Executive Leadership

Michael H. McCabe ............mmccabe@csg.orgDirector

Departmental Specialists

Tim Anderson .....................tanderson@csg.orgPublications Manager

Cindy Calo Andrews .......... candrews@csg.orgAssistant Director

Jon Davis ....................................... jdavis@csg.orgPolicy Analyst and Assistant Editor

Ilene K. Grossman .............igrossman@csg.orgAssistant Director

Lisa R. Janairo........................... ljanairo@csg.orgProgram Director

Laura Kliewer ...........................lkliewer@csg.orgSenior Policy Analyst

Gail Meyer ................................. gmeyer@csg.orgOffice Manager

Laura A. Tomaka .................... ltomaka@csg.orgSenior Program Manager

Kathy Treland ..........................ktreland@csg.orgAdministrative Coordinator and Meeting Planner

Katelyn Tye ......................................ktye@csg.orgPolicy Analyst

CONTACT US!701 E. 22nd Street, Suite 110Lombard, IL 60148p 630.925.1922 | csgmidwest.org

PUBLICATIONS & RESOURCES

PUBS & RESOURCES CONTINUED KEY STAFF

Stateline Midwest—a monthly newsletter of the Midwestern Legislative Conference. This publication keeps members up to date on policy issues impacting their states, actions being taken by the region’s 11 state legislatures, and work being done by the MLC and The Council of State Governments.

Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee Newsletter— a monthly e-newsletter focusing on issues and state and federal policies related to the trans-portation and storage of radioactive materials.

Great Lakes News for Legislators— a quarterly e-newsletter focusing on Great Lakes- related policy issues and distributed to Great Lakes Legislative Caucus members and other legislators and staff who share an interest in promoting the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes.

Under the Dome—a training initiative that provides customized policy briefings and profes-sional development workshops on select topics to lawmakers in their own capitols.

INITIATIVES

T H E M I D W E S T E R N O F F I C E O F T H E C O U N C I L O F S T A T E G O V E R N M E N T S

StatelineMidwest Vo l . 2 6 , N o. 1 • J a n u a r y 2 0 1 7

Stateline Midwest is published 12 times a year by the Midwestern Office of The Council of State Governments.

Annual subscription rate: $60. To order, call 630.925.1922.

CSG Midwestern Office StaffMichael H. McCabe, DirectorTim Anderson, Publications ManagerJon Davis, Assistant Editor/Policy Analyst Cindy Calo Andrews, Assistant DirectorIlene K. Grossman, Assistant DirectorLisa R. Janairo, Program DirectorLaura Kliewer, Senior Policy Analyst Gail Meyer, Office ManagerLaura A. Tomaka, Senior Program ManagerKathy Treland, Administrative Coordinator and Meeting Planner Katelyn Tye, Policy Analyst

adds, “we’re beginning to get a better feel about what types of strategies we can use in schools to help students learn.”

In North Dakota, the state’s evidence-based model was founded on strategies such as investing in teacher training, providing extra instruction for struggling students, and establishing a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for college and career.

The next step was to de-termine the level of spending needed to implement those strategies in all schools.

North Dakota passed legislation in 2009 (HB 1400) that enacted many of the adequacy provisions recom-mended by Picus Odden and Associates, including funding for extra guidance counsel-ors; offering summer school courses in math, reading, science and social studies; and providing state-sponsored scholarships to encourage students to complete additional

More money, more evidence being used to revamp school aidSome Midwest states taking on greater funding responsibilitiesby Katelyn Tye (ktye@csg.org)

PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6

INSIDE• Great Lakes: Key legislative victories won at

tail end of 2016 session of U.S. Congress

• Health & Human Services: National study

ranks Minnesota among nation’s ‘healthiest’

• Economic Development: North Dakota

lawmakers dig deep into efficacy of incentives

• Midwest-Canada Relations: Hoping to boost

electricity supply, Michigan looks to Ontario

CSG Midwest Issue Briefs 2-3

Around the Region 4A look at the role of states, and their legislators, in the 2016 U.S. Electoral College

Question of the Month 5What are Midwestern states’ standards on civil forfeiture?

Capitol Clips 12• Ohio bars local minimum-wage laws

• Michigan allows schools to stock naloxone

• 2 states adopt affordable-housing tax credits

• South Dakota leads Midwest in population growth

CSG News & Events 10CSG Midwest welcomes new state legislators, ready to provide individualized assistance

K -12 education consistently makes up the largest share of state general fund spending each year, hovering

between 34 percent and 36 percent since 1996, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

In fiscal year 2015, more than $260 billion went to elementary and secondary education.

Although no two states distribute education dollars exactly the same way, the vast majority of funding formulas are built around a “foundation” or “base” amount of funding that is the minimum each student receives.

State formulas then further adjust per-pupil funding depending on the type of student (for example, special needs, English-language learner, low-income) and the wealth of the school district.

