Joseph Krist

Publisher

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FLORIDA VOUCHER QUESTIONS

The State of Florida has significantly expanded its school voucher programs. These programs are designed to allow less economically well off have the same access to non-traditional schools that others have. In Florida, its voucher program was expanded to greatly increase the amount of income a voucher recipient might have. This has shifted the voucher concept from one of economic empowerment to one where folks already paying private school tuition. In many cases, vouchers merely subsidize people who already were willingly paying tuition.

The Florida program has yielded other problems. Some 500,000 students across Florida, which hosts the nation’s largest school choice effort, have accepted education vouchers toward home or private schooling. It appears that many of the vouchers have sat unused. It’s not clear why. The result is that there are $400 million in vouchers sitting in student accounts. 

In October, it was revealed the state’s 2024-25 education budget had a $47 million shortfall due to its Department of Education paying out funding for 23,000 vouchers to students with unclear enrollment status, either public or private. While there is support for the voucher expansion, legislation will be introduced to make changes in the program to prevent the accumulation of unused vouchers.

COUNTIES AND HEALTH SUBSIDIES

So much of focus, rightly so, has been on the individual stories of beneficiaries of subsidies for the cost of their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The potential impact on hospitals also raises concerns. One of the impacts of the diminishment of subsidies that is starting to get more attention is the impact of higher uninsured patients on counties.

A recent paper from the Kaiser Family Foundation highlights the potential impact. County health officials across the country are bracing for an estimated 10 million newly uninsured patients over the next decade in the wake of the

One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The act, which President Donald Trump signed into law this past summer, is also expected to reduce Medicaid spending by an estimated $900 billion over that period.

In California and New Mexico, counties are legally required to help their poorest residents through what are known as indigent care programs. Both states have counties which are largely rural and historically below average in income. In those areas, the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA was key to driving demand and revenues and reduced significantly the number of uninsured patients. Idaho and Colorado abandoned laws that required counties to be providers of last resort for their residents. 

State officials have said California could lose $30 billion a year in federal funding for Medi-Cal under the new law, as much as 15% of the state program’s entire budget. There is no detailed data to document how many people are currently enrolled in California’s county indigent programs, because the state doesn’t track enrollment and utilization. But enrollment in county health safety net programs dropped dramatically in the first full year of ACA implementation, going from about 858,000 people statewide in 2013 to roughly 176,000 by the end of 2014, according to a survey at the time by Health Access California.

New Mexico will use state funds to shield residents from health insurance premium increases after Congress failed to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired Dec. 31. The state’s Health Care Affordability Fund will provide $17.3 million to reduce premiums and cost-sharing through June 30 for New Mexicans enrolled in BeWell, the state’s health insurance marketplace. That funding was enacted in anticipation of a failure to extend in October. Gov. Lujan Grisham’s budget proposal for fiscal years 2026-2027 seeks additional funding to extend the assistance beyond June if Congress does not act.

GAS WARS

The Trump administration sued two California cities on Monday, seeking to block local laws that restrict natural gas infrastructure and appliances in new construction. In the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, Justice Department attorneys alleged that ordinances passed by the San Francisco-area cities of Morgan Hill and Petaluma since 2019 violated a 1975 law that prevents states and cities from regulating the “energy use” of products subject to federal standards.

It’s obviously political as the courts have already ruled on the legality of gas bans and a federal appeals court in 2023 ruled that the city of Berkeley, California, could not enforce its 2019 natural gas ban. Morgan Hill adopted its natural gas prohibition in late 2019, effective for all new building permit applications starting in March 2020. Petaluma followed suit in May 2021 by adopting an all-electric ordinance that expanded the ban to include “substantial building alterations.”

Both cities left specific exceptions for the use of portable propane appliances in outdoor cooking and heating areas. Despite some carve-outs, U.S. attorneys argued that these local ordinances violate a 1975 law granting the federal government the sole authority to set “energy use” standards for products such as stoves and water heaters.  Morgan Hill has complied with federal standards as interpreted by recent court decisions and has not denied permits based on the 2019 ordinance since the Berkeley ruling.

The federal case relies on the 1975 law, the U.S. Energy Policy and Conservation Act, to argue that a building code prohibiting gas pipes is effectively a ban on the appliances themselves. This builds on the Berkeley ruling, which established that cities cannot indirectly block the use of gas appliances by cutting off the infrastructure needed for them to function.

CONGESTION FEES

Chicago established its first scheme to establish congestion zones where rideshare providers would have to charge an extra fee for fares picked up dropped off in the zone in 2020. The first zone unsurprisingly covered the prime downtown area. Since then, other zones have been established. This week, the city increased its rideshare tax to $1.50. In addition, it expanded its congestion surcharge zone from downtown to cover most of the North Side and Hyde Park.

