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

2 STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

CSG MIDWEST ISSUE BR IEFSIssue Briefs cover topics of interest to the various groups and policy committees of CSG Midwest, including the Midwestern Legislative Conference, Great Lakes Legislative Caucus, Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission and Midwestern Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee.

M idwestern states were healthier, overall, than the country as a whole in 2016, ac-cording to the United Health Foundation’s

newest “America’s Health Rankings Annual Report,” released in December 2016 (based on data as of October).

The report found that:• Minnesota is the fourth-healthiest state in

the union, with a low rate of drug deaths (9.3 per 100,000) as well as low percentages of children in poverty (8 percent) and population without insurance (5.2 percent).

• Iowa posted the best one-year improvement, rising five spots from 22nd to 17th — a move attributed to improvements in the percentage of children aged 19 to 35 months receiving recom-mended immunizations and a 32 percent increase in HPV immunization among adolescent females, along with improvements in public health funding and reductions in the rates of pertussis (whooping cough).

Wisconsin rose from 24th to 20th, placing it, too, among the five states with the most improved

scores. South Dakota, however, dropped five slots from 19th to 24th.

Seven of the 11 Midwestern states’ overall scores were above the national median. The report rated states on “health determinants” and “health outcomes.”

Determinants include smoking, obesity, drug deaths, excessive drinking, high school graduation rate, physical inactivity, air pollution, rate of children in poverty, infectious disease rates, occupational fatalities, violent crime, immunization rates, lack of health insurance, level of public health spending,

Health & Human Servicesnumber of dentists and primary care physicians, preventable hospitalizations and low birthweights.

Outcomes include deaths from cancer, car-diovascular disease or diabetes; health status; frequent mental and/or physical distress; infant mortality rates; and premature deaths.

The report cautions that each state, from Hawaii (No. 1 overall) to Mississippi (No. 50 overall), has its own strengths and weaknesses. The report’s stated purpose is “to be a catalyst for data-driven discussions on indicators that have the potential to improve health and drive positive change.”

The report identified obesity, along with increased deaths from drugs and cardiovascular diseases, as trou-bling national trends —for example, the cardiovascular death rate rose for the first time in the report’s history.

Moreover, 30 percent of adults nationwide were considered obese in 2016 — a 157 percent increase since the first report was issued in 1990. Kansas was the only state to see a “significant” increase in the prevalence of obesity in 2016: 34 percent of adults were considered obese, up from 31 percent in 2015.

Smoking trends in the states varied; between 2012 and 2016, smoking by adults 18 and older decreased fastest in Illinois (minus 1.37 percent annually), but Indiana was one of three U.S. states with a higher average prevalence of smoking relative to other states.

Midwest, led by Minnesota, shows well in report ranking nation’s healthiest states

Brief written by Jon Davis, CSG Midwest policy analyst and assistant editor, who can be reached at jdavis@csg.org.

After a tumultuous year in national politics, and in advance of a new U.S. Congress and presidential administration, advocates of

Great Lakes protection and restoration won some important legislative victories at the tail end of 2016.

Those accomplishments, perhaps most notably a formal authorization of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, provide the region with some much-needed certainty about federal Great Lakes policy during a period of change in Washington, D.C., said Chad Lord, policy director of the Healing Our Waters Coalition.

“It underscores the broad-based, bipartisan sup-port that Great Lakes issues tend to have within the U.S. Congress,” Lord said in December during a web-based meeting of the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus.

Since being established in 2010, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into this region for projects that preserve the largest system of fresh surface water in the world. To date, its priorities have been to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes, clean up toxic “Areas of Concern,” reduce nutrient runoff, and restore habitat.

But while this federal initiative (run through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) has been funded annually since 2010, it’s never been authorized — a fact that, based on how federal budgets are set every year, made it vulnerable to being cut. This was especially true with a change in presidential admin-istrations, Lord said. (Outgoing President Barack Obama was an early backer of the initiative; incoming President Donald Trump’s views are less known.)

In December, formal authorization came with passage of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, which calls for spending $300 million annually on the initiative between fiscal years 2017 and 2021. Lord cautioned, though, that this marks only the first part of a two-step process. That money will still have to be appropriated in each annual federal budget.

The act also establishes a new position at the EPA, that of a coordinator who would serve as a “point person” between the federal government, states and other stakeholders regarding the issue of harmful algal blooms. The rise in algal blooms from nutrient runoff has become a major concern in the Great Lakes, especially in the western part of Lake Erie. Other recent federal actions include:

• requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to meet Ohio’s state water-quality standards before al-

Great Lakes

lowing dredged materials to be dumped into Lake Erie;• making permanent a policy that sets aside 10

percent of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ priority funding for the Great Lakes navigation system; and

• reauthorizing the Great Lakes Fish and Habitat Restoration Act.

As political tides change, advocates of protecting lakes celebrate year of progress

Brief written by Tim Anderson, who can be reached at tanderson@csg.org. CSG Midwest provides staffing services to the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus, a nonpartisan group of lawmakers from eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The caucus chair is Wisconsin Rep. Cory Mason. More information on the caucus is available at www.greatlakeslegislators.org.

Actual and authorized funding levels for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

(FY 2010 to 2021)

$0

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

FY 20

10

FY 20

11

FY 20

12

FY 20

13

FY 20

14

FY 20

15

$475

milli

on

$300

milli

on

$300

milli

on

$300

milli

on

$285

milli

on*

$300

milli

on

(milli

ons

of do

llars)

$300

milli

on**

FY 20

17 to

FY

2021

$300

milli

onFY

2015

* Reduction due to across-the-board cuts from federal sequestration** Initiative has been formally authorized at this amount; money still needs to be appropriated

27

4

17

20

26 39

34

Midwestern states’ U.S. rankin overall health

Source: United Health Foundation

11

24

12 40

3STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

In 2015, lawmakers in North Dakota passed legislation (SB 2057) requiring the legislature to undertake an evaluation of 21 of the state’s tax

incentive programs at least once every six years.According to Pew’s Business Incentives Initiative,

North Dakota is one of 21 states (four in the Midwest; see map at right) that have passed laws since 2012 requiring regular evaluations of tax incentive programs offered by the state.

North Dakota’s evaluation assesses whether the program is achieving intended goals, such as job creation. It is conducted by a legislative committee, which then makes recommendations to legislative leadership. In assessing the effectiveness of incentives, lawmakers are also asked to compare the incentive with alternatives for achieving the same goals.

In 2016, the Interim Political Subdivision Taxation Committee conducted the first-ever formal review of 18 of North Dakota’s 36 tax incentives. The reviewed incentives included tax credits for energy projects, agriculture, telecommunications, manufacturing au-tomation, and seed capital and angel fund investment.

According to the North Dakota Tax Department, the state’s incentive programs result in more than $30 million in exemptions to businesses annually.

Rep. Jason Dockter, chair of the interim committee charged with reviewing the incentives, says the panel wanted to make sure taxpayers are getting value for

their investment, especially in light of the state’s recent budget problems.

In response to this first round of evaluations, the committee approved several draft bills for consider-ation by the full legislature in 2017. Three of those bills would repeal three incentives due to a lack of use.

The committee also drafted a bill that would repeal the state’s Angel Fund Investment Credit because of what Dockter calls a lack of transparency and what he says is considered a “misinterpretation of the law.” In

Economic DevelopmentNorth Dakota lawmakers will use interim study on incentives to improve oversight, policy

Brief written by Laura Tomaka, staff liaison to the Midwestern Legislative Conference Economic Development Committee. She can be reached at ltomaka@csg.org.

Brief written by Ilene Grossman, staff liaison to the Midwestern Legislative Conference Midwest-Canada Relations Committee. She can be reached at igrossman@csg.org.

