Legislation also addressed the use of force by the police against blacks and other colored people after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked widespread protests against police brutality. Among other things, new laws will mandate oversight and reporting, set up civil review bodies and require more information on problem officers.
States like California, Delaware, Iowa, New York, Oregon, and Utah have banned police chokeholds. Floyd, who was black, died after a white officer pressed a knee to the back of his neck for a few minutes while it was being videotaped despite Floyd asking for air.
New York State Representative Walter T. Mosley noted the hundreds of black men and women killed by police between the screams of “I can’t breathe” from Eric Garner, who died after being hit by the New Yorker Police were put in a stranglehold in 2014 and Floyd’s in May.
Mosley, a Black Democrat from Brooklyn, said the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act was “an important step forward, but it won’t be the last”.
Despite reforms in some states, the response to Floyd’s death has not been uniform. Similar proposals for the use of force or disciplinary matters in several other states have failed, and some have even moved in the opposite direction.
Georgia created a new crime, defined as biased intimidation, beginning January 1, which relates to the death or serious injury of police, fire fighters and emergency personnel. This also applies to cases where your property has been damaged by “actual or perceived employment as a first aider” worth more than $ 500. Violations are punishable by one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $ 5,000.
The law was passed by Republicans over objections from Democrats and civil rights groups who said the police already had enough protection. Republicans insisted on the law as part of an agreement to pass a new hate crime law in Georgia, which was supported by both parties.
While the legislature tackled some elements of the coronavirus outbreak this year, most of the sessions had ended before the current wave of cases, deaths and stay-at-home reorders. Lawmakers from both major parties have vowed to make the pandemic response a centerpiece of their 2021 sessions, which will cover topics ranging from reopening the school to emergency governors’ powers.
The virus also re-focused on the country’s unequal and expensive healthcare system. Addressing coverage and cost issues was a common theme in 2020.
A move in Washington limits the monthly cost of insulin to $ 100 through January 1, 2023, and requires the state health agency to monitor the price of insulin. A new law in Connecticut requires pharmacists to provide a 30-day emergency supply of diabetes-related medication and equipment with a price cap for diabetics who have less than a week to spare. Both laws come into force on January 1st.
“It is incomprehensible that someone in America should be without or without a common and widespread life-saving drug in an emergency in 2021,” Senator Derek Slap, a Democrat from West Hartford, said in a statement.
A much-anticipated Medicaid expansion comes to Oklahoma in the New Year after years of Republican opposition in the legislature and the governor’s office. Voters narrowly agreed to a constitutional amendment that expanded the state’s insurance program to include an estimated 215,000 low-income residents. It comes into force in July.
Legislators must determine how the planned government share of 164 million US dollars will be covered during its session in 2021. The cost could be significantly higher given the number of Oklahomans who lost their jobs and their work-related health insurance as a result of the pandemic.
Republican Governor Kevin Stitt had urged voters to reject the plan. He said the state “must either raise taxes or cut services like education, first responders or roads and bridges elsewhere” to fund the expansion.
A new law in Georgia aims to prevent consumers from clinging to surprise medical bills by, in many cases, requiring insurers to pay for care provided by a doctor or hospital that is not part of their network of providers. The law protects patients from financial responsibility beyond what they would normally have to pay. Instead, insurers and providers can enter into disputes with the state insurance commissioner. Minnesota also has what is called a continuity law, which goes into effect January 1st.
Other notable laws coming into effect in the New Year:
– Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota approved measures to legalize recreational marijuana. The New Jersey Democratic Legislature and Democratic Governor Phil Murphy are working to establish a legal marketplace and update laws that are already on the books to decriminalize marijuana possession.
– Colorado prohibits landlords from refusing to issue, rent, or rent housing on the basis of an individual’s source of income or involvement in the type of contract required to obtain government housing assistance. Landlords can still do credit checks, but the law makes it an unfair housing practice unless they do checks on every potential renter.
– New Hampshire is set to make multiple changes to state laws regarding sexual assault. As of January 1st, the definition of sexual assault will be expanded to include all sexual contact between school employees and students between the ages of 13 and 18. Previously, such contact could be considered consensual and not a criminal offense if the student was 16 or 17 years old. Other laws, which will come into effect in mid-January, increase protection for victims of sexual assault and require colleges and universities to provide guidelines on sexual matters To remit wrongdoing. The bill requires universities to provide free access to medical and legal support services, protections against retaliation, confidential counseling services, data on sexual violence, and training on prevention and response.
– Georgia will require an audit starting in 2021 before films and television productions receive the state’s generous tax credit that has made possible the highest subsidies of any state. The loan, which repays up to 30% of the value of a production, cost nearly $ 900 million in lost tax revenue in 2019 when Georgia film and television production was booming. The audits were extremely critical of the tax credit and found that some companies that received tax credits did not.
– California-based companies must have at least one board member who is a racial or sexual minority by the end of 2021. Larger numbers are required by 2022. Companies with 100 or more employees are also required to send information about the race of the employees. ethnicity and gender of the state.
– Connecticut employers are required to make deductions from their employees’ paychecks for a new paid family and sick leave program under a state law passed in 2019. The state’s estimated 100,000 companies will be responsible for withholding half a percent of workers’ wages. Qualified employees can receive benefits from January 1, 2022. Massachusetts is also starting a new paid family vacation program in the New Year. In most cases, it offers a 12-week benefit that extends to 26 weeks for those caring for a member of the military who is receiving treatment.
Oklahoma will extend a religious facility property tax exemption to church property when teaching children from preschool through 12th grade.
Contributing to this report was the Associated Press writer Jeff Amy of Atlanta. Mike Catalini of Trenton, NJ; Sue Haigh of Hartford, Conn .; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Rachel La Corte of Olympia, Wash .; Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Patricia Nieberg in Denver; Holly Ramer of Concord, NH; Don Thompson in Sacramento, California; and Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City.
Nieberg is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a not-for-profit national service program that lets journalists report undercover issues to local newsrooms.
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