Connecticut
Lawmakers Call for More Job Growth Incentives
As the Senate unanimously confirmed Connecticut's first full-time business advocate last week, Republicans called for additional efforts to spur job growth in the state. Specifically, Republicans called for a new one-year job-creation tax credit applicable to all businesses, worth 25% of the withholding taxes paid for each new position created per year. Supporters said the plan would broaden job creation incentives to both small and large businesses, at a cost of roughly $8 million per year.
Source: The Day

Maine
Emission Reduction Plan Unveiled
Gov. John Baldacci (D) formally unveiled a plan to reduce production of greenhouse gases while funneling millions of dollars into energy conservation. Maine is joining 10 other states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first multistate effort to curb emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants. The initiative will require Maine's six largest power producers that burn fossil fuels to cap emissions levels for five years beginning in 2009 and then gradually reduce levels by 10% by 2019.
Source: Bangor Daily News

Alabama
Workers Rally for Minimum Wage Increase
Groups representing the poor and union workers rallied on the State House steps last week to support gradually raising the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. The Legislature is considering a bill that would increase the wage to $5.85 in two months, to $6.55 a year after that, and then to $7.25 a year after that. If passed, Alabama would join 29 other states and the District of Columbia in requiring businesses to pay more than the federal minimum wage.
Source: Associated Press

South Carolina
Governor Touts Income Tax Proposal
Gov. Mark Sanford (R) says time is running short for the State Senate to approve his $81 million income tax cut that he says will benefit the economy and workers. The House has already approved the tax cut in its version of the budget, but it faces strong opposition in the Senate where many members would prefer to eliminate the remaining 3% sales tax on groceries.
Source: The Greenville News

Iowa
Businesses Abusing State Tax Loopholes, Report Claims
Corporations are using tax loopholes that are costing the state tens of millions of dollars, according to a new report from a nonprofit think tank. The Iowa Policy Project says some large businesses that operate in Iowa are using various tax avoidance tools, including shifting their profits to subsidiaries in non-taxing states, to reduce their tax obligation. The group recommends lawmakers close the loophole by passing a combined reporting law requiring businesses to count all their profits when calculating their state taxes, including those profits that are shifted to non-taxing states.
Source: Associated Press

Minnesota
Economist Urges State to Reject Business Subsidies
A prominent critic of public subsidies for private businesses urged Minnesota legislators Wednesday not to get into "economic bidding wars" by providing tax subsidies to the large corporations seeking state help to expand. Art Rolnick, senior vice president and research director at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, told the House Tax Committee that the best economic policy is to keep taxes low for all businesses and to refuse preferential tax treatment for a few. But, he acknowledged, it's difficult for Minnesota to stop when other states offer tax breaks to attract businesses.
Source: Pioneer Press

Alaska
Businesses, Workers Call for More Tourism Marketing
Fairbanks businesses and workers urged members of the Senate Finance Committee to boost state funding for tourism marketing during a public hearing last week on the state's operating budgets. The group said a recent decline in tourism marketing dollars has been particularly hard on smaller companies, which rely on "independent" travelers who come to the state on their own rather than with a cruise or packaged tour. The group also asked lawmakers to get behind a Senate bill that would dramatically increase state funding to the Alaska Travel Industry Association.
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Oregon
Labor Commissioner to Push for Overtime Pay on Ballot
State Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner's (D) proposal to grant overtime pay to hourly employees for each hour they work over 8 hours in a day—regardless of how many hours they work in a week—is being strongly opposed in the Legislature. As a result, Gardner may put the plan before voters via a ballot initiative. Gardner's bill, House Bill 2673, failed to gain traction in the House, which Democrats control 31-29. Currently, public and private hourly employees are paid overtime for each hour of work over 40 hours in a week.
Source: Statesman Journal