Midwest-Canada Relations

M ichigan lawmakers are looking for ways to improve the availability, reliability and affordability of electricity in the state’s

Upper Peninsula, and one potential solution is to bring in more power from neighboring Ontario.

In a letter this fall, the province backed Michigan’s re quest for t he Midcont inent Independent System Operator to study the idea of extending electric-generating connections across the U.S.-Canada border.

“Interconnections with neighboring jurisdic-tions provide significant economic and reliability benefits on a daily basis,” wrote Glenn Thibeault, Ontario’s minister of energy, adding that these connections can help provide backup when areas lose their primary generating source.

MISO — which oversees transmission and transmission planning in 15 U.S. states (including most states in the Midwest) and the province of Manitoba — has agreed to study the potential of connecting Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

In a separate study sought by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, MISO also is exploring possible new connec-

tions between the state’s Upper and Lower peninsulas.Late last year, too, as part of a comprehensive new

energy plan (SB 437 and 438), Michigan legislators established a task force to examine better connections for the Upper Peninsula and the state’s northern Lower Peninsula. As part of its work, the task force will exam-ine the advantages and disadvantages of strengthening electrical connectivity within the state vs. improving cross-border transmission capabilities with Ontario.

Ontario is already a net exporter of electricity, including to Michigan. According to the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator, the prov-ince exports nearly four times the electricity that it imports through its high-voltage transmission grid. Ontario also exports to Minnesota and New York.

Accompanying one of Snyder’s letters to MISO was a list of recent and likely changes to Michigan’s baseload electricity supply. The loss of more than 1,200 megawatts of coal-fired generation was expected in 2016, with additional retirements expected annually between 2017 and 2023. In ad-dition, a nuclear power plant in the state will shut down in 2018, four years earlier than expected.

Snyder noted that Michigan had among the highest transmission prices within the MISO region, and that better connections to Ontario and between the UP the rest of Michigan could help increase reliability and lower costs.

In all, The Detroit News reports, Michigan’s total electricity generation is estimated to fall by 30 percent over the next 15 years. A key goal of the state’s new energy law is to ensure that utilities establish and regularly update their long-term plans for meeting electricity demand.

In the Upper Peninsula, the coal-fired Presque Isle Power Plant is expected to close in 2020. Despite last year’s announcement that two new natural-gas power plants would open in the UP in 2019, the area still faces long-term challenges regarding its electricity supply.

Michigan looks to Ontario as provider in plan to boost Upper Peninsula’s electricity supply

recent months, this tax credit has fallen under scrutiny after lawmakers learned that nearly half of the funds intended to help start-up businesses in the state were actually going to out-of-state companies.

The draft bill to eliminate the angel fund credit would also expand the state’s seed capital investment credit from $3 million to $15 million annually.

Throughout the evaluation process, the com-mittee addressed eight questions or criteria. These included whether the program had unintended con-sequences, whether the program can be improved, whether the incentive had a positive influence on business behavior that would not have occurred without the incentive, the effect of the incentive on the state economy, the employment opportunities generated by the incentive, and whether the incen-tive is the most effective use of state resources.

However, the committee sometimes found that its analysis was hampered by a lack of data and empirical information on the costs and benefits of the state incentives, Dockter says. As a result, the committee also has drafted legislation that would authorize the state to purchase REMI (Regional Economic Models Inc.) software that would help lawmakers conduct fiscal impact analyses of the incentive programs.

Two more interim committees will review the remaining incentives that need to be evaluated in the required six-year period established under the 2015 legislation.

“With budget constraints in many states, analyzing incentives has occurred and will be more popular in the future,” Dockter says.

States with newer, rigorous laws to evaluate business tax incentives*

State has enacted laws requiring regular evaluation of tax-incentive programs

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts

* Note: According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, since the beginning of 2012, 21 states have passed laws requiring the “regular and rigorous” evaluation of tax incentives. While some form of evaluations may have existed prior to 2012, the laws that Pewhas tracked under its Business Incentive Initiative re�ect “progress in recent years toward regular, rigorous evaluations of [state] economic development tax incentives.”

Canadian electricity exports to Midwest (in terawatt hours)*

*Data for Midwest includes Missouri

$300

milli

on

14.2

2011

2012

12.6

16.1

18.6

15.0

10

15

20

2013 2015

2014

Source: Canada’s National Energy Board

4 STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

AROUND THE R EGION

Few state legislators cast votes in Electoral College

The U.S. Constitution leaves it to the states and their legislatures to decide who will be in the Electoral College. States in the Midwest, in

turn, have put the choice of electors in the hands of political parties. And in 2016, only a handful of those party-chosen electors were state legislators.

In December, among the region’s 108 people who cast Electoral College votes, only six were sitting state legislators: four in Illinois and one each in Kansas and Minnesota.

A seventh legislator, Ohio Rep. Christina Hagan, had been selected by the state Republican Party; however, she resigned in advance of the vote. According to The Columbus Dispatch, her resignation came after a lawsuit was filed claiming that a state legislator could not serve as an elector. The reason: A provision in the Ohio Constitution which states that “no member of the General Assembly shall ... hold any [other] public office.”

Mary Murphy, a member of the 2016 Electoral College and the Minnesota House, says the dearth of legislators being chosen to serve as electors in her home state reflects today’s more-distant relationship between political parties and elected officials.

Years of work on behalf of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party had preceded her first election to the state House in 1976. Today, she says, it’s much more common for people to choose to run first — prior to any involvement with a political party.

For 40 years, Mary Murphy has been introduc-ing legislation and casting votes that shape public policy in her home state of Minnesota.

But the longtime state representative always had her eye on being part of another vote, and this past year, she finally got the chance.

In December, Rep. Murphy and nine other fellow Minnesotans met in St. Paul to make the state’s official votes in the U.S. Electoral College. A packed room of people — some of them high school teachers and students who had participated in a statewide mock election run by the secretary of state — watched the proceedings in the Senate Office Building.

“It was everything I expected, and more,” Murphy said a few days after casting her votes for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.

The event had special meaning for Murphy because of her many years as a high school history and civics teacher. But for most people, in most presidential elections, the Electoral College is little more than an afterthought.

This time was different. First, for one of the few instances in the nation’s history, the winner of the nation’s popular vote (Clinton) lost the race for presi-dent. Second, between the Nov. 8 general election and the Dec. 19 Electoral College vote, some electors in states where Donald Trump won the popular vote were pressured to cast a vote for someone else.

This “faithless elector” movement, in turn, shed light on some of the state laws governing the Electoral College. For example, who chooses the electors? And are they bound to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state?

In each of the Midwest’s 11 states, the choice of electors is left to the political parties. Murphy, for example, was part of the 10-elector slate chosen by Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

According to the National Association of Secretaries of State, Minnesota is one of the Midwest’s five states (along with Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska and Wisconsin) that has statutory language binding each party’s chosen electors to select the winner of the state’s popular vote.

One Minnesota elector tested that law in December, by casting a ballot for Bernie Sanders instead of Clinton. Per Minnesota law, that elector’s ballot was rejected, and he was then immediately removed from office and replaced with an alternate.

But the real test to these laws would come if they were challenged as a violation of the U.S. Constitution, notes University of Kansas political science professor Burdett Loomis.

“That remains a gray area,” he says.

Specter of future ‘faithless electors’In the wake of this year’s 2016 presidential election, one lingering question is whether a small number of “faithless electors” could someday sway a presidential election. Along with the uncertainty about the constitutionality of state statutes binding electors, about half the U.S. states don’t have such laws at all.

