Category: Midwest

Starting in October, Saskatchewan residents had to begin paying a sales tax for ticket admissions to sporting events, concerts and many other entertainment venues. This planned expansion of the Provincial Sales Tax was unveiled in early 2022, but more recently scaled back as part of the Government of Saskatchewan’s four-point “affordability plan” — for example, fitness and gym memberships were removed from the list of newly taxable services, as were recreational activities for young people.

In Canada, events already are among the many service-related activities subject to the federal general sales tax, or GST. The GST is 5 percent; Saskatchewan’s PST is 6 percent. Five provinces, including Ontario (but not Saskatchewan), partner with the Government of Canada to levy a Harmonized Sales Tax, which combines the federal and provincial sales taxes. The HST is administered by the Canada Revenue Agency, with each province entering into an agreement with the federal government on what the tax base will be and how revenue will be shared.

In the United States, there is no national sales tax, though the federal government does collect excise taxes from sales of motor fuel, tobacco products, alcohol, and some health-related goods and services, according to the Tax Policy Center. At the state level, professional and large-scale events are typically subject to taxation. More generally, state systems vary widely on the taxation of services; a Federation of Tax Administrators survey from 2017 found that South Dakota collected revenue from more than 100 services, while Illinois, Michigan and North Dakota taxed fewer than 30.

The Midwestern Legislative Conference Chair’s Initiative for 2022 is focusing on state policies in the Midwest that foster water quality and sustainability.

Kansas Sen. Carolyn McGinn, the MLC chair in 2021, has long been a local and state leader in water policy — inside and outside the Legislature. The goal of her 2022 MLC Chair’s Initiative is to help legislators share information and explore ideas for promoting sound water policy.

Recent CSG Midwest articles related to the 2022 MLC Chair’s Initiative

Article on featured session at MLC Annual Meeting »
Policies in Midwest to address rising concerns about PFAS pollution »
A look at new plans in Illinois to remove all lead-service lines in the state »
How and why Nebraska is looking beyond its borders to meet its water needs »
FirstPerson article by Wisconsin Sen. Robert Cowles on new partnerships that look beyond state regulation to improve water quality »

Over the past two years, policy “firsts” have cropped up in state legislatures across the country to deal with the problem of PFAS, a class of widely used chemicals linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals. In the Midwest, Illinois became the first U.S. state to ban the incineration of PFAS (HB 4818), and Minnesota is the first in the region to outlaw these chemicals in food packaging (SF 20).

Wisconsin, for the first time, now has enforceable limits on levels of certain PFAS chemicals in community drinking water systems, joining Michigan in the Midwest.

Outside the region, some of the recent actions have been even further-reaching.

Maine, for instance, is prohibiting all non-essential uses of PFAS in products, and after sewage sludge was discovered to be a source of widespread PFAS contamination on farmland, the state banned the use of sludge as fertilizer. Also this year, Maine legislators established a $60 million trust fund for farmers whose land and products have been contaminated by PFAS. Through the fund, the state will purchase contaminated property, replace the lost income of farmers and monitor the health of affected families.

In Vermont, residents exposed to PFAS contamination now have a right to medical monitoring (paid for by PFAS polluters).

“It’s everywhere, and the cleanup is very difficult to do and very expensive,” Minnesota Rep. Ami Wazlawik says about the challenges posed by PFAS contamination. “So you have the prevalence of the chemicals in the environment, the fact that they are ‘forever chemicals’ that stick around, and then the negative health impacts.”

‘Turn off the tap’

All of those concerns led Wazlawik to become a leading voice on PFAS-related issues in the Minnesota Legislature. Her focus, in particular, has been on measures to “prevent further contamination.” That’s why she sponsored the food packaging bill from 2021, and introduced measures this year to ban the manufacture and sale of PFAS-containing cosmetics, cookware, ski wax and apparel (none of the legislation from 2022 passed).

