Developments in the States, 2000

▪ 2001

Introduction

      As the U.S. economy continued to hum along, states enjoyed another quiet legislative year in 2000. Many state governments enacted multibillion-dollar tax cuts for a record seventh consecutive year and poured additional funding into education programs. Joblessness, dependency on welfare, and incidence of serious crime continued to fall during the year, contributing to a widespread sense of well-being and satisfaction.

      There were areas of contention, however. A law recognizing homosexual “civil unions” roiled Vermont and beyond. Teachers unions dealt major blows to a drive for school vouchers in two states; Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan suspended administration of a death penalty “fraught with error”; and November elections produced controversy over voting procedures and a historic even split in partisan breakdown among state and federal legislators. Forty-six states held regular legislative sessions during the year, and 15 staged special sessions. (See Special Report (U.S. Election of 2000 ).) Democrats won 8 of 11 gubernatorial contests, a net pickup of one. In the only election where party control changed, U.S. Rep. Robert Wise unseated West Virginia Gov. Cecil Underwood, a Republican. That narrowed the GOP advantage in governorships nationwide for 2001 to 29 Republicans, 19 Democrats, and 2 independents.

Government Structure, Powers.

      Nebraska voters approved, for the fourth time, term limits for their unicameral legislature. Previous measures had been invalidated by courts. Kentucky instituted annual legislative sessions, and only four states were left in which the legislature met every other year. West Virginia voters established a family court system. In North Dakota and Virginia, voters established hunting and fishing as constitutionally protected rights.

Government Relations.

      The extremely close national elections, highlighted by legal challenges in Florida, prompted new calls for federal oversight of traditional state and local control of balloting procedures. Each state often utilized several methods, including electronic devices, optical scanners, punch cards, lever machines, and paper ballots. In 2000 Oregon became the first state to conduct a presidential election overwhelmingly by mail. Arizona experimented with voting over the Internet in its presidential primary. Experts said there were problems with all methods and faulted existing measures for lacking consistency.

      Continuing a recent trend, the U.S. Supreme Court issued yet another 5–4 ruling backing state power against federal encroachment. The court ruled that states could not be sued for violations of federal age-discrimination legislation. In another key case, however, the high court invalidated a Nebraska law prohibiting “partial-birth” abortions. A 5–4 majority found that the law “creates a significant health risk” for some women. The decision apparently doomed similar laws in 30 other states attempting to curtail second-trimester abortions.

      In 1998 the U.S. Congress approved a law encouraging states to reduce their drunk-driving blood standard to 0.08% from the widely used 0.10%, without notable results. Congress, consequently, in 2000 effectively preempted state law for the 32 states that retained 0.10% or left it to the arresting officer to decide whether a motorist was inebriated, giving them two years to enact the 0.08% standard before mandating reduction of federal highway aid. Mothers Against Drunk Driving estimated that the law would result in 500 fewer highway deaths nationwide.

      Congress also moved to reduce a loophole under which 20 states claimed about $2 billion in excessive Medicaid funds; the practice would be phased out over five years. Led by New York and Illinois, the states claimed to spend more than they actually did on Medicaid and received extra federal matching funds.

Finances.

      Buoyed by the strong national economy, states reduced taxes by a net $5.8 billion during 2000, an unprecedented seventh consecutive year of significant cuts. Fourteen state legislatures enacted new tax reductions amounting to 1% or more of state revenue, and tax increases were rare across the country. Effects of phased-in tax reductions enacted in previous fiscal years had a further impact on state balance sheets.

      Ten states reduced personal income taxes, and seven states initiated or boosted the earned-income tax credit to benefit low-income workers. Sales taxes were cut in Colorado, and sales tax “holidays” or rebates were enacted in Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Maryland, and Minnesota. As oil prices spiked at midyear, Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon suspended the state gasoline tax, and Illinois suspended sales tax levies on gasoline. Onetime tax rebates on property or income taxes were also popular, with major programs approved in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Missouri.

      Voters approved even more tax cuts in November balloting. After the state legislature rejected the idea, Massachusetts voters approved a $1.2 billion income tax cut, the largest in state history. During the year Washington courts invalidated a popular 1999 revenue-cutting initiative. State voters responded by approving a new rollback of state tax and fee increases that would reduce local tax payments by $1 billion. Voters in Colorado and Oregon, however, defeated broad tax-cut and spending-limit initiatives, and Arizona voters approved a sales tax increase to fund education projects.

      Louisiana was the lone state with revenue problems. The legislature raised both personal income taxes and sales taxes on food and utilities. In November state voters rejected a ballot proposal to offset a proposed sales tax reduction with a larger state income tax increase.

      States wrestled with tax liability arising from modern communications. Many states were losing serious revenue from lost sales taxes on Internet transactions; one estimate showed states losing $15 billion in revenue by 2003. Florida became the first state to reform overall telecommunications taxes, traditionally imposed by counties and municipalities. The new bill consolidated their imposition statewide and initiated revenue sharing with local authorities to equalize previous revenue levels.

Health and Welfare.

      States continued to expand oversight of health organizations during the year. Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Utah required health plans to cover mental illness; this brought to 31 the states mandating equal treatment for mental and physical problems. Iowa, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Delaware joined 10 states ordering health plans to cover contraceptives. Massachusetts, Alaska, and Hawaii joined 38 states mandating coverage for diabetes.

      Maine became the fourth state to reject physician-assisted suicide when voters narrowly defeated a measure to allow it. Only Oregon allowed doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. Massachusetts voters rejected a proposition for statewide universal health insurance by 2002. Colorado voters rejected a mandatory waiting period before an abortion; that left 19 states ordering a waiting period, usually 24 hours.

