The Tap: Thursday, December 1, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022. The excerpts below were compiled from issue #44 of The Tap, which was published on December 3, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Donald Trump and Mike Pence were in Indianapolis Thursday to announce a deal with Carrier Corp. that will keep 1,000 jobs in Indiana. Last February, the heating and cooling equipment company announced its intentions to close manufacturing plants in Indianapolis and Huntington, Ind., and to move operations to Monterrey, Mexico. More than 2,000 jobs were set to leave the state.
  • Carrier said in a statement on November 30, 2016, that it had reached an agreement with Trump and Pence to keep more than 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis. More than 600 jobs from Indianapolis and all 700 from the Huntington plant are reportedly still slated to head to Mexico.
  • Many of the details of how Trump and Pence convinced Carrier to keep the 1,000-plus jobs in Indiana remain largely unknown, but some information has started to trickle in. Tax incentives played a key role. In its statement from November 30, Carrier said, “The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration,” and United Technologies Corp., Carrier’s parent company, will reportedly receive $7 million in tax breaks over the next decade as part of the deal. Also part of the deal, United will invest $16 million in its Indiana operations. Some economists and observers in the media have said that United’s larger business interests could have formed an important part of the negotiations. Approximately 10 percent of the company’s annual revenue comes from federal contracts, mostly from the Pentagon. When asked by reporters if federal contracts played a role in the negotiations, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said, “This is about the president-elect and vice-president elect making good on their promise to go to bat for American workers, which they’re doing so, even before they’re actually sworn in.”
  • Keeping manufacturing jobs in the U.S. was a key component of Trump’s campaign platform, and he often spoke critically of Carrier’s decision to relocate to Mexico. He has proposed imposing a 35 percent tariff on goods from companies like Carrier that move jobs out of the U.S. Trump’s negotiations with Carrier mark one of his first major actions as president-elect and could foreshadow how he will approach the larger issue of U.S. companies shipping manufacturing jobs overseas. Since 2000, the U.S. has lost approximately 5 million manufacturing jobs, though economists have debated the cause of these losses, with culprits ranging from relocation to trade to technological innovation.
  • See also: The Trump administration on trade

• “We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at his first major post-election rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday evening. News began circulating Thursday afternoon that retired Marine Corps General James Mattis was Trump’s pick for the DOD, but it remained unconfirmed until Trump’s announcement.
  • Mattis’ military career spans more than four decades. He retired in 2013 and is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank in California. He most recently served as the commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2010 to 2013 and has served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His nomination conflicts with federal law, which requires secretaries of defense to have been out of uniform for seven years before holding the office. Congress will likely have to grant Mattis a waiver in order for him to be confirmed. Something along these lines has happened before. General George Marshall, in 1950, was allowed to serve as the defense secretary. Mattis, if granted a waiver and confirmed, would be the first former ranking general to head the Pentagon since Marshall.
  • There is a mystique around Mattis in military and political circles as well as in the media, which has taken to describing him through some of his more colorful quotes and personal habits. Mattis, for example, is reported to have once told a group of soldiers, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet,” and he is rumored to keep with him a copy of the Meditations of the Roman emperor/philosopher Marcus Aurelius. But what are Mattis’ actual views on the world and how do they differ from Trump’s and current defense policy? Ballotpedia broke down some of Mattis’ views on the military, defense policy, foreign relations, and America’s role in the world. Read our analysis here.

• Campaign staff and political advisors for many of the presidential campaigns from the 2016 cycle were present at the Campaign Managers Conference at the Harvard Institute of Politics, an event that takes place every four years as a way of capturing the campaigns for future generations. In the final panel of the event, a number of advisors from the Clinton and Trump campaigns discussed the issues in a conversation that frequently turned to bitter comments from both sides.
  • In one notable exchange, Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie praised Trump strategist and Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon. Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri responded, saying, “If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician I am glad to have lost. I would rather lose than win the way you guys you did.” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway replied, “I can tell you are angry, but wow. … Hashtag he's your president.”

• Key vote: The Senate passed HR 6297—the Iran Sanctions Extension Act—by a vote of 99-0. The legislation proposed continuing to impose defense, banking, and energy sanctions on Iran for a 10-year period. The existing sanctions were set to expire at the end of the year.
  • Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a supporter of the bill, said, "The practical effect is the Iran nuclear agreement depends on our resolve, on our commitment to ... stop a nuclear-armed Iran by using sanctions and other means if necessary."