Sarah Doll, national director of the group Safer States, refers to bills like these as a “turn off the tap” approach to PFAS. States have been at the forefront of these policies as well as two other types of strategies, she says. One, “figure out the problem,” through more testing and monitoring, as well as studying the health effects. Two, “address the problem” — investing in PFAS cleanup, establishing regulatory standards, suing polluters, etc.

The “turn off the tap” approach has particular appeal because of the “forever” nature of these chemicals, says A. Daniel Jones, a biochemistry professor at Michigan State University and associate director of the school’s Center for PFAS Research.

“If we keep manufacturing more of them, and they don’t go away, the levels are just going to increase unless we do something about it,” he says.

But instituting such bans can be difficult.

As a class of chemicals, Jones says, PFAS can have some “really important functions, so we’d like to be able to distinguish between what are the essential needs and then where there are some good substitutes that are available and that would not be just better for our health, but better for our economies and the ecology.”

PFAS refers to a class of many different chemical compounds. Two of them, PFOA and PFOS, have “become the poster children for PFAS,” Jones says, because the toxicity and health effects of these particular compounds are relatively known. The same cannot be said for many other chemical compounds in the PFAS family that remain in use today. (PFOA and PFOS are no longer manufactured in the United States.)

In Minnesota, Wazlawik says, one reason for the success of her food-packaging ban was that parts of the food industry already were moving toward PFAS alternatives in its products.

According to Doll, another policy lever for states is to help private industry find those alternatives. “It’s not just about dinging the companies,” she says.

Minnesota has a university-led Technical Assistance Program to help businesses with environmental stewardship. In the state of Washington, a recent law directs the Department of Health to designate chemicals of concern and then identify the products in which these chemicals are being used.

To ban the use of these chemicals, the department must first demonstrate that “safer alternatives are feasible and available.”

‘All over the planet’

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy organization, tracks PFAS pollution in public and private water systems, and then regularly updates its national findings by state. As of June, it had documented close to 3,000 contaminated sites in the United States. Michigan has among the highest number of these sites, but Jones says that’s because the state has been a leader in terms of monitoring and testing.

“These chemicals are all over the world now, but Michigan has taken a much more aggressive role in trying to figure out where these chemicals are,” Jones says. “That’s been really important, because we need to understand what the scope of the problem is and how to prioritize cleanups. Where is it the worst? Where are the hotspots?”

Along with widespread testing for the presence of PFAS in the environment, Michigan has regulatory standards for levels of PFAS in drinking water, surface water, groundwater, and the releases by wastewater treatment plants. In recent years, too, legislators have invested heavily in PFAS contamination and cleanup — most recently with this year’s SB 565, which specifies that $55 million in state water revolving funds be used to eliminate PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water.

According to Wazlawik, much of the work in Minnesota is being guided by a PFAS “blueprint,” an agency-led effort that prioritizes the state’s response. In future sessions, she says, much of the legislative role will be to adequately fund those priorities.

Part of the focus in Minnesota, and other states, is getting a better handle on the risks of different PFAS chemicals to human health. Jones says a colleague at MSU’s Center for Policy Research aptly refers to PFAS as “general messer-uppers.”

“They’re not your classical environmental poison,” he says. “They mess up a lot of biological functions, and then the question is, at what level does that become significant? And we just need to know more.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high levels of certain PFAS may lead to increased cholesterol levels, a greater chance of kidney or testicular cancer, small decreases in infant birth weights, and an increased risk of high blood pressure.

PFAS fallout for farmers

To date, much of the attention on PFAS has related to the contamination of drinking water.

But Jones says the focus of states may turn more and more to the presence of PFAS on agricultural land, and in crops and livestock. To date, that problem has been most acute in the Northeast, as evidenced by Maine’s new $60 million trust fund for impacted farmers.

Earlier this year, though, the state of Michigan issued a consumption advisory regarding beef from a farm in the state. The cause: the use of biosolids containing PFAS on the land where the cattle were located.

“Some groups estimate that 20 percent of the farms may already have contaminated biosolids spread on them,” Jones says. “If that’s the case, what do we do next? How do we preserve our farms? Can you add things into the soil that keep the PFAS chemicals from getting into the crops?”