Imagine, Loomis says, a close race of the future in which an independent or regional candidate wins a few Electoral College votes. That candidate’s few electors could essentially be “free agents,”

The 2016 presidential race raised interest in the Electoral College, and the role of states in the process

either deciding the winner or choosing to send the presidential election to the U.S. House of Representatives. (Under the latter scenario, each state delegation in the U.S. House would cast a single vote for president.)

The “faithless elector” scenario also would seem to be more likely in a year like 2016, when the winner of the national popular vote loses the Electoral College — a real possibility in future elections, Loomis says, if Democrats keep winning by huge margins in highly populated states such as New York and California while Republicans prevail in most other states.

Loomis would prefer moving to a national popular vote, but he says the chances of abolishing the Electoral College (either via a U.S. constitu-tional amendment or changes in state laws or state constitutions) are slim, at best.

“For all of the talk and protests this year, and all the flaws you can point to with the Electoral College, it has delivered a legitimate winner for over 200 years,” he says. “There will again be a peaceful transition of power this time around.”

‘So proud to be a part of it’In Minnesota, along with the teachers and students on-hand to witness the state’s official vote for president and vice president, protesters showed up at the Senate Office Building to voice their opposition to the Electoral College.

“Enough to irritate, but not enough to stop proceedings,” Rep. Murphy says.

And the day was a bit bittersweet for her as well. She hoped to be making history voting for the first woman president in the nation’s history; instead, Murphy was part of a process in which she knew her party, and her candidate, would be on the losing end.

Still, she’ll never forget the experience: “It made me so proud to be a part of it. It was almost a spiritual experience for me. I think of it as being one of the caps of my legislative service.”

Article written by Tim Anderson, CSG Midwest publications manager. He can be reached at tanderson@csg.org.

Electoral College and the Midwest

State% of U.S.

population (2010)% of Electoral College votes

Illinois 4.16% 3.72%

Indiana 2.10% 2.04%

Iowa 0.99% 1.12%

Kansas 0.93% 1.12%

Michigan 3.21% 2.97%

Minnesota 1.72% 1.86%

Nebraska 0.59% 0.93%

North Dakota 0.22% 0.56%

Ohio 3.74% 3.35%

South Dakota 0.27% 0.56%

Wisconsin 1.84% 1.86%

Midwest 19.76% 20.07%

Minnesota Rep. Mary Murphy, one of her home state’s 10 electors in the Electoral College, hands her vote for president and vice president to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. Electors met on Dec. 19 in state capitols across the country. In the Midwest, only a handful of state legislators served as electors. (photo: Minnesota Rep. Mike Freiberg)

States’ current # of Electoral College votes; projected change in 2022

Will lose 1 or 2 votes

Will lose 1 vote

No change

2018

16

10

3

3

5

6

6

10

11

Source: Election Data Services

5STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

CAPITAL CLOSEUP

Q U E S T I O N O F T H E M O N T HQUESTION: What are civil forfeiture standards in the Midwestern states?

Unlike criminal forfeiture, in which a legal action is brought as part of the crime that a person is charged with, civil forfeiture laws by and large al-low assets to be seized by police upon only upon a suspicion of wrongdoing.

In recent years, stories of innocent citizens having cash and other property seized — and facing ardu-ous, uphill battles to reclaim their property — have prompted efforts from entities as disparate as the Charles Koch Institute and the American Civil Liber-ties Union to modify or repeal civil forfeiture laws.

Those in favor of changing or eliminating them say the best state laws are ones that require the highest legal standards of proof for seizure; extensive report-ing of seized assets; that the government prove the property was involved in crimes rather than the citizen having to prove innocence; and that law enforcement retains less (or none) of the forfeited funds, thereby avoiding economic incentives to abuse the system.

Most Midwestern states have low legal standards of proof for law enforcement agencies to seize assets (see table), but three Midwestern states — Michigan (2015), Minnesota (2014) and Nebraska (2016) — have changed their laws recently to help ensure that possession of large amounts of currency or property is not sufficient to prove the property was connected to any criminal activity. Ohio joined them on Jan. 4, when Gov. John Kasich signed HB 347, approved by

the legislature in late December.

Minnesota and Nebraska now require a criminal conviction to seize assets related to the crime, and the government must connect property to a crime

by “clear and convincing evidence.” Michigan raised its standard of proof from “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing” before officials can proceed with the forfeiture process.

While a majority of Midwestern states have some reporting requirements, before they changed their laws Nebraska previously had no reporting require-ments, and in Michigan, it was optional. Minnesota’s requirement began in 2009; now all three states require agencies to report forfeitures to a state entity.

They still allow law enforcement agencies to keep most of the proceeds (Indiana and Wisconsin are the only Midwestern states wherein law enforcement agencies do not receive any of the proceeds from civil forfeitures).

Also, most states participate in a federal forfeiture program known as “equitable sharing” : state and local agencies can move to forfeit property under federal law and receive up to 80 percent of the proceeds.

To curtail equitable sharing, Nebraska’s new law bans state and local agencies from transferring seized cash and property under $25,000. Between 2000 and 2013, Nebraska law enforcement col-lected more than $48 million in federal forfeiture funds, a report by the Institute for Justice found. Data analysis by the Institute found that in 2013, out of all properties seized under equitable shar-ing in Nebraska, 78 percent were under $25,000.

Article written by Laura Kliewer (lkliewer@csg.org), a CSG Midwest senior policy analyst. Question of the Month highlights an inquiry sent to the CSG Midwest Information Help Line: csgm@csg.org or 630.925.1922.

Wisconsin gerrymandering lawsuit could redraw legislative mapsby Jon Davis (jdavis@csg.org)

take effect with the next round of redistricting, explicitly bans maps for the General Assembly that are “drawn primarily to favor or disfavor a political party.”

This past November, South Dakotans rejected Amendment T, which would have reassigned legislative redistricting from the legislature to an independent commission composed of nine registered voters (with no more than three being from the same party). And in August 2016, in a 4-3 decision, the Illinois Supreme Court stopped a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have asked voters whether to switch from a legislatively drawn map to a commission-drawn map.

In most Midwestern states, the redrawing of state legislative and U.S. congressional districts remains under the authority of state legislatures.

But advocates of reform often cite Iowa as one model for reform. There, the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency develops the state and federal maps. These maps must be approved or rejected — without modification — by the legislature. If lawmakers fail to approve the first two plans, they may amend the third map as it would any other bill. The remaps also must be approved by the Iowa governor.

Capital Closeup is an ongoing series of articles focusing on institutional issues in state governments and legislatures. Previous articles are available at www.csgmidwest.org.

In November 2016, a panel of federal district judges struck down Wisconsin’s 2011 state legislative district maps as an unconstitutional

gerrymander.“It is clear that the drafters got what they intended

to get,” Judge Kenneth Ripple wrote in the 2-1 deci-sion. “There is no question that Act 43 was designed to make it more difficult for Democrats, compared with Republicans, to translate their votes into seats.”

The judges did not rule on whether the plaintiff ’s proposed measuring stick — the “efficiency gap,” which measures how many votes are “wasted” in a given election — is the proper metric to determine an illegal map. Instead, they asked both sides to submit evidence for how the maps should be rectified.

Ultimately, this case, as well as the legal fate of the efficiency gap, will probably be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which last ruled on gerrymanders in 1986, stating they could be illegal if too severe, but without clarifying how severity could or should be measured.

The efficiency gap, proposed by Nicholas Stefanopolous, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and Eric McGhee, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, is one such standard.

Under the gap, a vote is considered “wasted” if

cast for the losing candidate or cast for the winning candidate above and beyond what’s necessary to win. Wasted votes can be brought about by either “packing” (concentrating a party’s voters into one district) or “cracking” (diluting a party’s votes across multiple districts).

