Fern “Hannah” Irene Springsteen, 90, Burlington, died Friday, March 8, 2013
Irene Alta Schuler, 87, Burlington, died Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Kathryn Turner, 86, rural Danville died Monday, March 11, 2013
Mark A. Herbert, 51, Burlington died Sunday, March 10, 2013
Raymond Joseph “Joe” Sutter, 87, Burlington, died Monday, March 11, 2013
Lahoma Alone Sanders, 75, Burlington, died Monday, March 11, 2013
Darlene Faye Twedt, 64, West Burlington, died Tuesday, March 12, 2013
16-percent from 3-point line costs Danville
News from the Hill…
This week another step in the budget process was taken. The House Republicans and the Senate Democrats released their respective budget targets. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2014, which is the budget we are working on, there is $7.1822 billion available to spend. However, of that amount only $6.5377 billion is an on-going revenue stream. To spend all the projected available dollars in a high revenue growth year to grow government, sets future budgets at risk for across the board cuts. I simply will not use one-time money for an on-going expenditure. I will spend less than what the state collects and will not balance the budget with smoke and mirrors to deceive the tax payers of Iowa just to spend more money. Growing government is not a priority of mine. Growing jobs, building personal family monetary strength and opportunity is a priority of mine. We are proposing to spend $6.4139 billion, which is an increase of 3 percent over last year’s level. Our proposal spends 98% of on-going revenue or 89.55% of available revenue for FY 2014. This budget leaves a projected ending balance of $840.7 million at the end of the Fiscal Year 2014. While revenue growth is currently ahead of projections, there is so much uncertainty about future revenue due to the on-going drought conditions, slow economic growth and the federal budget situation.
Our budget proposal continues the practice we implemented two years ago of aligning spending with revenue. The budget continues to make state commitments a priority. The budget proposal fully funds property tax credits, funding necessary to maintain our commitment to education; including the funding necessary to allow the Regents universities to freeze tuition, $10 million to the community colleges and a two percent increase in supplemental state aid for our local schools.
The Senate Democrats budget targets were released 30 minutes after the House and they take a completely different road. They spend $6.9010 billion in the state General Fund which is an eleven percent increase over last year. Senate Democrats are proposing to spend $1.05 for every dollar of on-going state revenue. This simply does not make sense and places future taxpayers at risk. To sustain this amount of spending would require 6.2% growth in revenues for FY 15. The Revenue Estimating Conference is projecting revenue growth of 3.3 percent in FY 13 and for FY 14 to have growth of 3.4%. Historically revenue growth over the last twenty years has averaged 3.34 percent. To spend more than the average growth is simply fiscally irresponsible. While details of their budget were not released it is apparent there are big differences between the two budgets and the two caucus’s philosophical views.
Funnel week approaching…
We are one week away from being half way through session. Policy bills need to be out of their respective committees by March 8 or they are dead for the year. There will be a substantial mount of bills that will no longer be eligible for debate after next Friday. The term “funnel” was established because many bills will be funneled out of circulation. Bills in the Ways and Means Committee and the Appropriations Committee are funnel proofed and eligible for consideration throughout the entire session. While the policy committees are slowing down, our work load will be picking up. There are a certain amount of policy bills every year that may have a tax or a fee included in them that forces them to come to the Ways and Means Committee. Usually when they come to my committee we only spend time discussing the fee or tax portion of the bill and not the entire bill. This same approach applies to the Appropriations Committee if there is an appropriation in a policy bill. Both of these two committees are on call all session long.
“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
-Tom Sands
News from the Hill…
This week we passed HF 152 that helps the drainage/levee district in southeast Louisa County and Northeast Des Moines County. This bill will permit them to be more efficient and streamlined. This is something that the districts wanted and needed to be as efficient as they can be for all the people who own ground inside the different drainage districts and the levee district. This is a bill I sponsored and voted for.
Beginning Farmer Tax Credit…
On Wednesday, February 12, 2013, the Iowa House Agriculture Committee passed House Study Bill 69 by a unanimous vote. The bill expands the beginning farmer tax credit program both in scope and in the amount of tax credit available for this purpose while also streamlining the Iowa Agricultural development authority (IADA) administrative processes that implement the tax credit program. It has been agriculture and Ag business that has been the bright spot in Iowa’s economy. The increasing cost of getting started in agriculture makes it very difficult for young people to get started in farming today. Trying to connect those that have accumulated some assets and nearing retirement with those with little assets, but a strong work ethic is a worthwhile mission that everybody can come out as a winner. This bill continues to attempt to make that connection easier.
Ed Reform Bill…
The Education Committee reconvened around 8:00 pm on Wednesday evening to debate HSB 4, which is the Governors Education Reform Bill. The bill received several hours of consideration in committee and after amendments, it has changed considerably. The final bill passed by a party-line vote of 13-10 and is now HF 215. This bill has a fee and an appropriation so will need to pass out of the Ways and Means Committee and the Appropriations Committee before it can be debated on the House Floor. The bill is scheduled to be debated in both committees on Thursday afternoon. These committees will not discuss the policy of the bill, but their job is to address the issues that are relevant to their respective committees. The Ways and Means Committee will only address the fee portion of the bill, that is included in division I of the bill. The bill will most likely be debated next week on the house floor.