Those are among the many questions that may lie ahead for legislators, whose work on addressing the impacts of “forever chemicals” has just begun.

Kansas Sen. Carolyn McGinn has chosen water policy as the focus of her Midwestern Legislative Conference Chair’s Initiative for 2022. 

Tackling the PFAS problem: Five examples of strategies from Midwest

ENACT LAWS BANNING PFAS IN CERTAIN PRODUCTS

Minnesota will soon become the first state in the Midwest to ban the use of PFAS in food packaging. Under SF 20, signed into law in 2021, “No person shall manufacture or knowingly sell … a food package that contains intentionally added PFAS.” The law takes effect in 2024. According to Safer States, which tracks PFAS-related legislation, 10 other U.S. states have taken steps to eliminate PFAS in food packaging. To date, the most common state action has been to ban or limit the use of firefighting foam with PFAS — including laws in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

 

TEST THE WATER AND RAISE PUBLIC AWARENESS

Many Midwestern states have expanded PFAS testing and monitoring in drinking water. That includes Minnesota, which has an interactive online dashboard that allows residents to find out levels of PFAS (if any) in their community water systems. In unveiling this new resource, the Department of Health noted that Minnesota has joined states such as Illinois, Michigan and Ohio in conducting statewide testing of PFAS in drinking water. 

 

SET LIMITS ON THE PRESENCE OF PFAS IN THE WATER AND AIR

Michigan and Wisconsin are among the states with enforceable standards that require action to be taken if certain PFAS compounds are detected in local drinking water systems at or above levels considered harmful to human health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to adopt standards that are more stringent than any current state-level limits. Some states also have established regulatory standards for the presence of PFAS in surface water (Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin), groundwater (Michigan), soil (Michigan and Wisconsin), and the air (Michigan), according to The Environmental Council of the States.

 

INVEST IN PFAS REMEDIATION AND CLEANUP

Earlier this year, Michigan lawmakers made a historic $4.7 billion investment in the state’s water infrastructure. One area of emphasis: PFAS cleanup. Language in Michigan’s SB 565 allocates $55 million in state water revolving funds to address PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water. Another $15 million will be used to clean up a single PFAS-contaminated site in the state.

 

FILE LAWSUITS AGAINST PFAS POLLUTERS

Four years ago, Minnesota reached a $850 million settlement with 3M. The state had sued the company over the degradation of drinking water and other natural resources in parts of the Twin Cities metropolitan area due to the production of PFAS. Money from the lawsuit is going to 14 impacted communities to invest in their drinking water infrastructure. According to Safer States, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin are among the 13 U.S. states where attorneys general have active lawsuits over PFAS contamination against manufacturers and others.

Minnesota earlier this year made the largest single state investment into ALS research — $20 million over the next three fiscal years — under legislation sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem David Tomassoni, who died last month of complications from the neurodegenerative disease.

SF 3372 authorizes $20 million to be allocated in fiscal year 2023 for grants to Minnesota-based research facilities, universities and health systems for “clinical and translational” research on ALS — research on people via surveys or clinical trials, or into connecting the findings in different areas as a way to more effectively advance from discovery to application.

Grants could go to drug development, precision medicine, medical devices, assistive technology and cognitive studies.

Another $5 million is slated for caregiver support programs with ALS-specific respite care services.

Both pots of funds can be awarded through June 30, 2026.

“Watching him champion this, knowing full well he would not benefit from it … in politics it’s connect the dots to tell a story to influence the outcome,” says Minnesota Rep. Dave Lislegard, who agreed to sponsor SF 3372’s companion bill in the House (HF 3603).

“To watch him go through this, it’s a true testament to the kind of champion he was,” he says.

House Deputy Minority Leader Anne Neu Brindley, for whom the law is also personal — her husband, Jon, died from ALS in 2016, one year before she joined the Legislature in a special election — agrees.

“He was the driver. We all watched what happened to him in the course of just over a year,” says Neu Brindley, whose amendment to HF 3603 added the money for caregiver support.