According to a brief from Eric Petry, a research/program associate at the Brennan Center for Justice (part of New York University’s School of Law), to determine whether the gap uncovers an illegal gerrymander, you have to determine each party’s total number of net “wasted” votes, then divide that figure by the total number of votes cast.

According to Stefanopoulos and McGhee, fairly drawn maps should show efficiency gaps of less than 8 percent, meaning any gap of 8 percent or greater reveals an illegal gerrymander.

Redistricting trends in MidwestConcerns about gerrymandering have led to a series of proposed ballot measures in the Midwest.

In 2015, Ohio voters changed their state’s pro-cess for drawing state legislative maps to prevent gerrymandering and to make it more bipartisan. In addition to creating a seven-member redistricting commission with membership from both political parties, Ohio’s enacted ballot measure, which will

Burdens of proof for civil forfeiture seizures by law enforcement

Preponderance of the evidence

Criminal conviction, then clear and convincing evidence that property is connected to the crime

Reasonable certainty by greater weight of credible evidence

Probable cause

Sources: “Policing for Pro�t: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture,” Institute for Justice (November 2015) and CSG Midwest research

Clear and convincing evidence

Capital Closeup

6 STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

COVER STORY

In recent years, North Dakota and South Dakota have increased school funding CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

education appropriations by $100 million, which allowed the state to raise per-pupil funding to the recommended adequacy amount of $7,293 (from approximately $7,024).

“The evidence-based model was helpful because it provided validity and supported the overall framework of the reforms,” says Jerry Coleman, school finance director at the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.

In 2013, lawmakers passed additional changes to the K-12 finance system (HB 1013), most nota-bly a switch to a foundation formula of funding.

The legislature set a minimum per-pupil foundation level of $8,810 in 2013-14 and $9,092 in 2014-15, and established a uniform local funding requirement of 60 mills ($60 per every $1,000 in taxable property value) plus a percentage of other local revenues. Under the formula, the state makes up the difference between the foundation level and what the district can raise in local funds.

North Dakota’s oil boom also allowed the state to increase K-12 education appropriations by $500 million that year — the state’s share of K-12 educa-tion funding shifted from 37 percent in 2008-09 to nearly 60 percent in 2013-14, according to the National Center on Education Statistics.

In 2014, the state doubled-down on HB 1013 and passed legislation (SB 2031) that made ad-ditional increases to per-pupil funding over the current biennium.

South Dakota’s new K-12 investment

A second Midwestern state to make major changes in school funding in recent years has been South Dakota, a state where hiring

and retaining qualified teachers had become a challenge — in part because its teachers had the lowest average salaries in the nation.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard created a task force in 2015 to “collect and analyze data, engage with stakeholders and seek public input” on how the state could provide the following:

• a quality system of schools focused on student achievement;

• a workforce of great educators; and • an efficient, equitable funding system. The Blue Ribbon Task Force for Teachers and

Students began by collecting feedback from the public during listening sessions and meetings, says former South Dakota Rep. Jacqueline Sly, who served as co-chair of the task force. The task force asked three specific questions of stakeholders:

• When you think about funding schools in your local community, what is important to you?

• What ideas or new approaches might make those priorities more possible for schools in your community?

• What advice do you offer to the task force as this work moves forward?

The responses to those questions were cat-egorized and some general themes emerged. For example, citizens perceived a current or looming crisis in education, and believed new revenue and equitable funding for teacher salaries and benefits were necessary to retain and recruit high-quality educators. Lastly, cost-saving measures — such as relying on more technology to deliver education, sharing services, and partnering with the business community — were viewed as imperative.

The task force also reviewed quantitative data on levels of state funding for K-12 schools, teacher pay, and the workforce needs of K-12 instructors.

Additionally, the task force found problems

School finance in the Midwest: A look at notable state policy actions, proposals and statistics

A reform of school funding has been a longtime, but elusive, legislative goal in IllInoIs, whose system is heavily reliant on local property taxes and is considered one of the “least equalized” among the 50 states (only about 45 percent of the money that goes to the state’s school districts is adjusted based on the wealth of each district). A bipartisan commission of Illinois legislators was formed last July and tasked with recommending revisions to the current school-funding formula by February.

In IndIana’s last biennial budget (HB 1001), lawmakers enacted a three-year, phased-in adjustment in the way that the state calculates additional aid for low-income students — known as the “complexity index.” Extra aid is being based on the number of students who receive services under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or who are in foster care. Under the previous formula, the complexity index was based on how many students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches under federal guidelines.

Schools in Iowa saw an increase in state funding after the passage of legislation in 2013 (HF 215) that established the largest statewide teacher-leadership system in the country. Under this system, school districts receive a bump in funds (a little more than $300 per pupil) after their locally developed Teacher Leadership and Compensation plans get approved by the state. As of March 2016, all of Iowa’s 333 school districts’ plans to improve pay, career paths and mentoring for teachers had been approved.

In 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state was not meeting its constitutional requirement to provide an equitable and adequate amount of funding to all school districts. After a subsequent change to the funding system was still deemed unconstitutional, the Kansas Legislature was charged with finding an equitable solution, or the state’s public schools would be forced to close. A new formula to equalize funding was adopted last year. The court is now considering the adequacy portion of the lawsuit, after which the Legislature is expected to make further changes.

According to the National Education Association, the state of MIchIgan provides 67 percent of the funding for its K-12 schools, the second-highest rate in the Midwest (Minnesota ranks first). The origins of this school-finance structure date back two decades. After the Legislature repealed local property taxes as the primary funding source for K-12 education, Michigan voters in 1994 approved Proposal A, which increased the state’s sales tax rate enough to cover the operating costs of school districts.

MInnesota increased its income tax rate on the state’s highest earners in 2013 (now 9.85 percent on incomes of more than $150,000, compared to the previous rate of 7.85 percent). With this influx of new revenue, the state has increased spending on K-12 education by $485 million over the next two years, as well as begun to offer all-day kindergarten statewide. According to federal data, in fiscal year 2014, Minnesota provided more state dollars per student ($7,910) than any other Midwestern state.

A decade ago, nebrasKa lawmakers created a “learning community” that, in part, created a common levy among 11 school districts in the Omaha area. The goals of establishing this shared property tax included providing more resources for high-poverty districts and closing gaps in student achievement. In 2016, legislators eliminated the common levy but also increased the amount of state aid for high-poverty districts. In addition, the 11 districts of the learning community will receive state funding for working together on efforts to close achievement gaps in the metropolitan area.

north daKota adopted a new K-12 formula in 2013 that provides each school district with a base amount of state funding to ensure an adequate education regardless of the district’s taxable wealth. The legislation established per-student rates based on a study conducted for the North Dakota Commission on Education Improvement. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, between 2008 and 2017, North Dakota has had the greatest increase in per-pupil general-fund spending (27.2 percent) among the 50 states.

As part of its FY 2016-2017 budget bill (HB 64), ohIo added two components to the state’s school funding formula to reward a district’s performance in two categories: 1) high school graduation rates and 2) third-grade reading proficiency. Bonuses under the new formula will be provided annually. Gov. John Kasich vetoed a part of the bill that would have safeguarded wealthier school districts from a cut in state aid; he said this provision would divert state resources from “lower capacity” districts.

In 2016, the south daKota Legislature reformed the state’s school funding system by passing legislation to increase the state sales tax by a half-cent (HB 1182), establish a target teacher salary and a target teacher-to-student ratio (SB 131), and provide incentives for school districts to share employees (SB 133). The sales tax increase will provide an additional $67 million for K-12 education in South Dakota. The target statewide teacher salary is $48,500 a year.

wIsconsIn Gov. Scott Walker told reporters in late 2016 that he will seek a “sizable increase” in state aid for education in his next biennial budget, particularly for rural schools, and propose a raise in the state’s revenue limits on school districts. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, more than half of wIsconsIn’s public school districts have passed referenda to exceed state-imposed revenue controls since the start of 2012.

