host at 550 KFYI (Phoenix) and 790 KNST (Tucson) Members of the public and news media are welcome and encouraged to attend this important event to discuss Arizona’s water future and strategies for securing our water resources. For those unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed at: www.youtube.com/@arizonacapitoltv . A recording of the event will also be available the following day at: www.azleg.gov/archivedmeetings .

Statehouse Briefs: Kelly attends global aviation summit near London

Posted on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Matt Resnick

Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday attended the first day of a weeklong global aviation summit in England.

Farnborough Air Show, which lasts through Friday, is billed as an international trade exhibition that plays host to global aviation executives, as well as aircraft and defense manufacturers and other industry insiders.

Kelly is in attendance to advocate on behalf of Kansas’ robust aviation industry — home to around 450 suppliers and roughly 100,000 jobs, according to Press Secretary Grace Hoge, who added that the industry generates $20 billion annually for the state’s economy. Wichita alone is home to aerospace manufacturers Spirit AeroSystems Inc. and Textron Aviation, and previously housed industry giant Boeing.

“I’m in England this week for the Farnborough Airshow, talking to businesses about why Kansas is the best state to put down roots,” Kelly said in a post on her X account Monday. “With Wichita, the ‘Air Capital of the World’ and our state’s rich aviation history, Kansas is the ideal place for aerospace investment.”

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., attended the event with Kelly on Monday.

Hoge added that security protocol precludes the release of Kelly’s international travel itinerary — including any advance announcements of the trip.

Hawkins taps Lacey as comms director

House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, recently promoted Payton Lacey to the role of communications director for his office.

Lacey previously held the title of legislative policy director for the speaker’s office and has worked in the offices of the Kansas treasurer and attorney general. She also played a prominent role in former Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s gubernatorial campaign in 2022 and has interned for U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran.

“With her extensive experience in politics, knowledge of Kansas state government, outgoing nature, and background in language arts, Payton will be an incredible asset to our office and caucus as our communications director,” Hawkins said in a news release Friday. “Her relationships within the building and ability to hit the ground running will be invaluable and I look forward to watching her shine in this new role.”

Matt Resnick is a statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected].

Gallego Seeks Answers as Ports of Entry are Impacted by Global IT Outage

Posted on July 22, 2024 by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

PHOENIX – On Friday, Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-03) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, expressing his concerns regarding the impacts of the global Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage on Ports of Entry. “During this unprecedented event, it is of paramount national security and economic concern that our Ports are able to operate smoothly,” Rep. Gallego wrote . “Although backup systems have allowed Ports to remain open, delays are still a cause for concern, in addition to any vulnerabilities that may arise.” In order to ensure that our Ports remain secure and efficient even in these unusual circumstances, Rep. Gallego posed the following questions:

How are the impacts of this software failure being alleviated at Ports of Entry?
What additional resources do Ports need for maintenance of operations?
Is CrowdStrike providing any additional resources to assist in security and processing efforts, including on-the-ground support to repair impacted systems and devices?

“Arizona’s Ports of Entry play a critical role in our economy, security, and the day-to-day lives of many Arizonans,” Rep. Gallego concludes. “I stand ready to assist you in providing for their continued secure and efficient operation.” Full text of the letter can be found HERE.

Georgians could face skyrocketing utility bills as lawmakers extend regulators’ terms

Posted on July 22, 2024July 24, 2024 by Nava Rawls

The tug-of-war over Public Service Commission elections is headed to court — again.

A new lawsuit filed by two environmental groups alleges state lawmakers violated the Georgia Constitution by allowing members of a state utility regulatory board to stay in office, enabling them to approve the largest utility rate hike in Georgia history. The July 17 lawsuit, brought by environmental groups Georgia WAND and Georgia Conservation Voters, claims the rate hike may not have occurred had the elections for Public Service Commission seats been held on time. The lawsuit requests that the elections, which have been on hold since 2022, take place soon.

“We are asking the court to rule quickly on this and to order the secretary of state to hold elections as soon as is practicable,” Bryan Sells, one of the attorneys representing the consumer groups, said Wednesday during a news conference.

The lawsuit is the latest in a four-year battle among consumers, environmentalists and the state’s top election official over how the state’s utilities regulators are elected.

Biden’s Indiana ballot status — and your other questions — answered

Posted on July 22, 2024July 23, 2024 by Rory Appleton

Indiana voters, political donors and candidates will surely be impacted by President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 election. But the question is how?

Does Biden, who won the Indiana presidential primary election, have to appear on the ballot this November? If not Biden, then who? And what will be the impact for those who donated to the campaign or who are running for elected office in Indiana?

