Connecticut Jobs Bill Focuses on Innovation, Emerging Industries
By: Kelsey McCoy
A new jobs bill in Connecticut will implement a number of measures aimed at spurring innovation and supporting emerging industries. The bill’s provisions include:

• Loan reimbursement and training grants for education and careers in green technology, life sciences and health information technology;
• Personal income tax credits of 25 percent for up to $100,000 in angel investments in bioscience, photonics, information technology and green technology businesses; and
• Up to $150,000 in pre-seed financing and technical services to businesses developing innovative concepts.

The bill also supports small business and emerging industries with up to $500,000 in loans and lines of credit; provides resources for tuition and training and establishes a special advisory board to assess training needs of unemployed residents; and includes accountability measures to safeguard state taxpayer dollars, creating a waste reduction task force to study reducing or eliminating duplicative procedures.
(Contact: Erin Andrew)

Minnesota Modifies Pension System for Savings
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has signed an Omnibus Pension Bill which is expected to save the state $2 billion over five years. The legislation includes a provision requiring Minnesota’s three statewide pension funds to study alternatives to the current defined benefit plans in Minnesota and submit the final comparative study no later than June 2011. The omnibus bill, which includes legislation affecting all three statewide pension plans, includes the following changes:

• Increasing contributions to the Coordinated Plan by 0.25 percent of pay each for employees and employers, effective January 1, 2011; and
• Increasing the vesting requirements for newly enrolled members.

The benefit reductions included in this legislation are expected to save the three statewide plans $500 million annually or $2 billion over the next five years.  The additional member and employer contributions round out the measures necessary to ensure financial stability for the three funds.
(Contact: Lauren Stewart)

Arizona Moves to End Social Promotion
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently signed two major pieces of education reform legislation into law. The first bill, HB 2732, is aimed at ending the practice of social promotion, which advances unready students to the next grade level. The legislation, which is contingent upon the passage of Proposition 100, would end this practice in the third grade after 2014. The law strives to increase attention to the early grade levels, increase literacy rates, and lay the groundwork for an end to social promotion.

The second bill, SB1040, aims to create meaningful teacher and principal evaluations. Under the new law, the State Board of Education will adopt a model framework for teacher and principal evaluations. This framework will include student achievement data as 33-50 percent of the evaluation outcome.
(Contact: Stephanie Shipton)

Michigan Restructures Education Funding
The Michigan State Board of Education unanimously agreed to adopt recommendations for a new education funding plan that will now move to the state legislature for advisement on the financial requirements.

Components of the plan include:

• Universal preschool for all four-year-olds and mandated kindergarten for all children;
• Stable funding of K-12 education at levels prior to fiscal year 2010;
• The creation of strong incentives for school districts to consolidate services, and if progress is not made, the establishment of a district consolidation process;
• Moving newly-hired public school employees to a defined contribution pension system; and
• Reforming the health care benefit structures for school employees, consistent with the direction of reforms for all public employees.

(Contact: Stephanie Shipton)

Colorado to Standardize Health Insurance Applications
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill which requires the state commissioner of insurance to implement a uniform application form for individual health insurance plans. The legislation requires all health insurance carriers to accept the standard initial application, reducing the amount of paperwork involved in applying for health insurance. Currently, individuals seeking health insurance are often required to approach more than one health insurer to determine the best and most affordable plan, and must complete an application each time before receiving an estimate.
(Contact: Molly Voris)

Virginia Establishes Prisoner Re-Entry Council
By: Alisha Powell
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has created the Virginia Prisoner and Juvenile Offender Re-Entry Council as part of a new prisoner re-entry initiative to increase safety and reduce the chances of recidivism. The Council will work to identify existing barriers that prevent a successful transition of offenders to their communities and will establish partnerships among community colleges, businesses, local social service agencies and faith-based organizations to promote successful re-entry policies and programs. The Council will provide the governor with yearly recommendations and updates about actions taken to improve offender transitional and re-entry services.

Additionally, Gov. McDonnell has signed two bills that will divert non-violent offenders from incarceration and assist prisoners in working off accrued court costs.
(Contact: Blaire Jones)

Wisconsin to Collect DNA from Released Felons
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has signed  a bill into law that will compel felons to provide DNA samples, even if their sentences have been served. Felons who fail to provide a sample can be arrested by court order. The law is meant to close the gap in the state’s DNA records and applies only to those felons imprisoned on or after January 1, 2000, whose DNA samples are missing from the state’s database.
(Contact: Blaire Jones)

Missouri to Study Urban Farming
By: Lauren Stewart
New legislation in Missouri creates a Joint Committee on Urban Farming to consider the impacts of urban farm cooperatives and sustainable living communities on a statewide basis. The committee will be comprised of 10 legislators, five from each the house and the senate. It will also include an advisory board committee consisting of representatives from the departments of Agriculture, Economic Development, Natural Resources, and Health and Senior Services, as well as eight experts from diverse areas related to urban farming such as sustainable energy, indoor farming, botanical gardening and urban development.