Total spending per student for schools (local, state and federal) in 2014

Source: U.S. Census Bureau “Annual Survey of School Systems”

$12,358

$8,881

$11,726

$9,972

$11,464

$10,668

$11,186

$13,077 $9,548 $11,354

$11,110

7STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

with the state’s funding formula, which had not been reformed by the Legislature since 1995.

“The group that made the 1995 reforms basi-cally took a pot of money, divided it by the number of students, and that became the formula,” Sly says.

The problem was that the “pot of money” wasn’t enough to support South Dakota’s K-12 education system: The state needed to allocate more money.

The task force ultimately made 30 recom-mendations to the Legislature.

Based on those recommendations, South Dakota legislators enacted a package of education reform bills (HB 1182, SB 131, SB 133) in 2016 that made multiple changes to the school finance system, including a new funding formula that calculates a district’s state aid based on a target teacher salary, a target student-to-teacher ratio, and other expenses.

Central to the reform package, though, was finding a source for the additional state investment in K-12 education.

South Dakota, which does not levy an income tax, turned to its broad-based sales tax structure for the answer. Lawmakers agreed to raise that tax by a half-cent, from 4 cents to 4.5 cents. That change allowed millions of dollars in additional state revenue to flow to K-12 schools.

Proposed changes in Midwestern statesDiscussions on school funding reform will continue in states across the Midwest during the 2017 legislative sessions.

In Ohio, Rep. Andrew Brenner plans to reintro-duce legislation (HB 628) that he hopes will “get

FEATURE STORY

the conversation about school funding started.” The Ohio Supreme Court found the state’s

education funding system unconstitutional four times between 1997 and 2002 — due to an overreliance on local property taxes and a failure to deliver a “thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” After the fourth ruling, the court decided not to retain jurisdiction over the case.

Although the General Assembly has increased funding for K-12 schools since the original court ruling in 1997, Brenner says more work needs to be done.

His plan is to replace local property taxes with a new statewide property tax and prevent districts from passing any school levies.

He also wants to move to a system “where the money follows the student”— meaning school districts that are growing in student population would receive additional money, and districts that are shrinking would receive less. He says this would solve a problem in districts like the one he represents: a major increase in students, but very little additional state funding because of caps on high-wealth districts.

Brenner plans on reintroducing his proposal in early 2017 and will start gathering feedback from schools, parents and communities. If the measure is passed by the General Assembly, voters would need to approve a constitutional amendment to create the state property tax.

Balancing the state and local share of education funding is also a priority in Wisconsin, where Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers has proposed an education reform plan that would increase general state aid by $514 million over the biennium.

The additional dollars requested in the depart-ment’s proposed budget would allow changes to the state’s funding formula under Evers’ “Fair Funding Plan,” as well as provide property tax relief.

The proposed formula would provide all districts with a foundation amount of $3,000 per pupil — including property-rich school districts that currently receive little or no general aid from the state — and would also incorporate a poverty factor (20 percent) into the formula for students who are eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch.

The budget proposal estimates that 94 percent of districts would receive more general state support under this plan than under current law.

Under new law, states must use federal dollars for plans to boost achievement in low-performing schoolsSigned into law in 2015, the U.S. Every Student Succeeds Act reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and is a comprehensive piece of federal legislation on education funding and policy — from early childhood through high school. The ESSA prioritizes high academic standards, college and career readiness, access to high-quality preschool, reduced academic testing (while still tracking student progress), and local innovation in schools.

And one important part of the federal legislation for states is the funding that it will provide, and require, for interventions in struggling schools (those with low test scores and graduation rates, for example). Under the federal law, states must dedicate up to 7 percent of the federal funds they receive under Title I to support low-performing schools. In turn, at least 95 percent of that amount must be used to implement “compre-hensive” or “targeted” support and improvement plans for these schools. Under the final ESSA regulations (which take effect at the end of January), states must provide funding for:

• comprehensive support and improvement plans for three types of schools: the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in the state, any public high school in the state with a graduation rate below 67 percent (or a higher per-centage set by the state), and any school with a chronically low-performing subgroup of students (one that has not improved after implementing a targeted support and improvement plan).

• targeted support and improvement plans for two types of schools: those with a consistently underperforming subgroup (as defined by the state) and those with a subgroup that performs at a similar level to students in the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools.

The final federal regulations under the ESSA require districts to develop plans for improving student outcomes in any of their schools that have been identified by the state as needing comprehensive or targeted activities. These plans must review:

• resource inequities related to per-pupil federal, state and local expenditures;

• access to advanced coursework;

• any disparities that result in low-income and minority students being taught at higher rates than other students by ineffective, out-of-field or inexperienced teachers;

• access to specialized instructional support personnel (guidance counselors, school psychologists, etc.); and

• access to full-day kindergarten and preschool programs.

States will be required to provide districts a minimum of $50,000 to develop plans for each targeted support and improvement school and $500,000 for each comprehensive support and improvement school.

In�ation-adjusted changes in state formula funding per student,

�scal years 2008 to 2017

Source: Center on Budget Policy and Priorities

+27.2%

+13.8%

+1.7%

-13.0%

+8.5%

-4.1%

-10.6%

+4.2% N/A +6.8%

-8.4%

8 STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

STATELINE PROFILE

years ago. “Just to think about the number of people who came to the funeral, or the card that I got from the Democratic Caucus. It will always mean a lot.”

In a recent interview with CSG Midwest, Sen. Hansen reflected on his legislative career and his priorities for the next two years, before he must leave the Senate due to term limits. Here are excerpts.

Q: What do you view as some of the big changes in Michigan and its state government since you

joined the Legislature?

A: We’ve looked at ways to make the state stronger. How do we make it more business-

friendly and get people back to work? How do we lower costs and make government more efficient? We’ve had some important successes. Right now, we have all kinds of businesses that are looking for people to work. That’s been a big change for us.

And I think you can point to things we did in the Legislature, like getting rid of the personal property tax on equipment and going away from the Michigan Business Tax. That tax had a book of rules and regula-tions about an inch-and-a-half thick, and we replaced it with a much simpler corporate income tax. It said if you’re a corporation, you pay 6 percent. If you’re not a corporation, you pay a personal income tax. So we went from a tax structure and regulations that were really difficult to understand to pretty much one page.

Q: What do you see as some of the big challenges or legislative priorities that lie ahead in Michigan?

A: I think we really need to look more closely at addressing our water infrastructure. We fell

so far behind on upkeep because of the [economic and fiscal] problems of the 2000s and before. So we got

to the point where you put something underground, and it was out of sight, out of mind.

Flint was the canary in the coal mine. There are a lot of cities that have these issues, along with rural areas where we need to upgrade the infrastructure. Because when we do replace, we’re finding things like wooden water pipes. It’s time to take a good, hard look at what’s underground across the state.

Q: The Michigan Legislature has an interesting dynamic because of the state’s term-limits law,

which institutes a lifetime ban after six years in the House and eight years in the Senate. As a result, many state senators have previous experience in the lower chamber. Does that help provide some continuity?

A: It makes a big difference. I believe all but three of the members [of the Senate] previ-

ously served in the House, usually for at least four years before they came here. Having a little experience under your belt helps quite a bit. It keeps things more calm.

Q: Has it helped build bipartisan relations as well, the fact that many of you — Democrats and

Republicans — have served together for a longer time?

A: There are quite a number of us Republicans in the Senate who remember being in the

minority. So with that — “there but for the grace of God go I” — you need to make sure you’re not creating a bad atmosphere. Plus, Democratic members have been elected the same as we have, and they represent the same number of people. There are certain things we are not going to agree on, but one thing to remember: Probably 80-percent plus of the votes that we take are unanimous.

by Tim Anderson (tanderson@csg.org)

For Michigan Sen. Goeff Hansen, legislative accomplishment has never been measured by public accolades or media attention.

