News from Across the Nation - Feb. 6, 2017

ALASKA

It’s unanimous: MATANUSKA-SUSITNA BOROUGH Assembly members’ terms won’t increase from three years to four years.

On a 7–0 vote, the Assembly — including the measure’s original proponent — rejected longer terms. Sitting members and the mayor would not have been affected.

Assembly Member Randall Kowalke said he put the idea forward to see what the public thought of it. Apparently not much. His original motivation was to make it easier for his successors to navigate and govern in a district larger than the other six combined.

“My situation — I have the most of the darned land in the borough — I’m running ragged and trying to get up to speed,” Kowalke said.

 

CALIFORNIA

SANTA CLARA COUNTY’s top elected official says the county’s immigration-related policies won’t change in the wake of President Trump’s executive order to slash federal funding to “sanctuary” cities.

“We have known of Trump’s immigration plans for months now,” said Dave Cortese, president of the Board of Supervisors. “We have moved to build our own institutional walls to protect the interests of all of our residents, including those without proper documentation,” he added, hinting at Trump’s vow to build an actual wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We will assess the impact these orders will have on our county and residents, but note that we will not back away from a legal fight if we must.”

COLORADO

Recyclers in PITKIN COUNTY can rest a little easier now that fewer mattresses will be ending up in the county’s landfill.

 “Sometimes, when you get a hotel replacing their mattresses, you can get a boatload of 20 to 40 of them,” Cathy Hall, the county’s solid waste manager, told the Aspen Times.

A Denver-based recycling company says that 95 percent of mattress components can be recycled. It will park a semi-truck trailer at the landfill, to be hauled off when it’s full.

The county will charge people $25 per mattress for the transportation cost, Hall said, adding that the facility won’t make money from the project.

Mattresses take up a lot of space, don’t compact well and interfere with landfill equipment once they are buried. “A 95,000-pound compactor can drive over it and it just springs right back,” she said.

IOWA

A bill at the state Legislature would do away with compensation boards that determine county supervisors’ pay raises.

County officials currently appoint a seven-member board to determine and recommend pay adjustments for the supervisors, auditor, recorder, treasurer, sheriff and county attorney. The Board of Supervisors can approve, reduce or reject the recommendation.

State Rep. Megan Jones, a supporter of the measure, said the compensation boards — which every Iowa county has — lead to “exorbitant raises” for elected officials.

Lucas Beenken, an IOWA STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES policy analyst, said that doing away with compensation boards would remove a necessary layer of “checks and balances.”

MARYLAND

MONTGOMERY COUNTY Executive Ike Leggett “reluctantly” vetoed a measure passed by the County Council to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, The Washington Post reported.

In a memo to County Council President Roger Berliner, Leggett said he supports efforts to raise the minimum wage “over an appropriate timeframe.” He added that he might consider a revised bill, after an assessment of the potential economic impact on businesses in the county of a $15 minimum wage phased in by 2022.

Leggett would also like to see an exemption for small businesses and employed youths.

MINNESOTA

Should the job of BENTON COUNTY recorder be an elected or an appointed position? That’s a question on county commissioners’ minds, according to the St. Cloud Times.

Commissioners have asked the state Legislature for authority to make the recorder an appointed position.

The recorder’s office, which oversees real estate records, has just three employees and is the smallest department in the county. County officials are considering whether it would make sense to combine it with another department, such as the assessor’s office.

MISSOURI

Abusers of prescription painkillers have a new foe. JACKSON and ST. LOUIS counties are collaborating in a prescription drug monitoring program. Missouri is the only U.S. state without a system to track prescription drugs sales, The Kansas City Star reported.

Over the past decade, the General Assembly has been unable to pass legislation that would set up a statewide program. Opponents have cited privacy concerns.

Two bills are being considered this session, which, if passed, would greenlight a statewide program.

Meanwhile, at the urging of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), the Department of Justice okayed the use of federal funds by local governments for prescription drug monitoring programs to help fight the opioid epidemic. Previously federal grants for such programs were available only to states.

NEW YORK

ULSTER COUNTY is considering banning memorializing resolutions by the County Legislature. Those resolutions don’t involve legislators taking action on issues directly under their control. 

NORTH CAROLINA

MECKLENBURG COUNTY Commissioners passed a plan to contribute $43.75 million toward a plan to attract a major-league soccer franchise to Charlotte. The city would also pay $43.75 million. An investment group would pay the remaining $84.5 million.

The county would also loan the team $75 million, which would be paid back over 25 years, WBTV News reported.

OHIO

In July, the state of Ohio, its counties and eight transit authorities will be barred from collecting sales taxes on organizations that manage Medicaid patients’ care. That will total $15 million a year that HAMILTON COUNTY will lose, which it otherwise uses to pay for basic services, pay off stadium debt and fund transportation renovations, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. That totals roughly 7 percent of the county’s sales tax revenue. BUTLER COUNTY stands to lose 7.5 percent of its revenue, CLERMONT COUNTY will lose 7.2 percent and WARREN COUNTY would lose 3.5 percent.

Gov. John Kasich (R) plans to wean counties off of this revenue in a plan he will detail in his budget proposal.

OREGON

The expiration of the Secure Rural Schools program will mean a more than a 90 percent cut in revenue-sharing timber harvest payments to Oregon counties, The Statesman Journal reported. The program’s 2015 payment of $86.4 million will fall to $7 million.

SOUTH CAROLINA

The FLORENCE COUNTY Library System was recently awarded a grant from the Foundation for the Carolinas to provide internet-ready kits directly to families without home internet access. Kit include a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, a Chromebook computer, accessories and instructions. The library is partnering with school districts throughout the county to identify families to participate in the project.

TENNESSEE

Assessor Marty Haynes has told HAMILTON COUNTY’s 10 municipalities he will start charging them half the cost of reappraising property within their boundaries. A 27-year-old state law requires municipalities to pay half of those costs but the cities have not done so.

The Times Free Press reports that the cities would have to pay a combined $772,674 by June 30 unless they reach an agreement with the County Commission to continue not paying.

TEXAS

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has cut funding for TRAVIS COUNTY after Sheriff Sally Hernandez announced the agency would scale back its cooperation with federal immigration.

Starting Feb. 1, sheriff’s officials began honoring federal immigration detainers only if a suspect is booked on charges of capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and human smuggling, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The county could lose up to $1.8 million in grants, which represents 1 percent of the sheriff’s office’s budget.

WASHINGTON

With hopes of boosting voter turnout, KING COUNTY will provide prepaid return postage on ballots for voters in two small, local elections in February. The Seattle Times reports that the elections department projects spending $12,300 for the postage for more than 64,000 ballots.

News From Across the Nation is compiled by Charles Taylor and Charlie Ban, senior staff writers. If you have an item for News From, please email ctaylor@naco.org or cban@naco.org.