William Perry Pendley picked to oversee public lands
An ardent critic of the federal government who has argued for selling off almost all public lands has been named the Trump administration’s top steward over nearly a quarter-million federally controlled acres, raising new questions about the administration’s intentions for vast Western ranges and other lands roamed by hunters, hikers and wildlife. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Monday signed an order making Wyoming native William Perry Pendley acting head of the Bureau of Land Management. The bureau’s holdings are sweeping, with nearly one out of every 10 acres nationally, and 30% of minerals, under its dominion, mostly across the U.S. West. Pendley, a former midlevel Interior appointee in the Reagan administration, for decades has championed ranchers and others in standoffs with the federal government over grazing and other uses of public lands. He has written books accusing federal authorities and environmental advocates of “tyranny” and “waging war on the West.” He argued in a 2016 National Review article that the “Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold.” In tweets this summer, Pendley welcomed Trump administration moves to open more federal land to mining and oil and gas development and other private business use, and he has called the oil and gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, “an energy, economic, AND environmental miracle!” Conservation groups called the Pendley appointment an alarming choice, while Western ranchers called it a welcome move that shows the Trump administration is serious about opening public lands to all uses, including mining and ranching. The Trump administration already has moved to weaken some protections for public lands. It downsized two national monuments in Utah to scale back protections on sacred tribal lands and signed a land exchange deal to build a road through a national wildlife refuge home to migrating waterfowl near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. And in what it called a money saving move, the administration moved BLM headquarters from Washington to Colorado and dispersed staff among Western states. Environmentalists feared that this was a first step in dismantling the agency. After appointing Pendley as the bureau’s policy chief in mid-July, the Interior Department confirmed late Monday it had newly elevated him to acting director. Pendley’s “ascending to the top of BLM just as it is being reorganized strongly suggests the administration is positioning itself to liquidate our shared public lands,” said Phil Hanceford, conservation director for the Wilderness Society. Western Values Project executive director Chris Saeger said in a statement that the appointment could lead public lands to being handed over to the Trump administration’s “special interest allies.” Interior spokeswoman Molly Block disputed that, saying in an email, “This administration has been clear that we are not interested in transferring public lands.” Block said agency management plans are developed to allow for a range of uses including energy development, cattle grazing, recreation and timber harvest while protecting scientific, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values. An analysis of six new BLM proposed management plans by the Pew Charitable Trust, which calls itself a nonpartisan research center, for parts of six Western states found they significantly reduce protections that have been in place for decades and open up new land for mining and oil and gas. They include Alaskan lands known as nesting habitat for peregrine falcons and Montana rivers homes to the westslope cutthroat trout. The plans would peel back the label of “critical environmental concern” for nearly all of the 3,125 square miles (8,100 square kilometers) of lands that currently hold that distinction, said Ken Rait, the project director for U.S. public lands and rivers conservation at Pew Charitable Trusts. He called it “a total reversal for how the agency has operated in the past.” In a letter to the agency, Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources said the management plan for public lands in the southwest corner of the state don’t do enough to protect the Gunnison sage grouse , which is a threatened species, or migrating wildlife. But Utah cattle rancher and county commissioner Leland Pollock said the Pendley appointment is the latest indication that the Trump administration is returning BLM to its original mission of ensuring that public lands are open to multiple uses. That includes mining, ranching, cattle grazing, ATV riding, hunting mountain biking and hiking, he said. He said the administration has made clear to him and others who had pushed for state control of federal lands that it has no intention of going that route. The 55-year-old is a commissioner in Garfield County in southern Utah, which has 93% federally owned lands. “He’s going to manage this thing just simply the way it was supposed to be managed,” Pollock said about Pendley. Utah was among several Western states that explored suing to compel the federal government to hand over control of federal lands, arguing the state would manage them better. The state hired an outside consulting firm in 2014 to prepare a lawsuit, but it has never been filed. Idaho rancher and county commissioner Kirk Chandler still thinks states should manage the lands but knows that’s unlikely to ever happen. In the meantime, he’s just happy the Trump administration is choosing leaders who will listen to his concerns. He wants to see more logging and forest thinning to prevent fires. “I think it will be a good thing, a real good thing,” said Chandler about Pendley. By Ellen Knickmeyer and Brady McCombs Associated Press. McCombs reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writer Dan Elliott contributed to this report from Denver. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Pew study shows Alabama economy slow to rebound after recession
A new study titled Fiscal 50 by the Pew Charitable Trusts, shows that Alabama has one of the slowest economies to rebound after the recession a decade ago. Growth has been uneven throughout the U.S. with North Dakota being the fastest growing, and Connecticut being the slowest. Alabama was shown as being one of the slowest with an annual growth of only .9 percent since the recession in 2007. The study used personal income estimates, and tax revenue data to track economic trends within each state. Personal income growth, one of the main resources for tax revenue growth, has been lagging at a historical pace. From 2007 to 2017 it only rose 1.6 percent a year, compared with the 2.6 percent a year over the past 30 years. “Personal income growth has been uneven over the past decade, tumbling in almost all states in 2009, during the depths of the recession, and falling in most states in 2013 after taxpayers shifted income to avoid a potential federal tax hike. Sluggish growth in 2016 and 2017 reflected personal income drops in a number of states,” said the study. States in the nation have experienced sluggish growth across the board, with little to no extra tax revenue leaving many states with very little wiggle room in their budget, and some states have not experienced a rebound since the recession at all. “Nationally, total state tax revenue recovered in mid-2013 from its plunge during the recession but has rebounded more slowly than after the three previous downturns.” The good news is, nationally, all three major components of personal income; work earnings, transfers (like Social Security benefits), and property income have have risen over the past 10 years, with the effects varying from state to state.