“The only reason we were able to do that is because Sen. Tomassoni was right in front of us. It was happening right in front of us,” she says.

‘THE CHAMPION HE WAS’

Tomassoni, who played professional hockey in Italy for 16 years (and skated for Italy’s 1984 Olympic team) before winning a Minnesota House seat in 1992, announced in July 2021 that he had been diagnosed with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

ALS is an always-fatal progressive motor neuron disease that has no known cure.

According to the ALS Association, most people in the U.S. who develop the disease do so between ages 40 and 70, with a median age of 55 at the time of diagnosis.

Men develop ALS 20 percent more commonly than women, and, for reasons still unknown, military veterans are more likely to be diagnosed with ALS than the general public.

Only 5 percent to 10 percent of cases can be attributed to a family history of the disease; in some of those cases the disease can be traced to a genetic mutation, the association says.

OPPORTUNITY TO BE A NATIONAL LEADER

Minnesota’s law is the first of its kind in the country, Neu Brindley says, adding that as of early September, no research grants had been issued yet.

The state is also working with the ALS Association to further stretch the caregiver grant allocation by trying to provide training to family members to become caregivers (as opposed to hiring caregivers), she says.

This is important, Neu Brindley says, as Medicare doesn’t cover the kind of home care support ALS patients need — such as 24-hour care, meal delivery, homemaker or personal care services — because it only covers home care on a short-term or intermittent basis, which is impossible by definition for ALS patients.

“We have an opportunity in Minnesota to be a leader in this. So little money is put into this space [ALS research and support] that we can be a real leader with relatively little money,” Neu Brindley says, adding that she’s open to expanding caregiver funding but wants to see results from this first allocation. Such support is one of the ALS Association’s policy recommendations for states.

Tomassoni, quoted by the St. Paul Pioneer Press at a signing ceremony for SF 3372, expressed his hope that the state’s new investment marks “the beginning of the eradication of an insidious disease.”

“Not for me but for future generations,” he said. “[Baseball great] Lou Gehrig died of ALS in 1941, and for too long, little to nothing has been done in research to uncover new and effective treatments for ALS. … If we do nothing else this session, we can all say we accomplished something significant, something significant in a virtually unanimous fashion.

“I don’t remember ever in my 30 years in the Legislature passing such a significant bill this early in the session without leveraging it against something else. I think we can all be proud of that, too.”

MORE FEDERAL FUNDING NOW GOING TO RESEARCH

Federal support for ALS research got a significant boost in the fiscal year 2022 budget — 20 percent above FY 2021 levels, to almost $200 million.

Part of that funding commitment includes implementation of the ACT for ALS law (H.R. 3537), a measure signed into law late last year. Money will go to public-private partnerships that research rare neurodegenerative diseases. The goals: advance understanding of the diseases, and develop new treatment methods.

Under the new law, too, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was charged with developing a five-year action plan for extending the lives of patients through advances in drugs, other medical products and new treatment methods.

That plan was released in June.

The U.S. Congress also continued funding an ALS-focused research project at the Department of Defense ($40 million), while providing $115 million to the National Institutes of Health and $10 million for an ALS Registry and Biorepository, according to the ALS Association.

Iowa is the nation’s No. 1 ethanol-producing state, yet it ranks 28th in ethanol consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“You can’t buy it if it isn’t sold,” says state Rep. Lee Hein, who has long lamented the limited opportunity that Iowans have to support a homegrown product. “Where it is sold, it is the low-cost fuel and people will try it and use it.”

He’s hopeful a new law will help expand ethanol’s use. Under HF 2128, signed by the governor in May, fuel retailers must sell 15 percent ethanol at the pump by 2026.

“It was a long haul,” Hein says about the path to the bill’s passage. “It took two legislative sessions and multiple meetings between legislators and a wide variety of stakeholders. “But by adding exemptions [for certain retailers] and infrastructure support, we got the majority of the industry to support the legislation. It will dramatically increase ethanol consumption while reducing fuel costs for Iowa drivers.”