Instead, when reflecting on his career in public service, he rattles off a list of the “little things” that he hopes have made a difference.

“They don’t get top billing,” Hansen says, “but they give you the feeling that you got something done to makes people’s lives better, and to make your district a better place to live.”

From the start, that has driven Sen. Hansen’s unexpected legislative career.

The northern Michigan native had never planned to get involved in politics or elective office. But he was well known locally for his community involve-ment — as an assistant fire chief, emergency medical technician and first-responder — and for his family’s successful grocery store. So when a vacancy on a village council in Manistee County needed to be filled, Hansen was asked to serve.

He agreed, and it didn’t take long for him to develop a passion for the work.

“As the new guy on the council, I was given jobs to do,” Hansen recalls. “So I ended up getting our boat launch rebuilt. And it kind of hooked me, because you could see the good things you can do for people.”

He’s had the same focus as a state legislator, first as a representative and now as a senator.

For example, when he discovered problems with how Michigan’s nursing homes were being regulated, Hansen vowed to fight for reform.

“It took many months of us butting our heads against the wall, but we finally got it done,” Hansen says.

“It didn’t make front-page news, but I considered it a huge accomplishment to get that legislation passed. Because what it did is say regulators just can’t go in and report when something is wrong; they have to go in and help make things better. The state needs to be the advocates of residents living in those facilities.”

In recent years, too, Hansen has been instrumental in helping open a charter school in his home district for high school dropouts and homeless young people, as well as launching a pilot initiative that gives adult learners seeking their GED the chance to take a 18-week course in welding and machining. And he’s helped secure funding for cleaning up Muskegon Lake, long listed as a Great Lakes “Area of Concern.”

All the while, too, Hansen has been part of a broader transformation in Michigan government. When he entered the House, partisan control of the state’s legislative and executive branches was split. But since 2011, Hansen and fellow Republicans have had legislative majorities and held the governor’s office.

His time in the Legislature also has been marked by personal joys and tragedy for him and his wife, Tamara — the arrival of four grandchildren, but the heartbreaking loss of their oldest son to cancer.

One group of friends that Hansen leaned on to get through this loss are his legislative colleagues, from both sides of the aisle.

“Unbelievably supportive,” he says about how fellow legislators responded after his son’s death four

Michigan Sen. Goeff HansenFor assistant majority leader, working on the ‘little things’ for his district and constituents remains a big part of the job

Bio-sketch of Michigan Sen. Goeff Hansen Member of state Senate since 2011; currently serves as assistant majority leader Previously a member of the Michigan House Former township supervisor Has served as an assistant fire chief, emergency medical technician and first-responder Was co-owner and partner of Hansen Foods in Hart, Mich.

“They don’t get top billing, but they give you the feeling that you got something done to make people’s lives

better, and to make your district a better place to live.”

9STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

FIRST PERSONFIRST PERSONA F O R U M F O R L E G I S L A T O R S A N D C O N S T I T U T I O N A L O F F I C E R S

Submissions welcomeThis page is designed to be a forum for legislators and constitutional officers. The opinions expressed on this page do not reflect those of The Council of State Governments or the Midwestern Legislative Conference. Responses to any FirstPerson article are welcome, as are pieces written on other topics. For more information, contact Tim Anderson at 630.925.1922 or tanderson@csg.org.

A mental-health crisis brewsKansas looks for solutions as emergency-room ‘boarding’ of psychiatric patients impacts treatment, endangers hospital staffby Kansas Rep. Susan Concannon (susan.concannon@house.ks.gov)

-36.0%

-5.8%

-57.0%

-17.9%

-6.3% -9.9%

+36.7%

% change in available psychiatric hospital beds in Midwest, 2010-2016

Source: Treatment Advocacy Center, “Going, Going, Gone: Trends and Consequences of Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds, [June] 2016”

-6.7%

-46.2%

-14.2% +6.0%

Of utmost urgency is getting the state finances

on solid ground and stabilizing the state

hospitals, as well as taking a serious look at the poor

payment structure in place to support

mental health care.

In Wichita, Kan., a mentally ill man is brought to the hospital by the police after a standoff in a nearby community. A nurse (we’ll call her

“Judy”) is on duty in the emergency department. She is assigned to the Assessment Center — a five-bed secure unit for patients with more-severe psychiatric issues.

Following a six-hour wait in a regular emer-gency room and two hours in the Assessment Center, the patient has become agitated and the antipsychotic drug Haldol is prescribed.

When Judy tries to give him the medication, she is punched in the face, breaking her nose. The man is restrained. Judy is cared for by her colleagues, until she starts having seizures. She is ultimately transferred to a sister hospital as a Level 3 trauma case. Charges are filed against the patient, but it takes the involvement of hospital administration before the police can remove the patient from the emergency department.

This is just one story of many shared by a nurse manager; such anecdotal stories have become routine for emergency departments. With what many believe is a crisis brewing, it’s time to take a hard look at the issue of psychiatric boarding.

Shortage of beds triggers crisisPsychiatric boarding is a term used to describe the holding of mentally ill patients, who are otherwise stable, for extended periods because beds are not available. The lack of beds or alternative solutions has created a crisis situation in emergency depart-ments, with significant impacts on health providers, patient satisfaction and hospital costs.

Psychiatric boarding is not a new problem. It is a trend resulting from efforts to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill. Psychiatric inpatient beds have been reduced nationally from 560,000 to 38,000 over the past 60 years. While these efforts were well-meaning, one could contend that the pendulum has swung too far.

When a mentally ill patient shows up at an emergency department, he or she becomes part of a broken system. Such patients cannot be released due to safety concerns for both the patient and the public.

The wait is on for a psychiatric evaluation, where professionals are in short supply. Then begins the wait for a hospital bed to become available, which averages eight to 34 hours nationally. For my state, Kansas, these numbers were compounded by the moratorium on admissions at one of the state mental hospitals, due to a lack of federal and state funding.

With this “perfect storm” brewing, it’s easy to understand how this contributes to the crowd-ing of the emergency department, negatively impacting the mentally ill patient, other patients seeking treatment, the staff, and the hospital.

Dr. John McMaster, a Kansas physician, commented about the problem: “The boarding of patients with mental health and substance abuse

conditions in my emergency department has had a very negative impact on our ability to adequately serve as the health-care safety net and to deliver timely, quality emergency care to the citizens of our community.”

These mentally ill patients are often sedated or restrained while they wait in a back room or hallway — all the while suffering hallucinations, paranoia and confusion. The bright lights, loud noises, and people rushing about to care for dis-tressed patients are not conducive to their healing process. These mentally ill patients, if appropri-ately treated, may not even need hospitalization for their original diagnosis, but the extended wait in the emergency department magnifies their issues.

Many times, the lack of proper care agitates the mentally ill to the point of aggression. There are numerous documented cases of unruly patients attacking staff, leading to arrest. For the mentally ill, jail time just adds to the problems that they face. On the flip side, the law provides little protection for staff. In fact, the “slap on the wrist” is not considered worth the effort to fill out the paperwork.

In a more extreme Kansas case, a patient spent 48 hours in jail with one-year probation for his attack on a Lawrence nurse last July. He apologized at his hearing, explaining that since the incident, he had been hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Though staff members are compassionate about the situation, they are tired of fearing for their safety while not receiving the same protection as law enforcement or first responders.

Hospitals caught in middle

No one wants this to become a war between the advocates for the mentally ill and hospi-tal staff, particularly not the hospitals caught

in the middle. They are fulfilling their mission to the community, while suffering financial loss, poor outcomes, and concerns for the safety of their staff. These issues are particularly severe in rural areas, where access to consultation services is limited.

