State & Local Weekly News Wrap-Up

By Timothy Brett posted Feb 14,2012 08:23 AM

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MULTI-JURISDICTION

Federal health care reform is facing more hurdles, this time with states that agreed to move forward implementing requirements before a Supreme Court ruling on the law. Some lawmakers and health insurance advocates in Pennsylvania are pushing back on the state’s plan for its health insurance exchange saying that as currently written the plan skews favorably to insurers. In Ohio, the two appointees in charge of health care in the state have opposing views of the law and are sending mixed messages to lawmakers. Federal health care reform has been controversial since it was first introduced. Upon its passage, several states mounted legal opposition claiming that the bill was too costly to implement at best and unconstitutional at worst. Some of those challenges have had limited success, the Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue and make a final ruling later this year. Some states however, moved forward with implementing requirements as passed. Now, in a few of those states implementation is facing new hurdles as both advocates of the law and its critics raise questions about how the law is managed in practice. Health care reform stalls out in previously supportive states

Two states are making strides in improving transparency in government. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that votes taken in open meetings must be recorded, even if they are not roll-call votes. In New Mexico, the Senate has just approved a bill that will make information about employees of government contractors available online to the public through a state managed web portal. Courts, lawmakers give transparency a boost in Georgia, New Mexico

MARYLAND

Maryland is improving interagency collaboration through a shared-services business intelligence platform. The state's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, working with the Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention, developed the Law Enforcement Dashboard, which gives public safety agencies access to real-time criminal justice data. DPSCS, which operates 27 correctional facilities and 45 parole and probation supervision offices, needed a way to integrate systems containing information for its Division of Corrections, Division of Parole, State Police Gun Registry and Sex Offender Registry so the agencies could get a single view of criminal background data, state officials said. DPSCS deployed Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture to get that single view. Currently, officials from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies can use the law enforcement dashboard, a centralized, Web-based application, which draws from more than 100 data sources across 22 agencies. State taps BI software to share criminal info, link other agencies

NEVADA

Nevada has been chosen for a federal cybersecurity program that assists communities in assessing their cybersecurity awareness and preparing for problems. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security program was announced last week by Governor Brian Sandoval in Carson City. Clark County and the Washoe County-Carson City area were selected to participate. Administered by the Texas-based Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security, the 14-month training and exercise program focuses on community cybersecurity prevention, response and recovery. State chosen to participate in federal cybersecurity program

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