Riders getting picked up or dropped off in the zone — now spanning generally from Foster Avenue to 31st Street to Western Avenue, as well as a second zone covering Hyde Park — will now pay an added $1.50 per ride, in addition to the city’s flat $1.13 tax on rideshares. For shared rides, the weekday congestion zone fee is 60 cents, covering the same expanded zones. The city did not change its $5 rideshare tax on rides coming or going to McCormick Place, Navy Pier and the city’s airports.

In New York, the one year anniversary of the implementation of congestion fees in Manhattan was this past week. The fees have raised an estimated $550 million in revenue for the MTA through year end. Traffic speeds have increased in the congestion zone as well. The fees seem not to have had the negative economic impact that many had feared as retail sales and foot traffic in the zone have also increased. It has changed the mix of  that activity in terms of the fact that visits from near suburbs to things like Broadway shows and other entertainment venues in the zone are seeing fewer visitors from the suburbs.

The tolls are scheduled to rise up to $12 in 2028, and $15 in 2031.

CALIFORNIA WATER

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) opened the main spillway at Lake Oroville this week as a flood-control measure following another round of storms that drenched Northern California over the weekend. DWR has been steadily increasing releases from the Oroville-Thermalito Complex into the Feather River to create space in the reservoir for incoming runoff. Inflows into Lake Oroville are projected to reach between 50,000 and 70,000 cubic feet per second this week, prompting the use of the dam’s spillway to manage rising water levels.

Recent atmospheric river storms have rapidly boosted reservoir levels following a dry start to December. Lake Oroville’s surface elevation climbed roughly 58 feet between December 12 and December 31 and now sits at 826 feet, about 70% of its total capacity. As of Monday, total releases to the Feather River are around 15,000 cubic feet per second, with flows potentially increasing to 25,000 cubic feet per second.

LONE STAR SOLAR

For the first time, Texas’ main power system (ERCOT) generated more power from solar farms than coal plants during a calendar year in 2025. Greater installed solar capacity in Texas this year – up 24% compared to 2024’s levels, has allowed solar power output in Texas to surge by 42% so far this year from a year earlier. ERCOT solar production has set new monthly records every month so far in 2025 and averaged 44% growth from the same months in 2024 from January through November.

Texas’ solar outperformance of coal generation has occurred even as ERCOT output from coal-fired power plants posted a 10% rise from the same months in 2024. ERCOT gas-fired power supplies have dropped by around 4% from a year earlier to 7.74 million MWh so far this year. From January to November, solar farms accounted for a record 14% share of the ERCOT generation mix, compared with a 13% share for the state’s coal plants.

NEW YORK NUCLEAR

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) announced that it had received responses to solicitations issued in October 2025 seeking potential host communities and development partners as part of an initiative to develop advanced nuclear power. Through a Request for Information (RFI), NYPA solicited information from Upstate New York communities interested in hosting an advanced nuclear project. NYPA received 23 responses from potential developers or partners, and eight responses from Upstate New York communities. 

In a second RFI, NYPA sought information from potential development partners regarding viable project concepts that included technology recommendations, siting considerations, cost and timeline assumptions, ownership structures and partnership models.

SF TRANSIT FUNDING

The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority (SFMTA) faces a more than $300 million deficit after the pandemic took a toll on ridership and other funding sources. Now the City faces the reality that additional outside funds are not coming. To address the deficit, a proposal is being made to ask voters to approve tax revenues to fill the gap.  

If voters approve it, this is how the tax charges would work: Owners of a single-family home up to 3,000 square feet would pay $129 per year. Multifamily homes would pay $249 a year up to 5,000 square feet. Non-residential property owners would be charged $799 up to 5,000 square feet. Residents could face higher fees if their homes and buildings are bigger than those listed maximums.

There are also caps on how much some residents will pay. The total cap for a multifamily parcel will be 50,000 square feet. Renters will not necessarily escape this tax. Owners of rent-controlled properties can pass on up to 50% of the parcel tax on a unit. The cap is $65 a year.

The proposal would be on the November ballot.

OREGON TRANSIT FUNDING SWITCHES TRACKS

We have been following the very contentious process which the Oregon legislature has conducted to fund the Oregon Department of Transportation. A threat of serious layoffs and reduced services went only so far to move the legislature to accept any plan with new taxes. Even when legislation was passed, opponents turned to the courts to force the legislation on to the ballot this November. While litigation plays out, the additional funding expected to result from the legislation is on hold.

It is expected that a ballot item would fail. So now, the Governor is proposing a whole new scheme to address the real funding shortfalls plaguing ODOT. The new proposal would require passing a bill to free up money within ODOT’s budget that is currently dedicated to specific projects. That money could instead go toward basic road maintenance. State funding for public transit would not be touched.

That would require asking lawmakers to pass a bill scrapping the entirety of the bill she muscled through in a special session over the summer. That move would render moot a vote, scheduled for November, on whether tax increases in the bill can move forward. But it would also do away with other changes in the bill, like a long-sought shift in how freight haulers are taxed.

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