News of the Week — Bill to deduct union dues stalls in State Senate
Each week we share articles on subjects that are important to NUHW and its members. Here are several must-read stories over the past seven days:
A bill that would have given California union members a break on their state income taxes isn’t going to make it this year, the Sacramento Bee reports. Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, wrote Assembly Bill 2577 to let union members deduct their union dues on state income tax returns. The bill sailed through the Assembly, but has stalled in the State Senate.
The Trump administration is preparing to let conservative-led states impose additional restrictions on the nation’s health program for the poor that could push tens of thousands of people off coverage, Politico reports. The high-stakes changes, involving work requirements and questions about illegal drug use, have been the subject of intense behind-the-scenes lobbying in recent months by federal and state lawmakers in the latest chapter of the GOP’s long-running efforts to reshape Medicaid — a policy priority extending back to the Reagan era.
Republicans are struggling to make the $1.5 trillion Trump tax cuts a winning issue with voters in the midterm congressional elections, The New York Times reports. But the cuts are helping the party in another crucial way: unlocking tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations from the wealthy conservatives and corporate interests that benefited handsomely from it. Billionaires and corporations that reaped millions of dollars in tax cuts are pumping some of that windfall into the Congressional Leadership Fund, a “super PAC” closely aligned with Speaker Paul D. Ryan that is flooding the airwaves and front porches of swing congressional districts with increasingly sharp attacks on the Democratic candidates vying to wrest control of the House.