State

• The newly elected members of the Idaho State Legislature were sworn into office. All 105 seats of the state legislature were up for election in 2016. The next legislative session will begin on January 9, 2017. Idaho is a Republican trifecta. Prior to the November 2016 election, there were 23 Republican trifectas. Following the election, there are 25 Republican trifectas.
• The newly elected members of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly were sworn into office. Only 70 of the legislature’s 141 seats were up for election in 2016. The next legislative session will begin on January 3, 2017. North Dakota is a Republican trifecta. Prior to the November 2016 election, there were 23 Republican trifectas. Following the election, there are 25 Republican trifectas.
• The newly elected members of the West Virginia State Legislature were sworn into office. Only 118 of the legislature’s 134 seats were up for election in 2016. The next legislative session will begin on February 8, 2017. West Virginia is under a divided government. Prior to the November 2016 election, there were 20 states under divided government. Following the election, there are 19 states under divided government.
• The newly elected members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly were sworn into office. Only 228 of the legislature’s 253 seats were up for election in 2016. The next legislative session will begin on January 3, 2017. Pennsylvania is under a divided government. Prior to the November 2016 election, there were 20 states under divided government. Following the election, there are 19 states under divided government.
• Senator Jeff Brandes filed Senate Bill 90, the legislation that will implement Florida Amendment 4, which was approved by voters in August. The amendment will provide tax exemptions for solar power and other renewable energy equipment included in home, commercial, and industrial property values. Senate Bill 90 will take effect on January 1, 2018. The House bill for implementing Amendment 4 has not been filed yet. Amendment 4 was one of two Florida 2016 ballot measures that addressed solar energy. The other measure, Amendment 1, would have constitutionalized Floridians’ right to own or lease solar energy equipment and would have ensured that residents who did not produce their own solar energy would not have had to subsidize solar energy production. The measure was defeated by voters.

Local

• Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) vetoed a bill that would have paid $215 million into the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher pension fund. The bill, passed by the Illinois General Assembly in June 2016, was contingent on state Democrats enacting key pension fund reforms by the end of the 2016 legislative session. With the session 15 days from closing, Rauner vetoed the bill, saying that Democrats failed to uphold their end of the bargain. The $5.5 billion CPS budget for the 2017 fiscal year relies heavily on this state contribution and contains no contingency plan to cover its loss. The money would have made a large payment on the district’s $780 million debt to the CPS teacher pension fund, as required by a state-mandated plan to have the district fund teacher pensions at 90 percent by 2059. Complicating matters further, a contract agreement between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) was reached in November after years of failed negotiations. The pact added tens of millions of dollars in additional costs to the 2017 budget. The district has exhausted its reserves and its credit rating is in junk bond status, making borrowing money more expensive. The Democratic-controlled Senate quickly voted to overturn Rauner’s veto, but the House has adjourned for the holidays and is not expected to return to session until January 9, 2017—two days before newly elected lawmakers are sworn into office. If the House convenes early to address the issue, all 71 of the House Democrats will have to vote in favor of an override for it to pass. District and CTU leaders expressed frustration and disappointment, and Senate President John Cullerton (D) denied that assurances of pension reform were ever part of the deal. Gov. Rauner countered saying, “President Cullerton suddenly denied that the leaders would depend upon first enacting comprehensive pension reform. Breaking our agreement undermines our effort to end the budget impasse and enact reforms with bipartisan support.” Chicago Public Schools is the largest school district in Illinois and the third-largest school district in the United States. It served 396,641 students during the 2013-2014 school year—19.2 percent of all Illinois public school students.
  • CPS has struggled with its budget obligations throughout 2016:
    • September 26: Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the bond status of Chicago Public Schools, pushing its rating into a lower level of junk bond status. The firm decided on the downgrade due to the following three factors: a reliance on short-term borrowing, the district’s budget being "built on unrealistic expectations" of aid from the state government, and a “deepening structural deficit.” Additionally, the school district announced a loss of $45 million in funding after enrollment fell below projected levels for the current school year.
    • August: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) announced a plan to raise the city’s utility tax in order to provide funding to the city’s largest public pension fund. Emanuel had raised property taxes twice in the last year in order to fund pensions for police, firefighters, and teachers.
    • June 30: Gov. Rauner signed a budget package that would fund state services for the next six months and fund public schools for a full year. The temporary budget required the state to contribute $215 million per year to the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund starting in June 2017.
• The New Orleans City Council passed a package of ordinances detail rules on short-term rental companies such as Airbnb. The new regulations allow for the rental of entire homes not occupied by the owner for up to 90 days per year and ban all short-term rentals from the city’s French Quarter. The laws passed by a 5-2 vote, with dissenting voices saying that it was the city’s responsibility to keep residential neighborhoods as residential rather than commercial properties. Others who voted in favor of the rules admitted that they weren’t ideal, but said that they were better than having no regulation on the growth of short-term rentals. A number of council members have spoken about the possibility of revisiting and strengthening the regulations prior to implementation. New Orleans is the 51st-largest city in the United States by population and the largest in Louisiana.