Maine sees big wins in 2019

The 2019 Maine legislative session adjourned on June 20 with several wins for working people—including on health care, civil rights, incomes, paid leave, reproductive rights, and democracy reform.

Medicaid Expansion

Conservatives have denied Mainers access to Medicaid expansion for years, even over the wishes of voters. When Governor Mills took office in 2019, she promised that fully funding and implementing expansion would be her first action. Together with progressive legislators, many of whom had been fighting for Medicaid expansion for years, Governor Mills delivered on her promise and fully funded and implemented the measure. Nearly 70,000 Mainers will now gain health care access.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

Although blatant gender discrimination is technically against the law in Maine, there are still many less obvious practices that continue to perpetuate the gender and racial wage gap. Senator Cathy Breen and Representative Mark Bryant championed legislation to level the playing field for all employees when negotiating salaries. The new law prevents employers from requiring applicants to disclose their previous salaries. That way, a new salary offer is not based on salary history, but instead on experience, skills, and the job role. The measure ensures that instances of inequitable pay do not follow employees for their entire careers, which is especially important for women, people of color, and others who are typically underpaid.

Conversion Therapy Banned

Maine’s previous governor vetoed legislation last year to ban “conversion therapy,” a discredited and harmful practice. But sponsor Rep. Ryan Fecteau, now Assistant House Majority Leader, came back this year to fight again. The bill prevents licensed health care professionals from offering services that claim to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity to minors. This dangerous practice causes adverse effects in children, including depression, anxiety and drug use. Conversion therapy is already banned in many states and nearly all professional licensing organizations have condemned the practice.

Paid Time Off

A long-time champion for workers, Senator Rebecca Millett continued to fight for paid sick leave after several years of the legislation falling short in divided legislatures. Although the bill did not pass in its original form, the final version will grant paid time off for any reason to 85% of Maine’s private sector workers. Before this bill, 139,000 Maine workers have had no access to paid time off at all, and another 137,000 could not take time for any reason other than illness.

Automatic Voter Registration (AVR)

On the final day of session, Governor Mills signed Speaker Sara Gideon’s bill to bring automatic voter registration to Maine. Eligible voters who visit the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will soon be registered to vote, or have their voting addresses updated, by default, unless they opt-out. And new agencies may join the system later on to expand AVR’s impact. This is an important step for Maine’s democracy—lowering a systemic barrier to the ballot box and modernizing outdated government processes.

Prescription Drugs

Senate President Troy Jackson, Assistant Majority Leader Senator Eloise Vitelli, and Senator Heather Sanborn have each sponsored parts of a larger package of bills aimed at lowering the prohibitive cost of prescription drugs. Legislation that ultimately passed will create a prescription drug affordability board, which would oversee and set targets for prescription drug costs for public entities; initiate a wholesale importation program to allow importation from Canada; provide more information and transparency about drug pricing all along the supply chain, and reduce the influence of pharmacy benefit managers to drive up prescription costs.

Reproductive Rights

This session saw huge gains for reproductive health access in Maine. Speaker Gideon passed a bill to allow Advanced Practice Clinicians to perform abortions, meaning that many rural women can have their local providers perform the procedure instead of traveling long distances and receive the same quality and safety. Representative Jay McCreight, another of Maine’s strongest reproductive rights champions, passed a bill to require insurance, including Medicaid, to cover abortion care. Representative Maureen “Mo” Terry’s passed a bill to allow over-the-counter prescriptions in vending machines, so now women on college campuses can have access to emergency contraception outside of traditional pharmacy hours.

Earned Income Tax Credit and Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes

Representative Ryan Tipping’s bill to raise the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit passed in the final hours of session, giving approximately 100,000 low-income households in Maine a much-needed boost. The bill more than doubles the current rate and achieves this by closing loopholes on large out-of-state corporations.

Student Debt Bill of Rights

Senator Eloise Vitelli passed a bill to help level the playing field for student loan borrowers. The bill establishes standards to prevent student loan servicing companies from misleading borrowers and creates the “Student Loan Ombudsman” to help borrowers navigate problems with servicers.