The systems that work best are based on research — specifically, tying the amount that f lows to each school to the cost of providing an education that meets the state’s academic standards, says Michael Griffith, a school finance strate-gist with the Education Commission of the States.

North Dakota, for example, used an evidence-based approach developed by an outside consulting firm as it made multiple improvements to K-12 funding over the past decade. The firm was hired in 2008 to make recommendations on an “adequate funding level,” or how much the state should spend per student based on the state’s curriculum standards.

“We look at literature on educational reform and improvement and, given what we know about that, determine what resources a state needs and what they would cost,” says Larry Picus, a principal partner in Picus Odden & Associates, the consulting firm that has worked in North Dakota and many other states on school finance reform.

By understanding the literature, he

coursework in career and technical educa-tion. The legislation also increased K-12

Profile 8Michigan Senate Assistant Majority Leader Goeff Hansen

FirstPerson 9Kansas Rep. Susan Concannon on the need to address a brewing mental-health crisis

More than $1 out of every $3 spent in state general funds goes to K-12 schools. When they look to revamp school funding formulas, policymakers are advised to use evidence-based models that tie their spending levels and aid formulas to the needs of students and the state’s own curriculum standards. In recent years, states such as North Dakota and South Dakota have revamped their school funding formulas and deepened their investments in K-12 education.

Capital Closeup 5A look at the potential impact of a lawsuit on Wisconsin’s state redistricting map

Trends in % of revenue for K-12 schools by source, state and local

governments (2003-04 to 2013-14)*

StateState Local

2003-04 2013-14 2003-04 2013-14

Illinois 33.4% 26.0% 56.1% 65.5%

Indiana 51.0% 56.1% 39.5% 35.7%

Iowa 45.9% 52.3% 42.7% 40.1%

Kansas 51.1% 54.4% 37.5% 36.3%

Michigan 61.8% 59.4% 28.3% 31.2%

Minnesota 69.5% 69.8% 21.1% 24.2%

Nebraska 32.8% 32.6% 53.2% 59.5%

North Dakota 38.1% 59.2% 41.7% 30.4%

Ohio 44.9% 44.3% 44.4% 47.7%

South Dakota 34.4% 31.0% 46.9% 54.9%

Wisconsin 52.2% 45.4% 38.9% 46.8%

* The federal government also is a revenue source for K-12 schools — in 2013-14, ranging from a high of 14.1 percent in South Dakota to a low of 6.0 percent in Minnesota.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation ProjectNuclear Waste Management In the U.S.Over 15 percent of the electricity used in the Midwestern states comes from nuclear power. Since the 1960s, generating all that electricity has produced over 17,500 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, which is stored at 19 operating nuclear power plants, four shutdown plants, and one away-from-reactor storage facility in the Midwest (see map on back). In 2002, the U.S. Congress selected Yucca Mountain in Nevada to be the site of the nation’s permanent repository for disposing of spent nuclear fuel. In 2009, however, the Obama administration terminated the program on the grounds that the site was not a workable option.

That same year, President Obama appointed a 15-member Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and charged it with recommending a new strategy for managing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste over the long term. In January 2012, after two years of study, the Blue Ribbon Commission issued its final recommendations to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. One year later, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) produced the “Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste.” The Strategy document is a “statement of Administration policy regarding the importance of addressing the disposition of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.”

The Blue Ribbon Commission recommended “prompt efforts” to develop a new geologic disposal facility and one or more consolidated storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. To site such facilities, the commission recommended developing a new, consent-based process. The commission also recommended establishing a new organization to oversee the waste management program instead of leaving it in the hands of DOE, which has managed the program since its inception in 1983. Other recommendations addressed transportation planning, financing the waste-management program, and research into advanced fuel cycle technologies. DOE’s Strategy embraced these recommendations and set target dates for making

facilities available. By 2021, the department intends to begin operation of a pilot storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. A full-scale facility is anticipated to be available four years later in 2025. DOE’s ultimate goal for final disposal is to have a geologic repository available by 2048. These milestones are contingent upon Congress acting to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) and appropriating the needed funding.

First in line for shipping to a pilot interim storage facility would be spent nuclear fuel from shutdown and decommissioned nuclear power plants. Spent nuclear fuel in storage remains “stranded” at these sites long after the power plants stopped producing electricity. Expediting the removal of spent nuclear fuel from shutdown sites would reduce costs to utility ratepayers and allow decommissioning to be completed so that the land can be made available for other uses beneficial to the local community. In addition, moving spent nuclear fuel into consolidated storage would increase protections for sensitive areas like the shores of the Great Lakes, where three shutdown plants are located.

