Category: Local
News from the Hill…
This week there was a balance of debate and committee meetings. But the number of bills being debated continues to be lower than normal, which can be a good thing. One of the biggest bills that the legislature debated this week was setting the school start date. Everybody seems to have an opinion on this bill that ranged from letting local school boards set the date to present law of not allowing schools to start the school before the week of September 1 without a waiver. The problem with the way the present law has been enforced is contrary to the original intent of the law by the legislature several years ago. The waiver system was clearly broken because all waivers requested were granted. Across this state schools were starting anywhere from the first week of August to Labor Day. The bill will change the school start date to no earlier than the 23rd of August. This seemed to be the most workable compromise between all of the different people of Iowa.
Revenue Estimating Conference…
Last Thursday afternoon I attended the Revenue Estimating Conference meeting to hear firsthand of their prediction for the upcoming fiscal outlook. While there are some positive signs they also shared lots of concerns of the Ag economy, Ag business, growing strength of the dollar and trade relations with China. Everybody knows this is going to be a couple of tough budget years, and it got a little tougher last week. While we have growth in the revenues, it will be modest growth next year. We are expecting that state revenue will exceed the current spending levels by $181 million for fiscal year 2016. At the same time the Legislative Services Agency has projected the growth of an additional $455 million in expenses. Much of the growth in expenditures come from laws that have been approved in previous sessions. This increase in expenditures would include the business property tax credit, some education funding, and backfill for local governments. Medicaid’s projected costs would exceed the new available revenue if adjustments are not made to the program. While K-12 funding will be increased, many other state programs and agencies will not. In fact, it should be very obvious that additional cuts will have to be made to provide the additional funds for our schools. So to provide even more money to schools, there would have to be severe cuts made elsewhere!
Ways and Means…
We had two committee meetings this week. The first meeting was a presentation on the local option sales tax (LOST). The purpose of this presentation was to inform the members of present law and how it has become unworkable in Polk and Dallas Counties. Many of the cities in the Metro area are contingent and overlap two counties.
The second committee meeting we passed out five bills. One of the bills was HSB 161 which legalizes the sale and use of fireworks. Presently Iowa is one of four states that do not permit the sale of fireworks. One of the other bills was HF 192 which came from Judiciary Committee. This bill makes some changes to the informal review process for a property owner who wants to appeal their assessment. The bill also moves the application date for the Business Property Tax Credit back to July 1 which is the same date of all other property tax credits. Both of these bills were amended in committee and will be redrafted with a new bill number. I voted for these two bills and they head to the house floor for debate.
“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.” – C. S. Lewis
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
News from the Hill…
This week the floor action continued with limited committee time. The Commerce Committee met once, but there haven’t been any Senate Files that have come over to the House Commerce Committee to take action on. I expect some Senate Commerce Committee bills to arrive, but fewer than years past. The new Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee is more of an anti-commerce committee chair. I served under her in the House two years when I was in the minority.
Collective Bargaining Arbitration…
One of the bills debated this week on the Iowa House Floor was HF 549. This bill makes changes to binding arbitration in regards to collective bargaining for employees of schools and Area Education Agencies. I have always believed that making changes on binding arbitration should be done with great care and caution. The delicate balance between employer and employee needs to be protected. Neither side should have an edge in the law over the other. People can disagree on who may have the edge, but changes in the law should always be made only to protect the integrity of the balance.
Presently if there is an impasse between the administration and employees one party can choose to go to binding arbitration. The Arbitrator then reviews the information and has to choose one side or the other. They do not have the flexibility to choose somewhere in between. The bill makes the change and gives them the authority to choose one side or the other, or somewhere in between. The bill also prohibits the arbitrator from factoring in the public employer’s ability to levy taxes when rendering a decision. The arbitrator is required to compare wages, hours, and conditions of employment to those doing comparable work in the private sector. Currently the law only requires the comparison of public sector workers. I have never worked where there is binding arbitration, so maybe my perspective is different than those who have or do. But these changes seemed minor and made common sense, the minority party seemed to greatly disagree. The debate started early Tuesday afternoon and finally around 10:00 Tuesday night we recessed until 8:00 am Wednesday morning. Wednesday we started at 8:00 and finished debate later that day around noon. The bill passed along party lines with 56 voting aye, 41 voting nay and 3 absent or not voting. I voted for the bill.