The change is expected to more than double the number of gas stations in the state carrying E15. Iowa is the first U.S. state to have this blending standard; across the border in Canada, a 15 percent requirement will take effect in Ontario in 2030.

Negotiations, exemptions, grants lead to passage

Originally considered in 2021, Hein says, the measure encountered pushback from convenience stores and petroleum groups, as well as resistance from lawmakers generally opposed to state mandates.

Under the final-negotiated version of HF 2128, certain stations are exempt or can pursue waivers from the E15 requirement. For example, there is a carveout for stations that sold less than 300,000 gallons of gas in 2020 (so long as they have not previously sold E15), a recognition that smaller, single-station operations may not have the capital or resources to make the necessary modifications.

Additionally, a retailer can seek an exemption by: 1) submitting a waiver describing why equipment at the location can’t support the higher ethanol blend, or 2) hiring a qualified expert to inspect the facility and certify that it can’t meet the requirement. For example, stations with decades-old motor fuel storage tanks are eligible for the waiver.

According to Hein, less than 10 percent of the stations in Iowa will qualify for an opt-out.

HF 2128 also provides grants for gas stations to install the necessary E15 infrastructure, via a three-tiered system under Iowa’s Renewable Fuel Infrastructure Program.

Tier I — Gas station has never sold E-15 blends and sells less than 140,000 gallons of gasoline annually. For this tier, state grants cover the lesser amount of 90 percent of the cost or $63,900.
Tier II — Gas station has never sold E-15 blends but sells more than 140,000 gallons of gasoline annually. For this tier, state grants cover the lesser of 75 percent of the infrastructure costs or $53,250.
Tier III — Stations not in tiers one or two fall into this category. For this tier, state grants cover the lesser of 70 percent of the costs or $50,000. Minnesota has a similar grant program for retailers to install the necessary E15 infrastructure.

In Iowa, even with the negotiated changes, some legislators still opposed the bill due to concerns about a state mandate, but the measure ultimately received widespread, bipartisan support. Under the law, stations selling diesel containing more than 20 percent biodiesel also will qualify for the infrastructure grant program.

In addition, Hein says HF 2128 doubles the biodiesel tax credit rate to 4 cents per gallon and extends it through 2027. And Iowa is the first U.S. state to extend the credit to include higher biodiesel blends (B20 and B30).

Permanent repeal of E15 summer ban under discussion

Coincidentally, the legislation was under discussion this year at the same time President Joe Biden visited an Iowa ethanol plant. He was there to announce a national emergency waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designed to reduce consumer fuel costs by allowing E15 to be sold year-round.

Without such a waiver, the Clean Air Act prohibits sales of E15 in the summer because, when compared to regular blended gasoline, the greater volatility of this higher ethanol blend can lead to more ground-level ozone, or smog. The federal waiver was only for summer 2022; discussions continue over whether to allow for permanent, year-round sales of E15. Proponents of such a federal change say that the emissions produced by E15 are less than E10 or straight gasoline.

E10 has become a key part of the economy across the Midwest, a region that is home to nearly all of the top ethanol-producing state. Ethanol is used for more than one-third of the nation’s corn supply, provides jobs in many rural communities, and increases the farm-level corn price in the area of an ethanol plant by about 45 cents.

With all this supply, though, the Midwestern states use less than 20 percent of the nation’s ethanol.

Examples of how states support biofuels

√  Require certain blends of biofuels to be sold at the pump

√  Provide grants to retailers to install higher-blend infrastructure

√  Offer tax credits and incentives to producers or retailers

√  Provide exemptions to sales or motor fuels tax

√  Establish grants for research and development of advanced biofuels

√  Create and track statewide goals for annual renewable fuels sales

√  Offer tax credits for purchase of vehicles that run on higher blends

√  Reimburse local governments/school for bus retrofits

√  Require state’s vehicle fleet to run on higher blends

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center

 

 

 

Lawmakers in Kansas this year passed a bill preempting local jurisdictions from enacting so-called “sanctuary” protections — policies that, in part, restrict cooperation between law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

HB 2717 became law only a few months after a sanctuary ordinance was adopted by officials in Wyandotte County, one of Kansas’ most populated counties.