Mental Health …
HF 160 proposes appropriating $11,628,317 of the CHIP Contingency Fund to the Department of Human Services to provide one-time additional funds to qualifying counties during FY 2013 for mental health expenditures. The funds are to be given to the 26 counties identified by the Department of their Transition Fund report. The funds received are to be used to continue or restore services identified in the application. The funds will be distributed to the counties within 2 weeks of enactment of the bill. The bill directs that the funds will be used in compliance with federal requirements. Counties will enter into an agreement with DHS on the use of the funds. If a federal audit is conducted in relation to a county’s use of the funds, the county is responsible for any costs associated with the audit. If the state conducts an audit, DHS is responsible for the costs. The language allows a county to join a region where they are not contiguous to the other counties if they have had a formal relationship with at least one of the counties for two or more years. This addresses situations where non-contiguous counties are using the same CPC administrator. There was an amendment to add six additional counties and two of those six counties was Muscatine and Des Moines Counties. The amendment was voted down. There had been an independent audit done noting that those six counties would end the year with a positive ending balance. Therefore they could continue to supply the same services without any additional monies from the state. The bill passed on the house floor with 58 people voting aye and 42 people voting nay. I voted for the bill.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
-Tom Sands
2012 Wrestling Photos now available in our Gallery.
Robert Victor “Bob” Davis, 71, Burlington, died Sunday, January 27, 2013
Patricia Ann Brockway, 85, Burlington, died Tuesday morning, January 29, 2013
Velma Johnson, 86, Danville, died Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Donald F. Denny, 57, Burlington, died Sunday, January 27, 2013
George Bonnett, 81, Burlington died Saturday, January 26, 2013
David W. Mehaffy, Jr., 80, Burlington, died Wednesday, January 23, 2013
James William Nickell, 73, Middletown, died Friday, January 25, 2013
Frances Doreen Houtz, 77, Burlington, died Friday, January 25, 2013
Jennifer Murray DeWitt, 45, Mediapolis, died Friday, January 25, 2013
Margaret “Maggie” McElhinney, 60, Danville, died Thursday, January 24, 2013
Juanita Carpenter, 53, Burlington, died Saturday, January 19, 2013
News from the Hill…
Bills are slowly getting filed and assigned to all the different committees. I was asked by someone from back home “What is the process involved for a bill to become law.” It is a lengthy process and space does not allow an explanation. However, here is a link that explains the bill process fairly well for those who may be interested.
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/Resources/HowABillBecomesALaw.pdf
Your opinion matters…
Your opinion is very important to me and allows me to serve you better. We may not always agree, but if I do not know what your stance is I cannot accurately represent you. Many of you contact me by email, written letters and phone calls or show up in person to a legislative forum. The method you use is not important, just stay involved and let me know your points or opinions. This is my eleventh year in the Iowa House and many of you contact me regularly on issues. However, each week it seems we hear from some new people, which is always great. Different bills that have become law are directly related to ideas from people back home have had and have shared them with me. I was able to get them drafted into bill form and passed through the process for them to become law. Other times there have been what sounded like a good idea, but for one reason or the other it was not workable into law. The point is sharing your ideas does matter and I will do what I can to research the matter to see if it has merit in becoming law. But, I do want to warn you, I am not one who thinks our code of law should just grow for the sake of growing. We have too many useless laws on the books now, but there is always room for some good thoughtful ideas that run in union with our constitution. Sometimes that best idea is getting rid of a bad law that is presently in the Iowa Code.
Visitors on the Hill…
This week was Muscatine Day on Wednesday, January 23. There were about twenty individuals here at the state capitol visiting from the Muscatine area. This is a great way for people from back home to come to the capitol and see firsthand how government works. Also it is a way for a city to highlight everything it has to offer. Different communities, counties and/or regions do this with much success. Next week is Southeast Iowa Great River Days. There will be over a hundred people here from Louisa, Des Moines, Lee and Henry Counties highlighting Southeast Iowa. There also will be a group in conjunction with Great River Days from the program Empower U. This group is made up of juniors from several different high schools in Southeast Iowa. They will be making some presentations in front of some legislators on ideas they have for laws. This is a great program for our youth to witness the importance of being involved.
Ways and Means action…
One of the bills that were assigned to a subcommittee this week in the House Ways and Means committee is HSB 38. This bill deals with the Federal Tax Code changes that our Federal Government made on New Year’s Eve. Each year there are changes made at the Federal level on Income Taxes and the state has to decide if we are going to couple, go along with, or decouple, not allow, these changes on our State of Iowa Income Tax forms. The most important thing with this bill is it needs to move quickly, so all of our Income Tax preparers and Income Tax payers know what the rules are. The Federal Government made some of the changes retroactive to Tax Year 2012, so time is of the essence. The sub-committee meeting is set for Thursday afternoon and we will run this bill out of the ways and Means Committee on Monday, January 28.
Beginning each Day…
At the beginning of each day the first thing we do, once the Speaker brings his gavel down to bring us to order, is pray and then give our Pledge to the United States Flag. These might be little items, but they have large implications that help us to remember that it is God who leads us and the sacrifices that all of our veterans have made to preserve the liberties and freedoms we all share. I can’t think of a better way to start our day.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
-Tom Sands