However, Democrats found a way to fill much of this gap with Senate File 478, the final bill passed in the 2009 session. The bill, signed by the Governor on Monday, raises court fees and even creates new ones. The increased fees are expected to net an extra $16.7 million annually. That is another $16.7 million it will cost Iowans to access the courts.

While the $16.7 million in increased fees would be more than enough to fill the budget shortfall faced by the courts, SF 478 only appropriated an additional $11 million dollars to the Judicial Branch. The remaining $5.7 million will disappear into the General Fund and the courts are left with a $4 million dollar deficit.

If past performance is an indicator of future behavior, we can expect the Judicial Branch to use some of the same methods used this year to achieve budget savings. This will likely mean less access to the courts, with a disproportionate amount of the burden being born in rural areas.

2009 End of Session Wrap-up

Last week was eventful in the Legislature. It was the second “funnel” deadline and if a non-Appropriations or non-Ways and Means bill that did not make it through a committee in the other Chamber it is no longer eligible for debate as a standalone bill.

I expect this week to be rather eventful also. We seem to be moving towards adjournment for the year but several significant items remain. I continue to be disappointed by the Legislature’s lack of effort towards any bills that help put Iowans back to work. I also have some significant concerns about the budget.

Below is a list of some of the proposals that seem to have some life in them.

Budget
Budget bills are beginning to move. It is unclear what the final budget will look like. What I do know is this: the current budget year is out of balance by $70+ million and next year’s proposed budget does not match with projected revenues and therefore is currently out of balance. My expectation is that both of these will be brought into balance with some combination of federal stimulus dollars, other one time sources, and tax or fee increases. Regardless, it appears there will be significant gaps to fill when the “one time” dollars go away.

Republicans have offered over $215 million in budgetary cost savings. Click here http://iowahouserepublicans.com/republicans-offer-budget-reductions-to-the-fy-2010-budget for the complete list.

Federal Deductibility
Regarding the repeal of Iowans’ ability to deduct their federal income taxes from their state income a new version has been introduced. It is slightly improved, but continues to be a massive tax increase on Iowans.

Based on the information we received from the Department of Revenue the total tax increase on Iowans over the next five tax years equals $460 million.

Tax Year 2009: -$20 million
Tax Year 2010: -$35 million
Tax Year 2011: $154 million
Tax Year 2012: $157 million
Tax Year 2013: $149 million

Further, the plan continues to have “winners” and “losers” in every income tax bracket. Winners are those who will receive a tax cut – winners are those who will see a tax increase.

Individual Filers/ Winners vs. Losers and No Change

Tax Year | Winners | Losers/No Change | % of Winners vs. Losers/No Changes
2009 | 818,921 | 541,108 | 60%winners vs. 40%losers/no change
2010 | 825,496 | 541,506 | 60%winners vs. 40%losers/no change
2011 | 595,650 | 777,322 | 43%winners vs. 57%losers/no change
2012 | 598,747 | 778,738 | 43%winners vs. 57%losers/no change
2013 | 616,275 | 764,954 | 44%winners vs. 56%losers/no change

If we want to get serious about cutting taxes, Republicans are more than willing to work side by side with Democrats to offer REAL tax relief including the lowering of tax rates. However, we are not interested in removing one of Iowans’ largest tax deduction so that state government has more money to spend.

Marriage
In 1998, the Legislature overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation protecting marriage as between a man and a woman. On April 3rd the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that this provision is unconstitutional and therefore same-sex marriage is legal in Iowa.

There is now a divide between the legislative and judicial branches and Iowans should be permitted to weigh in and have the final say on this question. Two attempts were made last week to debate this question and both were rebuffed by the majority party leadership. I believe marriage is between one man and one woman and this is an appropriate question for the voters of Iowa to decide.

Repeal of Iowa’s Right-to Work law (aka “Fair Share”)
This proposal did not make it out of a committee and therefore should be dead for the year. I’ll continue to keep my eyes open so that it is not slipped in somewhere. However, it appears the votes are not there to pass it.

Prevailing Wage
This bill remains debatable in the House. However, the vote count appears to continue to be one vote short of passage. There is some talk of it being added into the Governor’s Bonding Proposal. Again, we’ll keep our eyes open and be ready to work against this proposal and the significant property tax increases that would result from its passage.

Doctor Shopping / Employee Choice of Doctor
This bill also continues to remain debatable in the House. But like prevailing wage appears to not have the number of votes necessary for final passage. It is my understanding that a working group continues to work on a compromise proposal. However, some of the differences appear irreconcilable at this point.

