EAST

The East

PRISON CELL PHONES

New Jersey corrections officials are testing new technology to detect illegal cell phones in jails and prisons, according to The Star-Ledger. The state is considering using special cell phone detection equipment from Berkeley Varitronics Systems, the newspaper reports.

FEE-FOR-SERVICE

The current fee-for-service system for health care payments is broken and needs to be fixed, according to Massachusetts Sen. Richard Moore. Massachusetts is looking to move away from the fee-for-service model, according to a newsletter from The Council of State Governments Eastern Regional Conference. Critics say the current system adds to high health care costs and can hit patients hard in out-of-pocket costs, the newsletter reports.

PRIVATIZING RECYCLING

Delaware is getting out of the recycling business and instead using private companies for recycling and landfill programs, The News Journal in Wilmington reports. The Delaware Solid Waste Authority will end statewide curbside recycling service April 1, instead using private hauler alternatives, according to the newspaper. The agency will also end curbside yard waste pickup in some counties by December, the newspaper reports.

SURPLUS

New Hampshire’s budget surplus hit $70 million for the 2010 fiscal year, according to a press release from Gov. John Lynch’s office. That surplus was made possible by lawmakers and the governor closing a projected $300 million budget shortfall for 2010, according to the press release. Even more good news, revenues for the 2011 fiscal year are more than $2 million above projections so far, the press release said. Business taxes for September were more than $1 million higher than projections, according to the press release.

SUGARY DRINKS

New York Gov. David Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg submitted a plan in October to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to prevent people in New York City from using food stamps to buy sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a press release from Paterson’s office. Under the plan, those on food stamps would still receive the same amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds, but would not be able to purchase sugarsweetened beverages for two years, the press release reports.

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

© Steve Dininno

Foreclosure Wave Still Coming in the East; States Trying to Help

Last year, there were 43,000 foreclosures in Maryland and it’s not over yet. Another wave is coming as five-year adjustable rate mortgages taken out in 2006 come due next year.

That’s according to Maryland Delegate Doyle Niemann, who authored a foreclosure mediation law in his state.

“A lot of people are stuck with big loans on overvalued houses that they can’t pay,” Niemann said.

The foreclosure mediation bill in Maryland, among other things, gave homeowners the right to have a faceto-face meeting with the lender (the mediation) to discuss options for their mortgage and also put a $300 fee on all foreclosure filings. That pool of money, generated by the filing fee, will go to fund the statewide foreclosure prevention program and its counselors, Niemann said.

“Our approach to this was not to stop foreclosures, not to keep people in houses who can’t pay … but to give homeowners notice and time to fix the problem,” Niemann said, “and to sort of encourage rational decision making by lenders.”

A similar program just launched statewide this year in Maine.

The program provides more counseling on the front-end so people don’t get into foreclosure and also provides the mediation—or formal discussion meeting—that will help people get through the foreclosure process offering alternatives to losing their home, said Maine Rep. Sharon Treat, who authored the bill.

“It managed to get funding at a time when our budget was in terrible shape— in fact we were cutting the budget,” Treat said. By closing a loophole in the real estate transfer tax, the state was able to fund the program with more than $1 million.

That goes to fund court mediation and the foreclosure counseling program, she said.