Implementing most of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations will require congressional action. For example, construction of a federal consolidated storage facility cannot proceed until Congress amends the NWPA. Some activities, however, can go forward under DOE’s existing authority. An example would be transportation planning, which requires long lead times. While the nation awaits action from Congress, spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste will remain stored at 78 sites across the country, including 24 in the Midwest. Most of this spent nuclear fuel will likely stay where it is for many decades – perhaps even centuries – until it can be transported to facilities for consolidated storage or disposal.

TransportationImplementing the Blue Ribbon Commission’s

recommendations means starting over with two of the three components of the federal waste management program: disposal and storage. The third component – transportation –

Iowa State Sen. Janet Petersen, 2017 Midwest Chair, Stresses Importance of Listening, Learning

Interactions with parents and other constituents have shaped the legislative work of 2017 CSG

Midwest Chair Janet Petersen, an Iowa state senator, for more than 15 years, from advocating for the passage of the Iowa Smokefree Air Act to sponsoring legislation to pair the state’s refugee groups with AmeriCorps volunteers.

“I think we’ve done a good job in Iowa of showing that we don’t have to choose gridlock under divided government,” said Petersen, who has been a member of the Legislature since 2001 and serves as Senate Commerce Committee chair.

In 2002, she completed the CSG Midwestern Legis-lative Conference’s Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development.

Petersen said CSG helps policymakers tackle issues that affect multiple states and regions.

“As a member-led association, CSG pulls together its members and experts from different states and provinces to work on issues and find solutions we can push together for the benefit of all of our states.”

Petersen stressed the importance of listening and learning from others not only across the Midwest but also across the country.

“Diversity helped build our country,” she said. “It’s what makes companies more profitable. It’s what makes our ideas richer. We have to be willing to focus on the common good when we tackle hard issues and conversations. When we stay focused on what unites us, we can do good things.”

Petersen said she became interested in public policy at a young age after her father died of mela-noma and her mother re-entered the workforce, taking a job as a lobbyist for social justice issues for a coalition of churches.

“So very early on in my life, our dinner-table discussions often revolved around the issues that my mom was working on at the statehouse,” she said.

An Iowa native, Petersen has three children with her husband Brian Pattinson. She was instrumental in making Iowa the first state to expand its birth- defects registry to include surveillance work on still-births, and she is the founder of Healthy Birth Day, an organization that strives to prevent stillbirths and infant death, and its Count the Kicks public health campaign.

“I would love to see the Midwest become the safest place in the country to have a healthy baby,” Petersen said. “The United States is falling well behind other areas of the world in how we care for both moms and their babies before and after they are born. I’m hoping to start a conversation on what we’re doing right in our states, what is working in other parts of the world, and what changes we should make to help Midwestern babies get a healthier start on life.”

Petersen said she expects legislators from around the country will be pleasantly surprised to learn about the changes that have occurred in Iowa’s capital city when the 72nd Midwestern Legislative Conference Annual Meeting is held in Des Moines July 9–12.

“It’s always fun to get Midwesterners together,” she said. “We’re looking forward to pouring on the Iowa hospitality in Des Moines this summer. We’ve got an impressive lineup of speakers who should spark some interesting dialogue on issues we’re facing in our region and our country.”

As a member-led association, CSG pulls together its members and experts from different states and provinces to work on issues and find solutions we can push together for the benefit of all of our states.”

23rd Annual Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership DevelopmentAug. 11–15 | Minneapolis, Minnesota

BILLD is an intensive, five-day educational and training opportunity for newer state legislators, offering them a unique opportunity to heighten their leadership and policymaking skills and meet the challenges facing state government as they become tomorrow’s leaders. The agenda includes a rigorous curriculum of leadership development workshops, policy analysis seminars and public service skills training. BILLD focuses on major issues facing state governments, such as education, corrections, health care and economic development, along with skills development training such as negotiation and conflict resolution, time and focus management, and communications and speechmaking training.

Great Lakes Legislative Caucus Annual MeetingSept. 22–23 | Toronto, Ontario

The Great Lakes Legislative Caucus is a nonpartisan group of state and provincial lawmakers from eight U.S. states—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—and two Canadian provinces—Ontario and Québec. CSG Midwest provides staffing services for the caucus.

72nd Midwestern Legislative Conference Annual MeetingJuly 9–12 | Des Moines, IowaIowa Sen. Janet Petersen, chair of the MLC, and her legislative colleagues will host the four-day event— the premier meeting for the Midwest’s state and provincial legislators. Through its mix of speakers, sessions on public policy, networking opportunities and professional development workshops, the meeting gives attendees the unique chance to learn from and collaborate with their legislative colleagues from other states and provinces. The family friendly event will offer a number of activities in the Des Moines area for the spouses, adult guests and children of attendees.

CSG MIDWEST/MIDWESTERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

2017 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

IA • IL • IN • KS • MI • MN • ND • NE • OH • SD • WI • AB • MB • ON • SK

Capitol Ideas 2017 | The Council of State Governments