Collective Bargaining (Chapter 20) changes
There is no specific proposal before the Legislature similar to the Chapter 20 bill that was passed last year and then subsequently vetoed by the governor. Recall though that there wasn’t last year either until a Chapter 20 “cleanup bill” was brought to the House floor. That very same cleanup bill continues to be eligible for debate this year.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. For a full list of legislators see http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/Legislators/LegislatorInfo.aspx. My contact information is kraig.paulsen@legis.state.ia.us or 515-281-3521.

Republican Leader, Kraig Paulsen, brought up a motion to pull House Joint Resolution 6 out of committee and to the floor for debate, but was ruled out of order.

Later in the day Representative Christopher Rants filed an amendment to the Health and Human Services Budget bill that would have stripped the language and replaced with the language of House Joint Resolution 6. It was ruled non-germane, which was expected, and then a vote to suspend the rules and debate the marriage issue failed on a party-line vote.

To hear Rep. Rants floor speech on the issue, use the player below:

“I believe marriage is between one man and one woman and am disappointed in the ruling of the Supreme Court. In 1998, the Legislature overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation protecting marriage as between a man and a woman. There is now a divide between the legislative and judicial branches and Iowans should be permitted to weigh in and have the final say on this question.

“In 2007, the Legislature responded immediately when our flag desecration law was ruled unconstitutional, we should act swiftly now and protect the institution of marriage. There is currently a bi-partisan proposal protecting marriage before the legislature (HJR 6) and it should be debated immediately.”

Click here to read House Joint Resolution 6.

House Joint Resolution 1 – HJR 1 establishes a Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation trust fund. The joint resolution credits the fund with an amount equal to the amount generated by a sales tax rate of three-eighths of 1 percent as may be imposed upon the retail sales price of tangible personal property and the furnishing of enumerated services sold in this state.

It passed the House 82-14 (bill information here)

This afternoon the House debating the following bills:

House File 45 – Suspension of Assistance During Commitment. HF 45 changes Iowa’s Medicaid law that would suspend a person’s Medicaid eligibility when they are placed in custody. Under current law, a person who is in custody of corrections or law enforcement has their Medicaid terminated as required by law. Once a person is released, it is difficult to re-establish eligibility for Medicaid and then these Iowans do not receive the mental health treatment they need.

By suspending their eligibility instead of terminating, these individuals will be able to receive the treatment and medications necessary for treatment (primarily for mental health issues) and then be less likely to re-offend. The suspension would only apply for the first 12 months of commitment. After 12 months, Medicaid eligibility would be terminated.

It passed the House 98-0 (bill information here)

House File 233/Senate File 9 – Sale of School Buildings. This bill erases 2008 legislation relating to the sale of school buildings. The 2008 bill inadvertently created a twelve month waiting period on the sale of school buildings pending the possibility of a voter petition.

The result of reverting back to 2008 law is that eligible electors may call for an election to determine whether the school district can sell, lease or otherwise dispose of a schoolhouse site.

It passed the House 96-0 (bill information here)

Senate File 108 – Members of the Public Safety Communications Interoperability Board. Currently the Public Safety Communications Interoperability Board includes two representatives from fire departments. SF 108 would require that the representatives from the fire departments consist of one representative who is a paid firefighter and one who is a volunteer firefighter.

It passed the House 96-2 (bill information here)

House File 260 – County, City and Memorial Hospitals. This bill is as a result of two years of work between the mentioned hospitals and the Iowa Hospital Association. The bill consolidates, reorganizes and updates provisions of four major public hospital Code chapters.

The study bill, HSB 110, contained provisions allowing “design build”, which short circuits competitive bidding. The design build provisions are NOT in this bill but were removed by amendment in the Local Government Committee.

It passed the House 97-0 (bill information here)

Senate File 82 – An Act adding four nonvoting members to the Iowa workforce development board

It passed the House 98-0 (bill information here)

House File 280 – An Act relating to the compensation of a guardian ad litem in certain criminal cases involving a child witness

It passed the House 95-0 (bill information here)

“This legislation is fundamental to the people’s rights in this state,” said Rep. Jeff Kaufmann. “Iowan’s have had their lives turned upside down by a simple loophole, we’re very happy that we can work in a bipartisan manner to protect our citizens. I would think Republicans and Democrats alike can agree that no one’s land should be taken away from them.”

Full Press Release Here