That ordinance included language instructing police not to ask about the immigration status of individuals seeking help.

It also directed local law enforcement not to respond to calls “for assistance for federal immigration enforcement authorities to enforce immigration law” (unless to mitigate a public safety threat).

For example: a “federal immigration detainer,” in which the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asks for information about the impending release of an undocumented person in custody, and requests that the person be held an extra 48 hours after his or her scheduled release from jail or prison in order to give agents time to collect the individual.

HB 2717 bans local policies preventing law enforcement from fully exchanging information and working with federal immigration authorities.

It also specifies that identification cards issued by municipalities “shall not be used to satisfy any requirement of state law for proof of identity.”

That language is a direct response to another part of the Wyandotte County ordinance authorizing the issuance of municipal ID cards for undocumented individuals to use in order to access local services (for example, attending doctor visits or opening bank accounts).

“We can’t have a patchwork of laws across the state of Kansas, and we can’t have incentives for individuals to risk their lives making the trip to the United States illegally,” says Rep. Patrick Penn, who supported HB 2717.

Following Indiana’s lead

In written legislative testimony, HB 2717 architect Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt wrote, “It seems to me an affront to basic rule-of-law principles for local politics to dictate non-cooperation with federal authorities who are attempting to enforce laws that Congress unquestionably had the constitutional authority (and duty) to enact.”

Opponents of such preemption, however, contend sanctuary policies can prevent undocumented residents from exploitation while promoting greater dialogue between community members and police.

In 2012, University of Illinois-Chicago researchers surveyed more than 2,000 Latinos living in and around four major U.S. cities; about 70 percent of undocumented respondents indicated they were less likely to contact police with information about a crime, even if they were a victim, due to concerns about being asked about their immigration status.

During a committee hearing on HB 2717, a man testified about his mother, who had two children kidnapped by an abusive ex-husband and taken to Mexico. Because the mother was undocumented, she was unwilling to contact law enforcement and didn’t see her children for two decades.

According to Schmidt’s testimony, at least 12 states have enacted statewide bans on local sanctuary policies, including Indiana, whose 2011 bill (SB 590) served as a model for Kansas.

Indiana’s law included provisions that prohibited law enforcement from verifying a person’s citizenship or immigration status if the person had contacted law enforcement to either report a crime or be a witness to one.

Kansas’ law, however, does not include such language.

Illinois’ different path

Illinois, meanwhile, has taken a very different approach. Over the last five years, the General Assembly passed multiple bills changing the relationship between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies, including:

The TRUST Act (SB 31 of 2017), which instructs law enforcement to not honor federal immigration detainers in the absence of a judicial warrant. Local police also cannot stop, search or arrest individuals based solely on their immigration or citizenship status. The bill received bipartisan support between the legislature and governor, and from law enforcement groups.
The VOICES Act (SB 34 of 2018) established new state certification requirements for federal T and U visas, which provide temporary immigration protections for undocumented individuals who are victims of human trafficking or certain other crimes. Victims who obtain these visas agree to assist with prosecutions and investigations of the case.
SB 667, the Illinois Way Forward Act, passed last year. It bars law enforcement from assisting in federal immigration investigations and from transferring undocumented persons to immigration detention centers (the bill outlawed such facilities statewide beginning in 2022) in cases where the only alleged offense is the civil violation of illegal immigration. The law still permits local authorities to inquire about citizenship status when trying to contact foreign consular offices or when vetting individuals for concealed-carry licenses.

“It’s not the job of local law enforcement to essentially be ICE,” says Illinois Sen. Omar Aquino, who sponsored each of those bills.

“It’s not in their jurisdiction [or] their role to enforce immigration policy, and especially a policy on the federal level, which is one that is certainly outdated and in need of comprehensive immigration reform.”

According to Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, federal authorities such as ICE’s division of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) may also be interested in deprioritizing arrests of civil violators.