Arizona Progressives Hold Steady and Stem Conservative Overreach

Progressive legislators stood strong in the 2019 legislative session and were able to continue to articulate the bold vision outlined in the Sunrise Agenda. Progressive discipline helped produce better policy outcomes on education, the environment and democracy for Arizonans.

In Defense of Democracy

While progressives do not control either chamber, they were able to exert their influence and temper conservatives’ overreach. They successfully killed bills that would have made voting less accessible for eligible voters in Arizona. They successfully stopped legislation that would purge voters on the permanent early voting list and legislation that would cripple the ability to have voter registration drives.

Environmental Wins

Progressives were also able to work across the aisle and exert their influence to pass one of the most significant pieces of water legislation in Arizona’s history. The Drought Contingency Plan allows Arizona to join six other western states and Mexico in signing onto an inter-state water agreement and spells out ways Arizona will contribute to conserving more water from the Colorado River.

The Budget Fight

The conservatives refused to debate many of the priorities that Arizonans identify as critical—like affordable healthcare and housing—and instead fought for priorities that rig the rules for the wealthy and big businesses and protect their own power.

Conservatives prioritized big tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations while attacking minimum wage. In the budget, Flagstaff—the only city in Arizona to pay higher than the state minimum wage of $11—is now forced to reimburse the state for the difference in wages of state employees who make more than the state minimum wage.

Progressives were able stand strong, creating a political environment that forced a compromise on funding for education. Spending for K-12 will be $5.2 billion, about $500 million more than in the current year--not nearly enough to deal with our current education crisis, but still a win for Arizona students.

Looking Forward

While the 2019 legislative session saw little progress on issues to help everyday Arizonans, progressive partners and legislators will continue to work with constituents and colleagues to build on the groundwork laid in 2019 to advance the priorities in the Sunrise Agenda: a stronger democracy; strong public schools; welcoming communities; a fair economy and cleaning up the tax code; and good stewardship of the state’s air, water and public lands.

In Nevada: First Female Majority Legislature Makes Significant Progressive Gains in 2019

In 2019, Nevada made history by becoming the first female majority legislature in the history of the United States. With this historic majority, the Nevada Legislature made momentous headway into improving our democracy and economy for working people. Through recently passed legislation, thousands of Nevadans will now have improved access to the ballot box and greater protections in the workplace.

4 Ways Nevada Progressives Made Our Democracy Stronger

Native American Voting Access

Assemblyman Watts championed AB 137, which removes the requirement for tribal governments to gain approval from election officials every election cycle to establish polling sites. Unless tribal leaders request a change, election clerks are required to continue to recognize the established polling places. This was Assemblyman Watt’s first piece of legislation that was signed into law.

Voting Restoration

Speaker Frierson led the charge to pass AB 431, a bill to restore the right to vote for convicted persons upon release from prison or discharge from parole or probation. Previously, a formerly incarcerated person had to petition to have their rights restored, as well as confusion about the law and process prevented many eligible Nevadans from voting. An estimated 77,000 citizen will regain their right to vote.

AB431SigningPic — *The signing of AB431*

Voting Omnibus Bill

The most comprehensive voting rights bill, AB 345, aims to ensure any eligible voter seeking to access the polling booth is able to cast a ballot. There are four key provisions in this legislation including voting anywhere, online registration, same day registration and improved accommodations. Clerks gain the ability to designate polling places where anyone registered in the county may vote, regardless of the assigned polling place. Voters will now be able to register to vote on Election Day and cast their ballot, as well as register online the same day. Individuals with disabilities, deployed oversees and the elderly can now request absentee ballots for all elections instead of having to request every election.

Census

The Nevada Legislature is laying the groundwork for a fair and accurate Census count and did so through three different pieces of legislation. AJR 6, championed by the late Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, is a resolution urging Congress to not include the citizenship question. $5 million of funding for Census outreach to underserved communities was appropriated through SB 504. Finally, AB 450 was signed into law, which is legislation that counts prison inmates in their home districts instead of prison districts for redistricting purposes.