These stakeholders will collaborate to examine urban farming, make recommendations, and identify needed state legislation or policies. The Committee must submit its findings to the governor by December 31, 2010. The legislation requires the committee to hold meetings in at least three urban areas of Missouri to seek public input.
(Contact: Greg Dierkers)

Illinois to Measure Housing and Transportation Affordability
By: Rachel Escobar
The Illinois legislature passed the H+T Affordability Index Act, adopting the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation Affordability Index as the official state index. The Index provides a cost that internalizes the housing cost and the costs associated with transportation in a given area. State transportation and housing agencies will use the Index as a tool for various decision-making processes including funding allocations and designating areas for improvement. The latest released Index, which was released in March 2010, covers 330 metropolitan areas in the U.S., encompassing more than 80 percent of the country’s population.
(Contact: Andrew Kambour)

Minnesota Creates Framework for HIT
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently signed legislation which will create a framework for health information exchange (HIE) to occur in the state. Specifically, the law works to secure patients’ health information by establishing HIE oversight and requiring compliance with all state and federal privacy rules; and ensures that health care providers are connected and able to locate patient data regardless of where the patient accesses care by setting interoperability requirements.  The legislation also grants the commissioner of health new responsibilities, including:

• Taking applications to allow organizations to exchange health information in the state;
• Providing on-going compliance monitoring; and
• Taking enforcement actions as necessary.

(Contact: Brad Finnegan)

Other News

Bioscience Industry Added Jobs During Recession
The U.S. bioscience industry continued to create jobs during the first year of the recent recession, according to a recent report by Battelle and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). The report shows that bioscience-related companies generated positive net growth through 2009. U.S. employment in the bioscience sector reached 1.42 million in 2008, a gain of 19,000 bioscience industry jobs in the U.S. since 2007.

The report also includes state profiles that highlight state initiatives intended to support bioscience companies and research.
(Contact: Erin Lamos)

Disparities Found in GED Acquisition by High School Dropouts
The Pew Hispanic Center recently conducted an analysis of educational attainment data from the 2008 American Community Survey, which found a significant racial disparity in GED attainment. The analysis found that only one-in-ten Hispanic students who dropped out of high school have a GED. The survey shows that two-in-ten black students and three-in-ten white students who have dropped out of high school have a GED. Augmenting the disparity in GED attainment is data showing that the Hispanic dropout rate (41 percent) is almost twice the rate of black students (23 percent) and much higher than white students (14 percent).

Further analysis of the data found that:

• Hispanic adults with a GED were more likely to be unemployed than those with a high school diploma;
• Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED earned roughly the same mean annual salary as those with a high school diploma;
• Fifty-two percent of foreign-born Latino adults have dropped out of high school compared to 25 percent of native-born Latino adults; and
• Twenty-one percent of native-born Hispanic dropouts have a GED compared to five percent of those born outside of the U.S.

(Contact: Stephanie Shipton)

More Mentally Ill Persons Are Incarcerated than Hospitalized
A recent study released by the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs Association finds that there are more than three times more seriously mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals. The report, More Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals: A Survey of the States, finds that 40 percent of individuals with serious mental illnesses have been in jail at some point in their lives; up from less than 10 percent in 1983. The study provides state-level data and policy recommendations, including increasing the capacity for psychiatric treatment and increased ability to identify convicted persons with mental health needs.
(Contact: Brad Finnegan)

Terrorism Plots Foiled by Law Enforcement and Citizen Awareness
Attempted acts of terrorism have been thwarted by traditional law enforcement, international law enforcement information sharing, and direct or indirect action by citizens, according to a report by the American Security Project. The authors researched 32 terrorist attacks that have occurred since September 11, 2001. Traditional and existing law enforcement techniques contributed significantly to identifying terrorists and preventing attacks. The report also finds that post-9/11 legislation and methods have disrupted a relatively small number of terrorist plots. The report recommends that:

• Multi-layered strategies work best, rather than individual counter-terrorism agency methods or plans;
• Supporting local law enforcement to enhance community-driven intelligence should continue; and
• A congressional panel should reassess which post-9/11 counter-terrorism methods have been successful.

(Contact: David Henry)

Energy Outlook Shows Greater Use of Clean Energy
By: Rachel Escobar
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released their annual Energy Outlook, offering predictions for the 2008-2035 timeline. Over this 27-year span, the EIA forecasts a moderate growth in energy consumption with a rise in the use of renewable energy sources. This growth, coupled with a decline in petroleum-based liquids as they are replaced by more biofuels and an increase in domestic natural gas production, indicates a transition to the use of more secure, clean energy. The EIA also projects that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will slow, with a note that this is dependent on the recovery pace of the economy and any change in GHG emissions policy.
(Contact: Greg Dierkers)

What's New
Apply Now for Cross Governmental Sentencing and Corrections Policy Forum
By: Alisha Powell
The NGA Center invites states to apply for the upcoming Cross Governmental Sentencing and Corrections Policy Forum. Up to five states will be competitively selected to participate in the forum designed to improve state sentencing and corrections policies to reduce the costs of corrections and improve sentencing outcomes while maintaining public safety. Selected states will have access to national faculty of experts, receive resources that highlight current research and promising practices, participate in networking events and have access to customized technical assistance.

The deadline to apply is May 25, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
(Contact: Blaire Jones)