“There’s actually a common joke among immigration advocates regarding HSI that ICE wants to be out of ICE,” says Tsao, who asserts those authorities would rather put their time and effort toward combatting criminal offenses — including smuggling operations, human trafficking, customs violations and international counterfeiting.

Tsao adds that when a city or state passes sanctuary policies, undocumented individuals do not become immune to federal seizure.

“If ICE were to somehow find out that someone is getting released from a county jail or from a state prison, and they’re waiting outside the jail or prison door, nothing is to stop those ICE agents from immediately apprehending that person,” Tsao says.

In Kansas, both Schmidt and Gov. Laura Kelly, who signed HB 2717 into law, agreed immigration concerns should be the prerogative of the federal government and not states. (Schmidt and Kelly are opponents in this year’s race for governor.)

HB 2717 opponent Rep. Louis Ruiz says local governments should have the authority to deal with immigration and law enforcement issues on the ground level, as they see fit, until federal reform is achieved.

Although Wyandotte County’s ordinance may have differed from other Kansas communities that passed sanctuary policies in that it also distributed municipal IDs, Ruiz says these cards allowed undocumented residents “to move around the city without fear of retribution.”

With the new law in place, Ruiz fears those residents will be forced to move back into the “shadows.”

Two other recent examples of recent laws, proposals in the Midwest

IOWA

Passed in 2018, Iowa’s SF 481 orders local law enforcement to fully comply with federal immigration detainer requests, and it bars municipalities from adopting policies that restrict cooperation with immigration authorities. Violation of the law can result in a loss of state funding. Also under SF 481, the state prohibits local ordinances that discourage police from asking about the immigration status of a person who has been detained or arrested. However, officers cannot inquire about the immigration status of a person who is reporting a crime.

 

MINNESOTA

Bills introduced last year (HF 1919 and SF 2118) sought to make Minnesota a “sanctuary state.” State and local government employees would have been prohibited from honoring immigration detainers, making arrests solely for immigration purposes, sharing government database information with immigration authorities, or assisting in civil immigration enforcement operations. The measures included exceptions to allow communication with federal immigration authorities about a person’s criminal record.

Legalized sports betting spread to an eighth Midwestern state in September, when four casinos in Kansas began accepting online and in-person bets. The state has a unique regulatory structure on gambling due to constitutional language that makes most forms of gambling illegal. One of the exceptions: casino-style wagering owned and regulated by the state.

Four state-owned commercial casinos operate via a partnership with private companies, and this year’s SB 84 authorized each casino (operated by the Kansas Lottery) to engage up to three online platforms or apps in addition to taking in-person bets. The new law also permits sports betting in restaurants and venues operated by nonprofit fraternal or veterans’ organizations, as well as allows new compacts to be negotiated with tribal nations to offer sports betting at tribal casinos.

Another unique aspect of sports gambling in Kansas is where the money will go. Much of the state revenue is earmarked for two funds, one to investigate and prosecute white-collar crimes and a second to attract professional sports teams (for example, to help with the construction of a new stadium).

All Midwestern states except Minnesota have legalized online and/or in-person sports betting. Nebraska and Ohio each legalized it in 2021, with LB 561 and HB 29, respectively, but sportsbooks are not yet operational in those states. The Ohio Casino Control Commission in August announced that in-person sports betting will begin on Jan. 1.

Where does the new state revenue go?

Examples include a fund for school-based sports and extracurricular activities in Ohio, property tax relief in Nebraska, infrastructure projects in Illinois, school aid in Michigan, and state general funds in Indiana and Iowa, the American Gaming Association notes.

According to Legal Sports Report, U.S. states have collected more than $1.6 billion in revenue from sports betting since June 2018, the year a U.S. Supreme Court decision gave states the authority to legalize this activity.

Canada began allowing single-game sports betting in August 2021, but leaves regulation to the provinces. Ontario in April became the first province to announce an “open” or competitive sports book market, while Alberta released a “request for proposals” for two retail sportsbooks.

In June, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority announced a vendor agreement with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation to develop an online gambling site that will include single-event sports betting. The portal is scheduled to be available to provincial residents before the end of the year, the authority said.