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Pluribus AM: Trans care ban signed in Miss.; Ohio ed reform advances; Chicago mayor gets the boot

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Good morning, it’s Wednesday, March 1, 2023. In today’s edition, Miss. Gov signs trans care ban; Mich. tax cuts advance; N.J., Wis. Govs release budget plans:

Top Stories

LGBTQ RIGHTS: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed legislation Tuesday banning gender-affirming care for trans minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. (Supertalk.fmMississippi Free Press) Mississippi becomes the third state to ban care for trans youth, after South Dakota and Utah. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) is likely to sign similar legislation soon, while the Indiana Senate passed a bill Tuesday and legislation was just introduced in Iowa.

MEDICAID: The Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee voted unanimously to advance a plan to extend Medicaid coverage to mothers and babies up to a year after a pregnancy. (St. Louis Post Dispatch) The Mississippi House Medicaid Committee advanced a similar bill Reeves backs. House Speaker Philip Gunn (R) has not said if he will allow a floor vote on it. (Mississippi Free Press)

ABORTION: The Mississippi House Constitution Committee advanced a measure that would restore the state’s voter initiative process — but prohibit abortion proposals from being placed on a ballot. (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal) In Montana, a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge ruled a parental consent abortion law is unconstitutional. (Helena Independent Record)

MICHIGAN: The state Senate cleared a broad tax proposal that eases taxes on retirement income and boosts the Earned Income Tax Credit from 6% to 30% of the federal credit. But a plan to send out $180 rebate checks that would’ve halted an automatic drop in the personal income tax, which is tied to revenues, wasn’t included because it failed to get a supermajority. (Detroit News) The Senate also advanced a $1.3 billion spending bill, about half of which is to help lure Ford to build a battery plant in Calhoun County. (Detroit News)

OHIO: The Senate Education Committee advanced legislation that will overhaul the state Department of Education and Board of Education. The package, backed by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and Senate President Matt Huffman (R), is likely to pass the full Senate. (Ohio Capital Journal) The House Finance Committee advanced a $3.7 billion transportation budget, which includes rail safety requirements such as requiring two-person crews. (Statehouse News Bureau)

NEW JERSEY: Gov. Phil Murphy (D) released a $53.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2024, a 5% increase from the spending bill he signed for the current year. It includes a property tax rebate program for a second year in a row. (Associated Press)

WISCONSIN: Gov. Tony Evers (D) proposed a $3.8 billion package on building projects in 28 counties, including $1.8 billion on University of Wisconsin campuses and $41 million to improve cell service at the state Capitol. Republicans have decreased the funding for building projects in each of Evers’s past two budgets. (Associated Press, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

PENNSYLVANIA: House Speaker Mark Rozzi (D) resigned Tuesday, a few days after landmark child sexual abuse protection legislation he championed passed the state House. New Speaker Joanna McClinton (D) was sworn in, months after Democrats won 102 of 203 seats in the state House. McClinton becomes the first woman in the 340-year history of the Pennsylvania state House to serve as Speaker. (Pluribus News)

In Politics & Business

ILLINOIS: Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will face off for the right to replace Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who finished third in Tuesday’s mayoral primary. Vallas led the field with 34%, while Johnson, an organizer with the Chicago Teacher’s Union, took 20%. Lightfoot ended with 17% of the vote. (Chicago TribuneChicago Sun-Times)

SPECIAL ELECTIONS: Landscape architect Holt Persinger (R) defeated Charlie Chase (R) in a Georgia special election runoff for a state House seat on Tuesday, 59% to 41%, according to unofficial results. The state still has one vacant state House seat, which may not be filled before the General Assembly’s scheduled end on March 29. (Associated Press) Democrats held all three Connecticut House seats up in special elections Tuesday. (CT Mirror)

RHODE ISLAND: House Speaker Joe Shekarchi (D) said he is exploring a special election run for the seat of Rep. David Cicilline (D), who is resigning. (Providence Journal)

DESANTIS: Attorneys for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and others involved in the case sought to dismiss a federal lawsuit stemming from his move to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last year, arguing that the federal court in Massachusetts lacks jurisdiction over Florida and officials there. (MassLive)

STATE VS. STATE: The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday over the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which New York and New Jersey created in 1953 to overcome the organized crime’s influence at their port but New Jersey sought to withdraw from in 2018. New York took the dispute to the court. (Associated Press)

By The Numbers

$21 million: The amount of tax revenue Ohio will receive after its first month of legal sports gambling, after $1.1 billion was bet, including $320 million in promotional credits. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

$238,794; $229,377; $222,639: The salaries of Massachusetts’s treasurer, auditor and attorney general, the highest pay for any of their elected peers throughout the country. (Boston Globe)

4:20: The time Tuesday afternoon that the North Carolina Senate passed a bill to legalize marijuana for medical use, with tight restrictions. (Raleigh News & Observer)

How convenient.

Off The Wall

Connecticut state Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R) interrupted a recent hearing over school lunches with an expletive. Bolinsky, attending the hearing remotely, said he was responding in frustration to spotty internet at his home and it was not directed at anyone. It was the second time this session that a Connecticut legislator uttered an inappropriate word while unmuted. (New Haven Register)

Quote of the Day

“At 8 o’clock at night, you’re not making good law.” 

Wyoming state Rep. Bill Allemand (R), an ally of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, on fatigue factoring into joining with Democrats to cut off debate on Senate bills before getting through them all. (Casper Star Tribune)