After negotiations on Thursday broke down, Gov. Mark Dayton announced no special session will take place.

Republican leaders would not agree to a special session to fund a light rail project, while Democrats would not agree to holding the session without approval for the project.

The result is a tax bill that would have provided $260 million in tax breaks for certain groups will not be passed this year.

Photo of the Minnesota State Capitol dome by Mulad on Wikimedia Commons.

State House Majority Leader Mike Hager (R) resigned from the General Assembly to support himself financially and take care of his elderly parents. Hager was the majority leader for two years and a House member for five.

It is likely Hager would have been reelected in November as his only competition was an unaffiliated candidate.

The North Carolina Republican Party House District 112 Executive Committee has not yet named Hager’s replacement.

City Councilman Felipe Fuentes will resign on September 11, nearly 10 months before his term ends, to become a lobbyist with the Apex Group in Sacramento.

In his new role, Fuentes will advocate for Associated General Contractors of California, a statewide trade association.

The council could call for a special election to fill his seat, but the 2017 city election schedule makes the scenario unlikely. The municipal election is already scheduled for March; if no candidate receives a majority in the March election, a May runoff will be held.

The primary focus of the current special session is to pass a constitutional amendment allowing a statewide lottery (Senate Bill 11).

If the constitutional amendment passes, members of the Alabama Lottery Commission would be subject to the Ethics Law. Legislators are using the special session to introduce several ethics bills.

If all of the bills pass, any individual convicted of a felony would be prohibited from registering as a lobbyist (House Bill 32), any legislator indicted on a felony would be automatically suspended from any leadership position (House Bill 11), and public school employees would be allowed to accept gifts from students (House Bill 10).

Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton called a special meeting to be held on September 1, 2016. The meeting will address the backlog of requests for advisory opinions in the wake of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard’s ethics conviction.

Hubbard was convicted despite claiming reliance on informal advice provided by the commission. The commission recommends individuals file requests for formal advisory opinions, as informal advice does not provide protection from prosecution if followed.

The September meeting will allow for a timely response to the influx of requests for guidance and lessen the load for the October meeting.

A special election has been set for November 8, 2016, to temporarily fill the seat of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah.

The 2nd Congressional District seat was vacated when Fattah resigned after being convicted in federal court on 22 counts, including money laundering, bribery, and fraud.

The winner of the special election, held on the same day as the general election, will hold the seat for exactly eight weeks before the 115th Congress is sworn in on January 3.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is considering calling a special legislative session for lawmakers to address the issue of teacher pay raises.

Budget cuts during the fiscal year were deeper than necessary, resulting in $140 million of unused and unallocated funds. She claims if legislators do not agree to a special session, the money would be distributed equally among all agencies.

While most lawmakers believe teachers deserve a pay increase, they are less than enthusiastic about a special session. Many feel the money should go back into the agencies suffering the most from the original budget cuts.

Gov. Mark Dayton previously hoped to call a special session of the Legislature during the third week of August.

Lawmakers have been unable to agree on key issues, including a controversial light rail bill, so no special session is currently scheduled for this week.

Dayton will meet again with leadership from the Legislature on Thursday, in what he has said may be the last meeting to discuss a special session.

Santa Monica City Council passed new rules on August 9 for implementation of the city’s lobbyist regulation ordinance.

The rules set out lobbyist registration requirements and registration fees. The ordinance will go into effect September 19, 2016 with an initial lobbyist registration period from September 19 through October 31, 2016.

The City Clerk’s Office is responsible for the implementation of the lobbyist regulation ordinance and can be reached at (310) 458-8211 or clerk@smgov.net.

During a spot check of campaign spending records, election officials realized a glitch in the database showed discrepancies between information searchable online and printable reports. Online, the purpose of some expenditures is omitted, for example.

The glitch was discovered after an ethics complaint was filed against Republican candidate for secretary of state Nora Espinoza, relying on the system’s printable reports.

On August 9, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed House Bill 543 into law, joining other recently signed bills helping to tweak the state’s current campaign finance laws. The new legislation allows for individuals to make addition political contributions of up to $1,000 to House and Senate candidates in special election races held during state election years.

Another change in the law requires a PAC or political party committee making an expenditure to support or oppose a candidate to identify the candidate on the check and subsequently review the bank’s report. If the report does not identify the candidate supported or opposed, the PAC or political party committee must append the bank’s report to disclose the name of the candidate and whether the expenditure supported or opposed the candidate.

The state’s legal requirement to disclose the top five donors on certain political advertisements now includes those on billboards and direct mailings regardless of the purpose for which the funds were given. This disclosure requirement also applies to state ballot committees. The legislation came into effect upon signing.

The New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics has extended the deadline for the lobbyist amnesty program through September 30. The program is meant to encourage nonfiling lobbyists and employers to comply with the Lobbying Act by disclosing activity, as required by law.

The program remains open only to those who have never been contacted by JCOPE for noncompliance with filing requirements and have never been the subject of a criminal proceeding for a Lobbying Act violation. The parallel New York City program was not extended.

Two House district special elections will take place on November 8, 2016. Gov. Phil Bryant announced elections for House Districts 89 and 106 will coincide with the general election.

The District 89 seat became vacant when state Rep. Bobby Shows retired.

State Rep. Herb Frierson left his District 106 seat to become commissioner of revenue.

If no candidate receives a majority on November 8, a runoff election will be held November 29.

On August 10, the Reno, Nevada City Council and the City Charter Committee met to discuss a possible new lobbying law.

The City Charter Committee recommended adding a new lobbying law to the city charter unless the City Council passes a lobbying law through an ordinance before this fall’s November general election. While the City Council considered adopting an ordinance earlier this year, the Charter Committee “feels that the remaining three months until the general election is ample time for Council to formally approve a lobbyist registration system,” according to the Charter Committee’s Final Report and Recommendations presented at the meeting.

Also addressed at the meeting were the filing frequency of campaign finance reports by candidates for public office; ward-only voting for primary, general, and special elections; and other city issues.