Technology revolutionizes voter registration for 2016
When President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, only two states offered a website where citizens could register to vote. By the 2016 presidential election, it’s possible that a majority of states will offer that service, helping to cut down on errors resulting from bad handwriting and reducing time spent by voters in line on Election Day, according to data released Wednesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The nonpartisan public policy group says states have spent an average of $249,000 to build and implement new online voter registration systems. But states also are recouping costs because clerks don’t have to process paper registrations. Here’s a look at what’s changed since the last U.S. presidential election: Arizona and Washington were the only states that offered online voter registration in 2008. Now 20 states do, and seven others have passed or are considering laws that would authorize a new online registration system. Five states now allow residents without a state identification or driver’s license to register to vote online: California, Delaware, Minnesota, Missouri, and Virginia. Several states are tweaking their registration sites with smartphones in mind, offering mobile friendly features. States are analyzing that data. Colorado, for example, notes the number of new registrations in a certain time period and updates to old ones. That can help states identify trends in voter registration. States are doing more to accommodate people who struggle with English or have disabilities. One example of those efforts is text-to-speech software for blind people. Online registration has changed dramatically since 2008, but the U.S. is likely a long way from letting people vote online because of security concerns. When the District of Columbia experimented with an online voting system in 2010, hackers broke in and changed votes to go to fictional characters. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Nearly half of states expect to confront big budget gaps
With the nation’s economy at its healthiest since the Great Recession, a surprising trend is emerging among the states — large budget gaps. An Associated Press analysis of statehouse finances across the country shows that at least 22 states project shortfalls for the coming fiscal year. The deficits recall recession-era anxiety about plunging tax revenue and deep cuts to education, social services and other government-funded programs. The sheer number of states facing budget gaps prompted Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service to call the trend a sort of “early warning.” “After all, if a state is grappling with a budget deficit now, with the economic expansion approaching its sixth anniversary, what will be its condition when the next slowdown strikes?” credit analyst Gabriel Petek wrote in a recent report. The forces at work today are somewhat different than when the recession took hold in 2008. In some states, revenue growth has been stagnant, missing projections and making it difficult to keep pace with expanding populations and rising costs for health care and education. Other states have been hurt by a steep decline in oil prices or have seen their efforts to promote growth through tax cuts fail to work as anticipated. The result is a nation divided between states such as California and Colorado that are riding the wave of the economic recovery and others such as Illinois and Pennsylvania that appear closer to bust than boom. A majority of states have failed to climb back to their pre-recession status, in terms of tax revenue, financial reserves and employment rates, said Barb Rosewicz, who tracks the fiscal health of states for The Pew Charitable Trusts. Alabama, for example, faces a $290 million shortfall after a voter-approved bailout expires at the end of the current fiscal year. Projected cuts would create a $27 million hole in the state’s court system, forcing more than 600 layoffs and leaving just one juvenile probation officer and two clerical staffers in each county, said Rich Hobson, administrative director for the Alabama Unified Judicial System. If nothing is done, the courts will not have the staff to send jury notices, monitor juvenile delinquents, process protection orders and collect and distribute child support payments, he said. “This is an insane proposition,” Hobson said. “The public would suffer.” To avoid the cuts, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley has proposed raising $541 million through increases in the tobacco tax and sales taxes on automobiles. A top Republican in the Alabama Senate has introduced a gambling bill that would ultimately ask voters to decide whether to create a state lottery and allow four casinos. Lawmakers in some other states, including Nevada, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, have also debated whether to raise taxes. Nationally, total tax revenue coming to the states has been rising, but the pace has been slow as employment continues to lag pre-recession levels in more than half the states, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew also found that 30 states are collecting less revenue than at their peak. “What we are seeing across states right now is an economic and financial recovery that is a little bit different than the recoveries we’ve seen in the past,” said Emily Raimes, a vice president with Moody’s Investors Service who tracks state government finances. Previous recoveries were broader, she said, benefiting more states and allowing them to replenish their financial reserves. The Census Bureau recently reported that total state government tax collections in fiscal year 2014, which in most states ended last June, increased 2.2 percent over the previous fiscal year. That represented the fourth consecutive overall increase, but 17 states reported declines in tax revenue from the previous fiscal year, according to the report. Alaska saw the biggest drop, of $1.7 billion. Alaska relies heavily on oil revenue and projects a $3.2 billion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. A special legislative session has been called after lawmakers failed to agree on a way to fund the budget, even though the state has plenty of money in reserves to cover the gap. That’s not the case in Illinois, where lawmakers are trying to figure out how to close a $6 billion projected shortfall for the next fiscal year, largely because of the expiration of a temporary tax increase. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who campaigned against the tax plan, has suggested cuts to health care, local governments and other areas. But lawmakers in the Democratic-led General Assembly say spending cuts alone will not close the gap. In Kansas, the Republican governor and GOP-dominated Legislature now confront budget deficits after aggressive tax cutting that prompted them to reduce school funding this spring. Districts across the state have cut staff and programs such as summer school, and at least eight are ending the current school year early to save money. That includes the Shawnee Heights district outside Topeka, where students will begin their summer break two days early. Lawmakers passed a new school funding law that promises the money will be restored and state aid will rise each of the next two fiscal years, but educators are skeptical. “There’s no rational person in education who would think we’ll be getting that money, when the state budget is tanking,” said Charles Walther, a middle school history, government and geography teacher who heads the district union. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
