From Rep. Sharon Steckman –
SESSION IN OVERTIME
• The 2015 Legislative session is officially in overtime. While lawmakers aren’t getting paid any more, we’ll be meeting until we get our work completed for the year.
• The only bills we are required to pass every year are those dealing the state budget. Nearly all of the budget plans are on the table, but House Republicans are still resisting any compromise on an overall budget agreement with the Senate and Governor.
• The budget plan agreed to by the Senate, led by Democrats, and the Republican Governor follows Iowa’s balanced budget law and spends $7.3 billion next year while leaving the state’s savings accounts full at $700 million with an additional $387 million surplus on top of that. That’s over a billion dollars in surplus and reserves.
• Republicans offered an alternative with steep budget cuts that leave the state with about $1.25 billion in surplus and reserves at the end of the year.
• Most of the budget differences are in education, which includes resolving the K-12 school funding crisis and keeping higher education affordable for all families.
• However, there are several important priorities in public safety as well. The plan offered by House Republicans for next year will reduce grants for victims of domestic or sexual abuse, hire fewer parole officers to track sex offenders, and reduce access to courthouses, mostly in rural areas.
• The budget issues will likely be resolved by special bi-partisan conference committees made up of members from both the House and Senate. Most of those conference committees will start their work next week. It’s a step closer to adjournment, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
OTHER NEWS THIS WEEK
• Lawmakers have called on the Branstad Administration to keep Iowa workers on the job at a fertilizer plan in southeast Iowa. After 1,400 workers were dismissed from the job a few weeks ago, job postings to replace those workers were being run in Texas and Louisiana.
• Governor Branstad declared a state of emergency due to the outbreak of avian flu that has infected over 20 million birds statewide.
• Under a bill approved by the Iowa House, Iowans looking to buy their first home will benefit from new income tax exemptions if they put money into a special savings account used for a down payment.
• A Senate panel has endorsed a plan to legalize fireworks in Iowa, but its fate remains uncertain.
• The Senate approved another bill to keep open two mental health institutes that Governor Branstad has been trying to close for months without offering plans for patients already in the facilities.
• The Safe at Home bill was signed in to law this week to protect the confidentiality of victims of sexual or domestic abuse.
House Votes to Freeze Tuition at Universities, Community Colleges
The Iowa House voted on a plan, already approved by the Iowa Senate, which would continue a tuition freeze at Iowa’s three state universities and boost funding for community colleges to keep tuition affordable for all Iowa families.
The majority party in the Iowa House went against the Iowa Senate and Governor and approved an education budget on a party line vote that may raise tuition at Iowa’s community colleges and state universities next year.
The difference between the two proposals is $17.07 million in funding for state universities and $8.09 million for community colleges.
The proposal from the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state’s three universities, to redistribute funding among the universities called performance based funding was not included in the House or Senate bills.
Lawmakers will have to work out the differences between the two bills before adjourning for the year.
EpiPens Now Allowed in Schools
A bill to allow public and private schools to maintain a supply of EpiPens has been signed into law. Iowa was one of four states that do not allow trained school personnel the ability to administer EpiPens to a child that may need it.
Under the law, a health care professional is allowed to prescribe them to the schools and allows personnel to administer the pens to students. If the trained personnel administer gives an injection in good faith to a student believed to have an allergic reaction, the school has legal immunity. At least one pharmaceutical company has come forward to provide EpiPens free of charge to schools.
An EpiPen supply, per the law, would also be allowed at locations where the public is present such as food establishments, carnivals, recreational camps, and sports facilities. Set standards for the prescriptions, distribution, storage replacement, and storage are required in the bill.