Revenue Growth or Decline…
The Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) meets Thursday at 1:00 to give us the March update on the economic picture for the state of Iowa Revenues. By Iowa law if the estimate comes in under the December estimate we need to use the lower of the two estimates for budgeting for 2016. If the estimate comes in higher than December we need to continue to base our budget off of the December estimate. Hopefully once the estimate is made today the log jam on school funding can be settled. School Administrators, school board members and school employees are angry at the state for not setting this number yet. To be perfectly honest they have every right to be disappointed in the delay. The schools are being forced to set their budgets without knowing for sure what the revenue stream will be. While everybody seems to be blaming someone else for the stalemate, it is past time to decide and move on. I hope that today’s meeting of the REC bust up the log jam.
“The most terrifying words om the English language are: I’m from the governement and I’m here to help.” – Ronald Reagan
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
This weekend’s forums: Saturday, March 21st
7:15-8:30 AM Burlington/West Burlington Chamber Members
9:15-10:30 AM West Burlington City Hall, West Burlington
News from the Hill…
This week we had a lot of floor action to get the House Files over to the Senate so they can pass through their respective committees before the next funnel date. One of the bills that sparked a lot of debate was dealing with election law. Presently the absentee ballots need to be post marked by election day or they can’t be counted. Unfortunately not all mail gets post marked by the US Postal service anymore, especially at the regional centers. This was confusing and the law was not clear on how to handle these ballots. So the County Auditors came forward with a proposal that absentee ballots had to be received no later than when the polls closed on election day. This seemed to make a lot of sense and the concept was adopted into a bill by the House Government Committee. While the bill sparked a lot of debate, which was sometimes far reaching from the what the bill actually does, it clarifies present law and makes a clear cutoff for when absentee ballots can be received. I voted for this bill and it passed the Iowa House with 56 ayes, 41 nays and 3 absent or not voting.
Ways and Means Committee…
I used committee time this week to assign some of the House Files that have been sent to our committee. We have around seventy plus bills in committee presently and more on the way. One of the bills I assigned this week, HF 514 came from the Commerce Committee that deals with uninsured motorist. Presently in Iowa it is mandatory to have at least liability insurance on your auto. Presently, the only enforcement mechanism for mandatory auto insurance is you have to get pulled over by law enforcement and then you need to show proof of insurance. The bill sets up a statewide database that is constantly being updated and is accessible only by the Iowa Department of Transportation and Law enforcement. I voted for this bill in the Commerce Committee and will plan to vote for it in the Ways and Means Committee. I know what we have is not working and something needs to be done to increase the enforcement of our present mandatory auto insurance laws and get uninsured motorist insured. Where this verification system has been put in place, it has reduced the number of uninsured drivers dramatically.
Iowa House GOP Income Tax Plan…
One of the other bills I assigned this week was HSB 215 which is a discounted optional flat tax. Presently Iowans file their income tax in a complicated and convoluted system. There are nine different income tax brackets and many deductions and credits available. So the rates are set but the effective rates everyone pays is different, depending on each person’s income and qualifications for the deductions and credits. The new plan would allow filers to choose the present system or the new optional flat tax system. If the filers choose the optional flat tax, they will get an increase in the standard deduction, a flat rate of 5% and all pensions and social security income will be exempt from Iowa Income Tax. However, I am excited about a flatter and simpler tax code. Then on top of that to remove the Iowa income tax from retirement income is a great addition to the bill. At a time when people have worked hard their entire life, saved and planned for their retirement are treated more fairly than what they are presently. There will be more on this bill in the weeks to come and I look forward working with legislators figuring out a way to permit hard working Iowans to keep more of their own money to invest back out into the economy.
“Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” – Ronald Reagan
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
Click here: Americans’ confidence in government at record lows
