Nationally, no new Republican governor seemed to embody the new GOP spirit more than Walker of Wisconsin. For weeks, raucous protesters massed outside his capitol office in Madison while shouting denunciations of his collective-bargaining bill. But Walker rejected any assertion that his party took the public by surprise, arguing instead that elections have consequences — and that the GOP was simply delivering on the mandate it was given in November.
"This is not a shock," Walker told The Associated Press in February when announced his plan to cut collective bargaining rights. “The shock would be if we didn’t go forward with this.”
Taxes out, spending cuts in
Underpinning the tough Republican approach toward public workers was the states’ long-running budget crisis, which remained the dominant issue in most states and which the GOP responded to with deep spending cuts — not only to the public workforce, but to health care, K-12 schools and a host of other programs.
One of the reasons for the Republican insistence on spending cuts is the fact that 11 new GOP governors refused, even before taking office, to consider tax increases this year. By and large, all 11 of those Republicans delivered on their no-tax promise, although Nevada Governor Brian Sandovalagreed to extend previously approved sales and business tax increases.
Guided by their tough position against taxes, and spurred on by what they saw as voter distaste toward big government, Republicans in many states made deep cuts, sometimes even when they had other options available. An expected $4 billion cut to public schools in Texas, for instance, comes despite the state having more than $6 billion in its rainy-day fund.
The cuts often hit vulnerable populations the hardest, underscoring a belief among many in the GOP that the nation’s social safety net has become too sprawling and costly. A small group of conservative Missouri state senators, for example, forced Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s hand and brought about a reduction in state-level unemployment benefits, arguing that government can’t pay for month after month of assistance to the long-term jobless. Republicans in many states slashed funding for mental health services and lobbied the federal government to turn Medicaid into a block-grant program, potentially allowing states to spend far less on health care for the poor.
At the same time that they were making budget cuts to social programs, Republicans were friendly to business, announcing in press conferences and in news releases that, after years of Democratic policies, their states were now “open for business.”
Under partial or total GOP leadership, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin all cut business taxes. In Maine, LePage’s administration took aim at environmental regulations that he said were unnecessary and a burden on businesses. In Pennsylvania, where Republicans took control of the governorship and both legislative chambers, lawmakers have declined to hit the burgeoning natural gas industry with an extraction tax, even though Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state without such a levy.
For Democrats, some highlights
While Republicans took complete control of the legislature and governorship in 12 new states in November, Democrats did so in just four. All of them — California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Vermont — were already overwhelmingly Democratic, and the party simply won back the governorship from Republicans. Still, the newly Democratic states show how dramatically different single-party rule can look, depending on which party holds the reins.
Connecticut lawmakers just ended a session that will likely go down as the most aggressively liberal in memory. Under Governor Dannel Malloy, who won election by just 6,000 votes in November, lawmakers signed off on the largest tax increase in state history, became the first state in the nation to require private companies to provide paid sick leave for workers, and decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, among plenty of other measures that left minority Republicans just as furious as their Democratic counterparts in the Midwest.
Malloy’s election marked the first time since 1991 that Democrats held both the legislature and the governorship at the same time. As Larry Cafero, the House Republican leader, sees it, the Democrats overreached. Cafero says he asked House Speaker Christopher Donovan during the session why Democrats were moving so quickly on such sweeping legislation — such as paid sick leave for workers — and received a blunt answer: “Because we can.”
In Vermont, Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin pushed for and won legislation calling for a statewide, single-payer health care system — the inverse of the free-market insurance approach that Republicans have been pushing in other states, and one that proved too controversial for Democrats in Congress to include in their own health care law last year.
California, meanwhile, is still mired in fiscal trouble as legislative Republicans have torpedoed Democratic efforts to extend previously approved tax hikes. But Democrats have found success on other matters. Among them: The state is likely to join other Democratic strongholds, including Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland, in extending more tuition assistance to illegal immigrants. That stands in sharp contrast to the immigration crackdowns passed by Republicans in Alabama and Georgia this year, where lawmakers have escalated enforcement against undocumented residents in the absence of federal action.
Dan Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida, says it is indisputable that Republicans were the big winners in 2011 legislatures, based on the laundry list of legislative victories they claimed. At the same time, he says, the huge differences in the laws approved in Republican- versus Democratic-run states underscores just how consequential state-level elections can be.