      State welfare rolls continued to shrink during the year, which cheered backers of the 1996 federal welfare-reform law. By late 2000 welfare recipients had dropped by 49%, or 6 million individuals, in four years. All states met their federally imposed targets for putting former welfare recipients to work during the year.

Education.

      The nationwide drive to provide alternatives to low-performing public schools suffered major setbacks in November when voters in California and Michigan overwhelmingly defeated school voucher initiatives. A federal appeals court voided a landmark voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio. Washington voters defeated a measure allowing establishment of semi-independent charter schools. Teachers unions mobilized opposition to the measures, calling them an assault on the public schools.

      California voters approved a college tuition assistance plan for low-income students, the largest higher-education program since the federal GI Bill of Rights following World War II. About 30% of high-school seniors would be eligible for the $1.2 billion plan, with grants dependent on student grades.

      Following positive results from a similar move in California, Arizona voters terminated bilingual education in public schools. Georgia voters ended teacher tenure. In Oregon voters turned down one measure prohibiting instruction on homosexuality and another tying teacher pay to student achievement.

Law and Justice.

      Guns and the death penalty were at the centre of public policy debate in states during the year, even as incidence of major property and violent crime dropped for the eighth consecutive year. Texas continued to carry out more death sentences than any other state, and Gov. George W. Bush (see Biographies (Bush, George W. )) defended that record during the presidential contest. Early in 2000 Illinois Governor Ryan, also a Republican, said his state's capital punishment system was “fraught with error” following exoneration of several convicts under a death sentence; he suspended executions indefinitely.

      Nationwide, states executed 85 convicts during the year, down from 98 the previous year, more than half of them in Texas and Oklahoma. South Dakota became the 13th state to ban execution of the mentally retarded.

      Twenty-eight states addressed cyber crime, typically enacting laws prohibiting identity theft, outlawing the spread of computer viruses, and banning lewd proposals to minors. New Jersey joined 22 states that had established a registry of sex offenders on the Internet. More than 30 states considered legislation to regulate cell phone use in automobiles, but no major bills were approved.

      Although new incidents were rare in 2000, states continued to wrestle with a wave of mass shootings in schools and public places in recent years. New York became the first state to sue gun manufacturers for making an unsafe product. Voters in Colorado and Oregon, sites of recent school shootings, required background checks for purchasers at gun shows. (See Law, Crime, and Law Enforcement: Special Report. (U.S. Gun-Control Debate: A Critical Look ))

      Alaska voters rejected a measure to legalize marijuana, but voters in Colorado and Nevada joined six other states allowing its use as a medicine. California approved a breakthrough proposal to send nonviolent drug offenders to treatment rather than jail. Advocates predicted the measure would cut the state's prison population by 36,000, or 20%.

Environment.

      Numerous states struggled with adverse effects of urban sprawl, including traffic congestion, overcrowded schools, and pollution, but few dramatic steps were recorded. In an early showdown, voters in Arizona and Colorado rejected strict growth boundaries, rings around cities beyond which development would be prohibited. The measures were backed by environmentalists but opposed by real-estate concerns, construction interests, and some local officials.

      California's partial deregulation of electricity in 1996—freeing power generators from regulation while retaining retail price caps—pushed several state utilities toward insolvency and created major electricity shortages. New Jersey became the first state to set targets for reducing greenhouse gases. Reasoning that lead in cathode-ray tubes posed environmental and health hazards, Massachusetts became the first state to ban computer monitors and televisions from landfills.

Gambling.

      South Carolina voters, a year after having rid the state of video poker machines, approved a statewide lottery, with most revenue earmarked for education. Arkansas voters rejected a proposal for a state lottery, casinos, and charity bingo. South Dakota voters rejected termination of the state's video lottery and raised the bet limit from $5 to $100 at casinos in the town of Deadwood. Massachusetts voters turned down a proposal to ban greyhound racing. With the Cold War having ended, a nuclear fallout shelter in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., intended to protect Congress, was now surplus property. State voters, however, rejected an initiative to convert it into a casino.

Equal Rights.

      Vermont's legislature enacted a law recognizing “civil unions” between two persons of the same sex, embroiling the state in a political and moral conflict that was felt across the country. The measure followed a late-1999 ruling by the state Supreme Court that the state constitution prohibited discrimination against same-sex couples, a decision that some legislators said forced their hand. The new law conferred on gay and lesbian couples who chose to enter into a civil union the same rights and benefits afforded traditionally married couples, including inheritance rights and tax status.

      Passage of the Vermont law produced a tumultuous election and several ramifications. Republicans won the state House for the first time in a decade, and popular Democratic Gov. Howard Dean, who signed the bill, narrowly avoided a runoff. Most observers predicted the law would survive, however. In the meantime, 8 more states joined 28 that had banned same-sex marriage since 1995, refusing to recognize unions promulgated in other states. Maine voters again turned down an initiative prohibiting discrimination against gays.

      Florida's Supreme Court barred a ballot initiative prohibiting affirmative action in state employment, contracts, and college admissions; California and Washington had earlier approved similar measures. Ending a long-running controversy, South Carolina moved its Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome to a site near its Confederate Soldiers Monument. Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Washington joined North Carolina and Connecticut in gathering information on traffic and criminal stops in an effort to combat “racial profiling.”

      Alabama voters repealed an unenforceable ban on interracial marriage, the last state to do so. Utah became the 26th state to declare English the official state language. New York gave preliminary approval to removal of 170 masculine references in the 46-page state constitution, to be replaced by gender-neutral language. Responding to complaints from Native Americans, Maine joined Minnesota and Montana in requiring that the word squaw be removed from public sites. Native Americans said squaw was demeaning because its English translation was “whore.”

David C. Beckwith

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