As this issue continues to snowball toward disaster, Kansans are working to get a grip on the crisis. Of utmost urgency is getting the state finances

on solid ground and stabilizing the state hospitals, as well as taking a serious look at the poor payment structure in place to support mental health care.

To address the shortage of psychiatric profes-sionals, mental health advocates will request more psychiatric residency seats, as well as changes in regulations concerning telemedicine. Though this cutting-edge technology is a promising solution to the issue, current licensure requirements drastically reduce the number of telepsychiatrists qualified to practice in each state.

Finally, in order to reduce boarding in emergency departments, Kansas is following the lead of other states by establishing regional emergency psychiatric facilities called crisis stabilization units. These units can allow admission directly or through emergency departments. They provide time for detoxification, for medications to take effect, or for external issues to resolve. The staff is interactive, working with the pa-tient to resolve issues. Insurers, HMOs and Medicaid will find major savings, as expensive hospitalization is avoided 70 percent of the time.

The nurse manager has hundreds of stories. She is so relieved to know someone cares. It’s not enough just to care about the issue; legislators need to team with mental-health advocates, law enforcement, hospitals and emergency staff to find solutions.

Rep. Susan Concannon, a Republican from Beloit, was first elected to the Kansas House in 2012. She served as co-chair of the Midwestern Legislative Conference Health & Human Services Committee in 2015 and 2016.

10 STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

The Council of State Governments was founded in 1933 as a national, nonpartisan organization to assist and advance state government. The headquarters office, in Lexington, Ky., is responsible for a variety of national programs and services, including research, reference publications, innovations transfer, suggested state legislation and interstate consulting services. The Midwestern Office supports several groups of state officials, including the Midwestern Legislative Conference, an association of all legislators in 11 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan are MLC affiliate members.

CSG MIDWEST NEWS & EVENTS

An eight-person delegation of Midwestern state legislators visited Berlin and Hamburg in December to learn how

Germany is managing its transition from a dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy for most of its electricity generation to a reli-ance on renewables and energy efficiency.

CSG Midwest facilitated the study trip; the German Federal Foreign Office hosted the bipartisan delegation:

• Illinois Reps. Elgie Sims and André Thapedi;

• Iowa Sen. Chaz Allen and Rep. Rob Taylor;

• Nebraska Sen. John McCollister; • South Dakota Rep. Mathew Wollmann;

and • Wisconsin Reps. Eric Genrich and

Thomas Weatherston.

Dubbed “Energiewende,” Germany’s energy transition has three goals: phase out the use of nuclear energy by 2022; reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 80 percent and 95 percent by 2050; and have 80 percent of the country’s electricity consumption come from renewable sources by 2050.

During the trip, the delegation of legislators learned about the costs of the energy transition and the structural economic changes occur-ring as a result of the move to renewables.

In Lusatia, a rural area about an hour outside of Berlin that has been a center of lignite mining, the CSG Midwest delegation learned about the potential impact of mining shutdowns on workers and communities. They also saw large wind and solar installations and visited a technical university conducting research on power-plant technology and storage.

Delegates met with members of the federal parliament and Hamburg’s state parliament, and during a meeting with the Federation of German Industries, they discussed the impact of the energy transition on the country’s businesses. Part of the trip also focused on workforce development — for example, job training and apprenticeship programs related to the energy transformation.

CSG Midwest brings lawmakers to Germany to study country’s energy transformation

The CSG Midwest delegation of legislators visits with Barbara Duden (middle), vice president of the Hamburg Parliament.

CSG welcomes Midwest’s new legislators, starts annual visits to region’s capitols

In this hyper-partisan era, with an information “superhighway” that resembles a 24/7 traffic jam, where can you turn for truly nonpartisan

information and analysis to help you be an effec-tive legislator?

Welcome to The Council of State Governments. For 84 years, CSG has provided nonpartisan assistance and interstate opportunities for col-laboration and learning to all branches of state government.

Think of CSG as the extra staff person who is just a phone call or email away; or just ask CSG

Midwest staff, who are visiting state capitols in the Midwest this year to meet with lawmakers. The goal of these annual trips is to acquaint legislators with CSG’s programs and services.

CSG is a region-based organization. Every legislator in the Midwest’s 11 states and four Canadian provinces is a member of the Midwestern Legislative Conference and has access to CSG’s and CSG Midwest’s programs and resources.

Please call us at 630.925.1922 or email us, csgm@csg.org, with questions about the state visits or any CSG Midwest programs and services.

Research assistance: Learn about trends in state government by visiting the CSG Knowledge Center (knowledgecenter.csg.org) — a comprehensive collection of state-by-state data, policy briefs, articles and information. Customized research is also available by contacting CSG Midwest: csgm@csg or 630.925.1922.

In-state training: CSG regularly holds policy academies and in-state workshops for legislators on issues ranging from education, health and transportation policy to Great Lakes protection and economic development.

Professional development: Hone your leadership skills at the Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development, the premier program for Midwestern state lawmak-ers in their first four years of legislative service. The program will be held Aug. 11-15. CSG’s national Henry Toll Fellowship Program will be held Aug. 25-30.

Policy programs: CSG offers myriad programs and resources — including the National Center for Interstate Compacts and the CSG Justice Center — that help policymakers collaborate and share ideas and best practices in state government.

Policy committees: The Midwestern Legislative Conference supports six interstate policy committees designed to help legislators share information and best practices: Agriculture & Natural Resources, Criminal Justice & Public Safety, Economic Development, Education, Health & Human Services, and Midwest-Canada Relations.

Regional and national meetings: Network with colleagues and learn from prominent policy experts at our regional or national meetings. The Midwestern Legislative Conference Annual Meeting will be held July 9-12 in Des Moines, Iowa; the 2017 CSG National Conference will be Dec. 14-17 in Las Vegas.

Leadership opportunities: Help set the regional agenda by getting involved with the Midwestern Legislative Conference and its interstate policy committees, or explore leadership opportunities at the national level of CSG.

Lively, informative publications: As part of your CSG membership, you will receive our monthly regional publication, Stateline Midwest, and our national bimonthly magazine, Capitol Ideas. And share your own experiences through Stateline Midwest’s legislative profiles and “First Person” column.

CSG eCADEMY: CSG offers free, online seminars on myriad topics, including public pensions, transportation funding, school accountability, inter-branch relations, and more. Check out the “eCADEMY” tab at csg.org for more information.

Tips on how to make the most of CSG’s products and services

11STATELINE MIDWEST JANUARY 2017

C A L E N D A R

UPCOMING MIDWESTERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE AND THE COUNCIL OF STATE

GOVERNMENTS EVENTS

72ND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MIDWESTERN LEGISLATIVE

CONFERENCEJuly 9-12, 2017

Des Moines, Iowa

Contact: Gail Meyer (gmeyer@csg.org)630.925.1922

csgmidwest.org

23RD ANNUAL BOWHAY INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT (BILLD)

August 11-15, 2017Minneapolis, Minnesota

Contact: Laura Tomaka (ltomaka@csg.org)630.925.1922

csgmidwest.org

CSG HENRY TOLL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

August 25-30, 2017Lexington, Kentucky

Contact: Kelley Arnold (karnold@csg.org)800.800.1910

www.csg.org/LeadershipCenter/TollFellows.aspx

GREAT LAKES LEGISLATIVE C AUCUS MEETINGSeptember 22-23, 2017

Toronto, Ontario

Contact: Lisa Janairo (ljanairo@csg.org)920.458.5910

greatlakeslegislators.org

CSG NATIONAL CONFERENCEDecember 14-17, 2017

Las Vegas, Nevada

Contact: Kelley Arnold (karnold@csg.org)859.244.8000

csg.org

Nation’s leaders on state agriculture policy meet in JanuaryMany of the Midwest’s state and provincial legislative leaders on agriculture policy met with their colleagues and national experts in January for the three-day Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit. The Council of State Governments helps sponsor the event, which is facilitated by the nonprofit State Ag and Rural Leaders group. Kansas Sen. Carolyn McGinn is shown speaking in the picture. She serves on the legislative board of State Ag and Rural Leaders. Other board members include Illinois Rep. Norine Hammond and Ohio Rep. John Patterson.