State Affairs has the answers to these questions and more. Here’s how Biden’s decision will impact the upcoming general election in Indiana.

Bopp withdraws without explanation from handling state cases

Posted on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Tom Davies

Conservative activist lawyer James Bopp has withdrawn from cases in which he was representing the Indiana Attorney General’s Office in state and federal court.

Bopp declined to comment Monday to State Affairs about why he filed requests with courts last week to withdraw from the three current cases his Terre Haute law firm was handling.

Bopp and Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office signed a contract in April 2023 under which Bopp’s firm could be paid up to $250,000 for its work on behalf of the state. That contract was amended in March, increasing the maximum payment level to $500,000 by the end of 2024.

Asked whether he would be taking up other matters for the Attorney General’s Office, Bopp replied in an email: “No other cases.”

Bopp’s motions to withdraw, first reported by The Indiana Citizen, came in two ongoing federal court fights over the constitutionality of a state law setting a 25-foot buffer zone for police officers.

Bopp also withdrew from representing the Attorney General’s Office in Rokita’s bid to keep confidential an ethics opinion on whether he could have continued working for a private corporation after taking office in 2021.

A federal judge had sided with the state in one of the police buffer zone lawsuits, with oral arguments in an appeal scheduled for Sept. 27 before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The other case is pending before a District Court judge in Indianapolis.

Bopp had prevailed before the state appeals court in his arguments keeping the ethics opinion to Rokita confidential, and that case is being appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Rokita’s office did not immediately comment to State Affairs about Bopp’s withdrawal from the cases or how much he had been paid for his work.

The state contract allowed Bopp to charge $450 an hour for his work, with other lawyers from his firm to charge between $200 and $425 an hour.

Bopp has been a political supporter of Rokita, including giving $2,000 to his attorney general campaign fund since 2020, according to state Election Division records.

Marion County judges ruled against Bopp in two other cases he handled for the Attorney General’s Office under the contract signed last year.

One of those cases involved the fight by agribusiness executive John Rust against the state’s two-primary voting requirement so that he could seek the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Bopp did not handle the state’s appeal of that case, which saw the Indiana Supreme Court uphold the law.

Bopp also didn’t prevail in his arguments defending the state law under which charter schools can obtain vacant public school buildings for $1. A deputy state attorney general has been handling an appeal of that decision before the state appeals court.

Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at [email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.

State Medicaid expenditures draw closer to forecast, budget

Posted on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Jarred Meeks

Indiana’s Medicaid expenditures have inched closer to what state officials budgeted and forecast, a new financial report shows.

According to a monthly Medicaid report published by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, the state’s fiscal year Medicaid expenditures totaled $18.2 billion, after adjustments, through May, the latest month financial data was available.

The expenditures were more than $62 million, after adjustments, above what the December forecast predicted, continuing a downward trajectory. As recently as March, fiscal year Medicaid expenditures had climbed to nearly $300 million more than predicted.

Through May, Medicaid expenditures for nearly 2 million Hoosiers outpaced what lawmakers had budgeted for by $384 million, after adjustments, with one month of reporting data remaining in the fiscal year. In April, the figure sat at more than $661 million.

But despite the favorable update, expenditures continue to exceed those in the same period of the last fiscal year — by nearly $2 billion — even after the state’s “unwinding” efforts, which have seen more than 400,000 Hoosiers disenrolled from Medicaid since April 2023 (about a quarter of whom have re-enrolled, according to the administration).

General fund usage has also oscillated above and below the December forecast in recent months, running $137.7 million above what was predicted through May. For the fiscal year so far, federal funds made up approximately 71% of overall funding for Medicaid assistance expenditures, and another 21% came from the state’s general fund, according to the administration. Intergovernmental transfers, cigarette tax revenue and assessment fees accounted for the remainder.

The administration cautions that funding and expenditures are expected to fluctuate throughout the fiscal year.

In December, administration leaders reported a nearly $1 billion forecasting error. State lawmakers pledged to cover the unexpected shortfall with an additional $713.1 million from the state surplus and $271.2 million out of a Medicaid reserve account.

That month, the administration predicted the state’s Medicaid funding shortfall to be $255.2 million for the fiscal year. Through May, the projection had ballooned to $392.9 million, the administration reported, cautioning that some of the increase stemmed from assessment fee collection timing.

Meanwhile, state revenues for the fiscal year recently came in just short of the estimate.

Contact Jarred Meeks on X @jarredsmeeks or email him at [email protected].

