MIDWEST

The Midwest

PRIVATIZING LOTTERIES

Lotteries in the 11-state Midwest already generate about $10 billion in annual sales and $3 billion in profits. But Illinois lawmakers believe turning over day-to-day operations to a private manager will bring in even more funds. Once finalized, the state’s agreement through House Bill 607 with Northstar Lottery Group will increase the state’s net income from the lottery by $4.8 billion over the first five years, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

PENSIONS

Minnesota and South Dakota face legal battles over whether the states can reduce pension benefits for current retirees and employees. Minnesota reduced its annual cost-of-living adjustments for existing retirees from 2.5 percent to 2 percent this year until the state’s pension funding level reaches 90 percent. A district court judge in September postponed a ruling on the state’s request to have the lawsuit dismissed, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. In South Dakota, a lawsuit is challenging Senate Bill 20, which eliminated a guaranteed annual cost-of-living increase of 3.1 percent for retirees.

DISASTER MEDICAL

Because some volunteers were not able to quickly obtain clearance to practice medicine outside their own states, they couldn’t help after Hurricane Katrina, according to American Medical News. The Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act establishes a system for health professionals to register either in advance of or during an emergency to provide volunteer services in any state that adopts the law. Illinois adopted the model act this year through Senate Bill 2541. North Dakota and Indiana are among the 10 states that already passed the legislation.

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

Federal data shows the Indiana Department of Child Services removed 9,464 children from their homes in 2009 (a 1 percent increase over 2008) because of allegations of abuse and neglect, continuing a trend of removing more children from families, according to The Indianapolis Star. Previously, the number of children removed from families jumped 22 percent from 2007 to 2008, The Indianapolis Star reports. Nationally, child removals fell by 7 percent during the same period, the newspaper reports.

HOMEBUYERS

The federal homebuyer tax credits were popular in Nebraska, according to a Government Accountability Office report, behind only Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming for tax credit dollars claimed per resident. An estimated 18,300 Nebraskans claimed more than $130 million in homebuyer tax credits, according to the report.

To learn more about these and other developments in the Midwestern Region, visit: capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgmidwest.org.

© Corbis / Theo Rudnak

Midwest Eyes Merging Schools, Districts

Midwestern states are considering ways to do more with limited resources. One of the options is the consolidation of schools and districts.

In Iowa, for example, the number of districts considering a merger is on the rise, according to state education officials. The state has received about a dozen requests for reorganization feasibility studies, the Quad-City Times reports.

So far, six school districts voted to merge into three districts for the 2011–12 school year, and several more are considering similar action, state officials say.

Researchers at Michigan State University found the state could save $612 million a year after three years by consolidating district administration, but not schools themselves. The plan proposes turning the state’s 550 districts into 57 districts made up of one county or more. A second proposal would save $328 million by keeping current district boundaries but administering transportation, food services and maintenance at the county level, according to Michigan State University.

Earlier this year, The Brookings Institution and the Greater Ohio Policy Center suggested school consolidation as a way to reform governance in that state. A February report suggests setting up a commission to cut the number of school districts by one-third.