S tate leaders from across the country met this past December in Virginia for The Council of State Governments’ 2016 National

Conference, during which CSG’s Executive Committee approved a dozen policy resolutions. Here is a summary of each.

• Civics education in public schools — Calls on states and federal government to pro-mote better understanding of government and to aid school districts in developing and implementing civics classes.

• Autonomy for state and local govern-ments under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act — Urges the federal govern-ment to be flexible in making funding and accountability decisions.

• Building the infrastructure for next-generation mobile networks — Urges local governments to facilitate the rapid deployment of small-antenna infrastruc-ture to support the next generation of mobile, wireless networks.

• Cooperation on implementing the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act — Advocates flexibility for states as they develop plans under the legislation and calls on state agencies to be consulted as federal officials review the efficacy of the act’s various provisions.

• Inte rgove r nme nt col laboration on occupational licensing for military spouses — Requests that the federal government work with states to streamline the occupational licensing process for military spouses who get transferred across state lines.

• A continued state/federal partnership on Medicaid — Recommends that any reforms to federal Medicaid law and poli-cies “avoid the imposition of new burdens on state budgets.”

• State policies for advanced transmission lines — Encourages state legislatures and public service commissions to adopt new policies that promote “revolutionary, rather than incremental,” technological improvements to electric transmission lines.

• State sovereignty and federal rules on distance education — Requests that the U.S. Department of Higher Education clarify its new rules to ensure that states

CSG Executive Committee approves 12 policy resolutions at National Conference

involved in reciprocity agreements on distance education can still enforce their own laws on consumer protection, namely those related to fraud, misrepresentation and abuse.

• Trump transition — Calls on President Trump and his administration to strengthen the federal/state partnership and to require early state input on new agency regulations.

• Data collection and analysis to combat the opioid epidemic — Seeks better data col-lection and analysis on the nation’s growing opioid problem, including through more information sharing among states and more assistance from the federal government.

• Use of data to inform policy and deci-sion making — Requests that the fed-eral government work with state and local governments in order to facilitate a better understanding among policymakers about how data can be used to improve decision-making.

• Workforce development for people with disabilities — Affirms the work and poli-cies of the National Taskforce on Workforce Development for People with Disabilities, a partnership between CSG and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

These recently passed resolutions are available in full at the CSG Knowledge Center: knowledge-center.csg.org. Also at the meeting, state leaders approved a “statement of principles on transporta-tion.” In part, the statement urges the U.S. Congress to seek long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund before the FAST Act expires in 2020. It also expresses opposition to proposals to eliminate the federal tax exemption on municipal bonds.

About the CSG resolutions process√ Resolutions are considered by two CSG commit-tees: Intergovernmental Affairs and Executive

√ If approved by these committees, resolutions become official CSG policy positions for three years

√ CSG’s office in Washington, D.C., uses these resolutions to advocate on behalf of states on Capitol Hill, in federal agencies, and at the White House

√ CSG’s Midwestern Legislative Conference also passes regional policy resolutions at its Annual Meeting

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CAPITOL CLIPSOhio law bars cities, counties from setting own minimum wagesA few months before residents in one of their state’s largest cities were scheduled to vote on a proposed increase in the minimum wage, Ohio lawmakers stepped in to block the ballot initiative. SB 331, signed into law in December, bans all Ohio political subdivisions from “estab-lishing minimum wage rates different from the rate required by state law.”

According to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, po-litical leaders in Cleveland asked for the new state law, expressing concern that the pro-posed $15-an-hour minimum wage would stifle the city’s economic recovery. (An out-side group sponsored the initiative.)

Only a few local governments in the Midwest have established their own minimum wages, research from the Economic Policy Institute shows. The region’s largest city, Chicago, is incrementally raising its minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2019. In addition, four coun-ties in Iowa have approved higher minimum wages, The Des Moines Register reports.

With the start of the new year, minimum-wage rates rose in three Midwestern states. The hikes in Ohio and South Dakota are the result of state laws that tie the wage to infla-tionary changes. In Michigan, the minimum wage is gradually being increased — to $8.90 in 2017 and $9.25 in 2018.

To stop opioid deaths, Michigan allows schools to stock naloxoneIn an effort to save young lives at risk due to drug overdoses, the state of Michigan is giv-ing its schools the chance to stock naloxone, an “opioid antagonist” drug.

SB 805 and 806, signed into law in December, set several parameters for school districts. They must have at least two employees trained on how to administer naloxone; call 911 when a student is having an overdose; and alert par-ents or guardians about the incident. Under another new Michigan law (HB 5326), a pre-scription will not be needed for pharmacists to dispense opioid antagonists to the family members and friends of recovering addicts.

New state laws are being adopted across the Midwest to address the rise in opioid use and overdoses. Examples include prescription drug monitoring programs and “Good Samaritan” laws that waive drug-possession penalties for individuals who report an overdose. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention, three Midwestern states had among the nation’s highest number of drug-overdose deaths in 2015:

• Ohio, 3,310 deaths, second-highest;

• Michigan, 1,980 deaths, seventh-highest; and

• Illinois, 1,835 deaths, eighth-highest.

Tax credits aim to create affordable housing in Illinois and NebraskaTwo state legislatures in the Midwest took actions this past year to encourage private investments in affordable housing.

In late 2016, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a law (SB 2921) extending a tax-incentive program that has been in place since 2011. It provides a 50-cent tax credit for every dollar donated to a not-for-profit group that is working to create or preserve housing for low-income residents. Since its inception, Illinois officials say, the tax credit has leveraged more than $370 million in pri-vate investment and helped create or preserve over 18,000 affordable housing units.

Nebraska’s LB 884 was signed into law in April 2016. Under the newly established program, the owners of a qualified affordable-housing project can receive a nonrefundable state tax credit for up to six years. The state credit is equal to the amount that the project is eligible to receive in federal housing tax credits.

According to the Low Income Housing Co-alition, an additional 7.2 million affordable rental units are needed to meet the needs of the nation’s “extremely low income” renter households. In the Midwest, these housing shortages are most pronounced in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, the co-alition found.

South Dakota leads Midwest in rate of population growthSouth Dakota was the fastest-growing Midwestern state between 2015 and 2016, and the only one that topped the national growth rate of 0.7 percent.

The latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released in December, also show that South Dakota (overall growth rate of 0.9 percent) was the only state in this region with a net gain due to domestic migration. In contrast, Illinois lost more than 100,000 residents due to movement among the U.S. states between 2015 and 2016. During this period. Illinois’ overall population fell by 0.3 percent — one of eight U.S. states to experience a decline.

North Dakota is no longer having the rapid population increases that had occurred dur-ing a prolonged boom in the state’s oil indus-try and overall economy. That state’s popula-tion grew by only 0.1 percent between 2015 and 2016.

The U.S. Census Bureau data also chronicle pop-ulation changes between 2010 and 2016. Over that time period, most Midwestern states are growing at a slower pace than the national aver-age. A central cause of this trend is the loss of people due to domestic migration. For example, Illinois has lost 540,000 residents to other states, while Michigan and Ohio have lost 216,000 people and 183,000 people, respectively.