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes Indiana ballot, but Green Party falls short

Posted on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Tom Davies

The Gist

Indiana voters will see independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on their presidential election ballot, but not Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

State election officials have certified that Kennedy’s campaign submitted more than the nearly 37,000 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

The State Election Division told State Affairs Monday that Stein’s campaign fell about 12,000 signatures short as the Green Party continues fighting Indiana’s ballot-access law in a federal lawsuit filed two years ago.

Kelly endorses Harris as Kansas reacts to Biden’s decision to drop out

Posted on July 22, 2024July 22, 2024 by Brett Stover

Gov. Laura Kelly joined a growing list of Democratic leaders endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as Kansas reacts to President Joe Biden’s decision to leave the race.

The governor shared her endorsement Monday morning, throwing her support behind the former attorney general and senator from California to lead the Democratic Party’s ticket in November.

“At a time when our country is desperate to restore reproductive rights, strengthen the middle class, safeguard democracy, and bring people together, we need her leadership now more than ever,” Kelly said in a post on X.

Kelly touted Harris’ work as a prosecutor “getting violent criminals off the streets” and protecting reproductive rights. She said Harris “has always done what’s best for American families.”

Other Kansas Democrats followed suit, including U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids.

“Kamala Harris will fight MAGA extremism, protect our reproductive rights, and defend our democracy,” she said in a post on X. “Most importantly, uniting behind her gives us the best chance to prevent another term for Donald Trump.”

Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, signed on to a letter from the Association of State Democratic Committees supporting Harris as the party’s nominee, but Repass hasn’t personally endorsed the vice president.

The state’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention plan to meet on a Zoom video call Monday night, Repass said. The convention is scheduled for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

Kansas has a “thoughtful and intelligent delegation that wants to get the facts,” she said.

Repass said the vast majority of Americans weren’t satisfied with the choice between Biden and Trump. But she said only the Democratic Party listened to that national mood and gave voters a different choice.

‘Renewed excitement’: Democrats react to Biden’s decision

One lawmaker, Rep. Rui Xu, D-Westwood, compared the potential transition to Harris from Biden to Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes taking over from veteran signal caller Alex Smith. Mahomes spent his rookie season as a backup before becoming the starter in 2018.

“She’s seen as a unifying force for the Dems and anybody who is anti-Trump,” Xu said, adding that he has zero concerns about Harris’ campaigning abilities and believes the party will coalesce around her.

Xu said he “absolutely supports” Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee and believes her “relative youth and energy” will supercharge the Democratic party.

“It requires a really brave person to step aside for the next generation,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, also said Biden’s decision created a renewed excitement among voters and could help Democratic candidates down ballot in Kansas.

In dropping out, Sykes said Biden “showed leadership of what is best for our country and making sure that we are able to elect a Democrat and defeat Donald Trump.”

Sykes said Harris is a “great candidate” and continuation of the Biden administration’s approach to governance — but she wants to let the dust settle before making any official endorsement.

Like Sykes, House Minority Leader Vic Miller, D-Topeka, said he liked Harris but stopped just short of an endorsement. Miller and Sykes are both delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

“At this point, I can’t think of somebody who would be a better choice,” Miller said. “I like her and respect President Biden’s recommendation. But there’s still a lot to unfold, so I’m not ready to commit to anyone.”

Miller added that he believes Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race was the correct one. He said he was initially under the impression that Biden planned to only serve for one term in the Oval Office.

Biden’s 2020 campaign often framed his presidency as a transitional one, leading many to expect he wouldn’t seek reelection.

The Kansas Democratic Party thanked Biden on Sunday, shortly after the president announced his decision to drop out of the race. In a statement, the party said it looks forward to the process of selecting the party’s nominee and is “focused on supporting Kansas Democrats up and down the ballot.”

Republicans say Biden ‘disenfranchised’ voters

Several Kansas Republicans said Biden’s decision disenfranchised Democratic voters.

“57 Democratic nominating contests were just retroactively abolished in favor of a process with no basis in statute or party rules,” 2nd Congressional District candidate Jeff Kahrs wrote on X.

The state Republican party replied to a post from the state Democratic party, claiming the Democratic National Committee “is once again proving they have no problem rigging an election and killing democracy” and that bureaucrats will select the next nominee instead of voters.

Other Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Ron Estes and U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, took their criticism a step further and called for Biden to resign.

“If Joe Biden is unable to serve another term, then he must resign right now,” Marshall said in a post on X. “If he’s unfit to campaign, he should not have the nuclear codes — it’s that simple.”

Brett Stover is a Statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected] or on X @BrettStoverKS.

Matt Resnick is a Statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected].