California state payrolls are up for 2011 despite massive layoffs and budget cuts. According to data from the Comptroller’s office many state workers got their first full paycheck in years as the state shifted away from forced furloughs and into new cost savings measures like hiring freezes.
New Jersey is looking at two bills that would reform exiting open meetings and open records laws in the state. Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) introduced the bills which are designed to broaden access to government records and increase transparency. The bills follow a year of harsh criticism over the state officials love/hate relationship [...]
The recall action against Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is going forward but at a significant cost to local municipalities and with a significant fight over the privacy of residents that signed recall petitions. Cash strapped municipalities are facing thousands in additional costs that will result from a special election. Citizens and privacy advocates are [...]
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is giving states funds to support the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act. The act builds on existing voting rights for individuals in the military or American citizens living abroad, by ensuring that they are still allowed to vote in their local US elections and have those votes [...]
Some Georgia lawmakers are taking a page from North Carolina’s playbook in order to limit municipal broadband projects in the state. Georgia Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers is sponsoring a bill that he says is designed to keep government from unfairly competing against incumbent broadband providers. The bill makes the same kinds of arguments included [...]
Indiana is on the verge of stripping union rights and becoming a right-to-work state. The Republican-controlled House passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers. The bill follows similar measures in other states like Wisconsin, which have drawn mass protests. The bill now goes to the Senate where [...]
Rochester, Minnesota and Las Vegas, Nevada are teaming up with IBM on using predicitive analytics for law enforcement. The efforts are part of IBM’s broader Smarter Cities initiative which uses analytics and other tools to provide big data to officials about how their cities and states look and operate. CivSource spoke with Mark Cleverley, Director, [...]
Congress may be moving forward on the public safety broadband network, but some Governors say that there isn’t enough involvement from state officials – the primary users of the proposed network. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead (R), co-chairmen of the homeland security committee of the National Governors Association (NGA), have [...]
Maryland is trying to give local business owners more incentive to grow the economy with a series of measures. They’ve launched an online database of all financial incentives available for job creation, and economic development. The database will support a variety of other online tools for business owners, designed to help them while also increasing [...]
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is turning his focus to infrastructure for 2012. In an early morning address to local business leaders, the Governor underlined the need to keep his state’s infrastructure in good working condition as a cost saving measure. He also repeated his plan for a New International Trade Crossing bridge connecting Michigan and [...]