4 Ways Nevada Progressives Made Our Economy Stronger

The Nevada Legislature took important steps toward bringing economic security to Nevada workers through several pieces of legislation, including equal pay for equal work, raising the minimum wage, earned sick days, and protecting the right to join together in union.

Equal Pay

After four years and three sessions, Senator Pat Spearman passed her Equal Pay for Equal Work legislation. Women finally have state protections if they are paid less than their male counterparts to seek justice.

Minimum Wage

After ten years without an increase in the state minimum wage, Assembly leadership sponsored legislation to begin a stepped increase to raise the minimum wage to $12 incrementally over the next five years. Additionally, the process to remove the health care provision tied to minimum wage in the Constitution was initiated.

Earned Sick Days

Previously, workers in Nevada did not legally have access to earned sick days, even if they worked full time. The new law allows for the accrual of 5 days off of earned sick time annually at employers with 50 employees or more.

EarnedSick2 — *Earned sick day advocates at the Nevada State Capitol*

State Employee Collective Bargaining

The bill protects the rights of state employees to join together in union to negotiate wages, vacation, sick leave, safety issues, hours and days of work, and more. Senator David Parks carried the bill for ten years before its passage this year.

Pic 2 photo cred AFSCME Local 4041 — *Photo from AFSCME Local 4041 at a collective bargaining rally*

Television Media Training in Colorado

Media Training Application for Interested Legislators

Join the State Innovation Exchange for a media training on Friday, June 28th from 9:00-1:00 at Colorado Education Association. This half day training will provide advice around media interviews and on-camera practice for participants so that they may be more knowledgeable about messaging on policy priorities important for working Coloradans. This is an open invitation to state legislators to participate – all state legislators are welcome to apply. SiX encourages applicants to apply based on their belief and support for policies that ensure economic security for working families, an open and accessible democracy, affordable and accessible health care, and safe schools and communities. Given that there are limited spaces in this training, we will prioritize applicants with a demonstrated commitment to these issues and highly encourage diverse candidates to apply.

Widespread Support for Progressive Agenda Among Michigan Voters

Key Findings from Michigan Statewide Polls for the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) reflect voter support for democratic reforms and progressive solutions to economic issues

A recent poll conducted by TargetSmart for SiX revealed that Michigan voters are hungry for concrete improvements in the everyday life of the average person and their family. From safe, modern roads to affordable auto insurance, prescription drugs, and doctor’s visits, Michiganders prioritize tangible impacts that help working people. Moreover, Michigan voters see a clear role for government in delivering these improvements and more broadly providing opportunities that help working families.

Voters are tired of seeing big banks book record profits while the streets they drive on every day are ridden with potholes. Their frustrations are easy to observe when they can’t afford their prescription drugs or their newly hiked up auto insurance bill but see pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies doing better than ever. Public opinion calls for an agenda that ensures everyone pays their fair share, corporations are held accountable, and state government provides opportunities that proactively make life better for working Michiganders.

Support for Democracy Reforms

A second survey found strong support for early voting and vote by mail options. Across all regions and demographics, citizens wanted to reduce the influence of money on policymaking and increase transparency.

For the polling on economic issues, see more analysis here and results here. For the polling on democratic reforms, see here and here.

Survey Methodology

TargetSmart designed and administered this multi-modal survey. Five-hundred interviews were conducted via professional telephone agents (330 wireless respondents, 170 landline respondents) from May 14-23, and 509 interviews were conducted online among panelists who were matched to the TargetSmart voter file from six opt-in panel providers from May 5-23. All respondents indicated they were 18 years or older and registered to vote in Michigan. Quotas were designed to reflect the demographic and geographic distribution of registered voters in Michigan. The data were weighted by gender, age, race, TargetSmart Partisan Score, TargetSmart High School Only Score, and region by county and county council district to ensure an accurate reflection of the population.