"This is the two Americas," Smith says, "in stark contrast."
— Contact John Gramlich at jgramlich@stateline.org
"This is not a shock," Walker told The Associated Press in February when announced his plan to cut collective bargaining rights. “The shock would be if we didn’t go forward with this.”
Taxes out, spending cuts in
Underpinning the tough Republican approach toward public workers was the states’ long-running budget crisis, which remained the dominant issue in most states and which the GOP responded to with deep spending cuts — not only to the public workforce, but to health care, K-12 schools and a host of other programs.
One of the reasons for the Republican insistence on spending cuts is the fact that 11 new GOP governors refused, even before taking office, to consider tax increases this year. By and large, all 11 of those Republicans delivered on their no-tax promise, although Nevada Governor Brian Sandovalagreed to extend previously approved sales and business tax increases.
Guided by their tough position against taxes, and spurred on by what they saw as voter distaste toward big government, Republicans in many states made deep cuts, sometimes even when they had other options available. An expected $4 billion cut to public schools in Texas, for instance, comes despite the state having more than $6 billion in its rainy-day fund.
The cuts often hit vulnerable populations the hardest, underscoring a belief among many in the GOP that the nation’s social safety net has become too sprawling and costly. A small group of conservative Missouri state senators, for example, forced Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s hand and brought about a reduction in state-level unemployment benefits, arguing that government can’t pay for month after month of assistance to the long-term jobless. Republicans in many states slashed funding for mental health services and lobbied the federal government to turn Medicaid into a block-grant program, potentially allowing states to spend far less on health care for the poor.
At the same time that they were making budget cuts to social programs, Republicans were friendly to business, announcing in press conferences and in news releases that, after years of Democratic policies, their states were now “open for business.”
Under partial or total GOP leadership, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin all cut business taxes. In Maine, LePage’s administration took aim at environmental regulations that he said were unnecessary and a burden on businesses. In Pennsylvania, where Republicans took control of the governorship and both legislative chambers, lawmakers have declined to hit the burgeoning natural gas industry with an extraction tax, even though Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state without such a levy.
For Democrats, some highlights
While Republicans took complete control of the legislature and governorship in 12 new states in November, Democrats did so in just four. All of them — California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Vermont — were already overwhelmingly Democratic, and the party simply won back the governorship from Republicans. Still, the newly Democratic states show how dramatically different single-party rule can look, depending on which party holds the reins.
Connecticut lawmakers just ended a session that will likely go down as the most aggressively liberal in memory. Under Governor Dannel Malloy, who won election by just 6,000 votes in November, lawmakers signed off on the largest tax increase in state history, became the first state in the nation to require private companies to provide paid sick leave for workers, and decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, among plenty of other measures that left minority Republicans just as furious as their Democratic counterparts in the Midwest.
Malloy’s election marked the first time since 1991 that Democrats held both the legislature and the governorship at the same time. As Larry Cafero, the House Republican leader, sees it, the Democrats overreached. Cafero says he asked House Speaker Christopher Donovan during the session why Democrats were moving so quickly on such sweeping legislation — such as paid sick leave for workers — and received a blunt answer: “Because we can.”
In Vermont, Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin pushed for and won legislation calling for a statewide, single-payer health care system — the inverse of the free-market insurance approach that Republicans have been pushing in other states, and one that proved too controversial for Democrats in Congress to include in their own health care law last year.
California, meanwhile, is still mired in fiscal trouble as legislative Republicans have torpedoed Democratic efforts to extend previously approved tax hikes. But Democrats have found success on other matters. Among them: The state is likely to join other Democratic strongholds, including Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland, in extending more tuition assistance to illegal immigrants. That stands in sharp contrast to the immigration crackdowns passed by Republicans in Alabama and Georgia this year, where lawmakers have escalated enforcement against undocumented residents in the absence of federal action.
Dan Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida, says it is indisputable that Republicans were the big winners in 2011 legislatures, based on the laundry list of legislative victories they claimed. At the same time, he says, the huge differences in the laws approved in Republican- versus Democratic-run states underscores just how consequential state-level elections can be.
"This is the two Americas," Smith says, "in stark contrast."
— Contact John Gramlich at jgramlich@stateline.org
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