As the House adjourned the 2nd session of the 83rd General Assembly, the House Republican Research Staff put together an end of session wrap-up of notable bills in all committees.

2010 End of Session Wrap-up

The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil posted an article on Fair Share today:

Democrats, who control both houses of the Iowa Legislature, are again moving ahead with a labor-backed measure that failed last year. While it remains unclear if the proposal will fare any better in the current session, passage, in our view, poses threats to both the current recovery and to future economic development.

Continue reading…

The Iowa Policy Institute updated their White Paper on Right to Work on February 15, 2010. The White Paper, called “Labor Pains” begins:

Iowa is one of 22 states with a Right to Work law. Right to Work (RTW) statutes prevent labor unions and employers from mandating that workers must belong to a union as a condition of their employment. The state‘s 62-year old law has had strong support from Iowans despite efforts by organized labor to weaken the statute.

Last week, House Study Bill 702, now HF 2420, cleared the funneling process and, if passed by both chambers and signed into law, would permit unions to collect mandatory fees from all public employees who work within the state‘s executive branch, including most state departments and Regents whether or not the employee had chosen to join the union. The proposed changes, while not as wide-sweeping as those proposed in 2009 and 2007, would crack open the door to moving Iowa from being a RTW state to an obligatory union fee state.

You can read the full White Paper here.

House Democrats’ plan to gut Iowa’s right to work law cleared another hurdle on Thursday as it received Labor Committee approval. House File 2420 forces non-union employees to pay a portion of their salary to a union. The bill applies to approximately 30,000 executive branch employees. However nothing prevents the bill from being expanded to included private sector employees.

“House Republicans do not support stripping Iowans of their liberties and rights,” said House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha). “Under this proposal, not only will Iowans have to pay to keep their job, they’ll have to hire a lawyer too.”

Continue reading…

From Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen:

Last week in the House, the State Government committee worked on the reorganization bill (SF 2088). The bill in its current form saves a little over $70 million.

In order for the Governor’s budget to balance, he needs a minimum $391 million in “general fund” spending reductions. About $30 million of that is expected to come through early retirements. Another $90 million will be achieved through the Governor’s savings that he achieved internally for a total $120 million in savings.

This leaves $271 million that needs to be saved through additional legislative decisions.

Continue reading for Republican’s $290 million in savings ideas…

Today in the House Labor committee, Democrats assigned a bill which would gut Iowa’s right to work law. House Study Bill 702 is an attempt by House Democrats to take away Iowans’ choice to join a union.

Iowa’s right to work law guarantees that no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join, not join or pay any fees to a labor union. Iowa’s right to work law has been in place since 1947. This bill is a direct attack on hard-working Iowans’ liberties.

“It is simply wrong to tell someone they must give their hard-earned dollars to an organization they have chosen not to be a member of,” said House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha). “A union is not forced to represent non-members. They choose forced monopoly bargaining and now they want to force payment for providing those unwanted services.”

Under the Democrats’ plan, public employees who are non-union would be forced to pay a fee to the union as a condition of their employment, thus completely gutting Iowa’s right to work law.

80,000 Iowans were out of work at the beginning of 2009. Currently, we’re approaching 115,000 Iowans out of work. In 2009, runaway state government passed budget-busting ideas and bonded its way into debt all in the name of “job creation”, only to end up with even more Iowans out of work.

Throwing taxpayer money at the problem didn’t work.

This year, Republicans have proposed a four-point plan for job growth.

• Create a favorable climate for job growth
• End the assault on employers
• Stop property tax increases headed for families and businesses
• Ensure tax credit reviews don’t result in tax increases

Continue reading…

With departments recommending over 700 layoffs of state employees, now is the time for the Governor to call the unions back to the bargaining table and renegotiate union contracts.

In 2009, House Republicans offered the “Principal Plan” for state employees. The plan was modeled after the salary reductions implemented by the Principal Financial Group.

Continue reading to see how the Principal Plan would save the state money…

With the Governor enacting an across the board cut without lowering the spending authority for K-12 schools, property taxes are sure to go up dramatically this year. This is yet another reason why the Legislature should not revisit House File 2645, the open scope collective bargaining bill.

Continue reading…

In July, the Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI) released its much-anticipated 2009 State Report Card for Workers’ Comp, using the most current data available at the time. The report card helps employers, insurers, state governments and consultants answer the questions “Who is doing well and why?”

The good news is that Iowa was ranked #1 in the nation, getting an A-plus grade for its workers’ compensation system. This is more proof that we should not make radical changes to the state’s current workers comp laws, including the controversial employee doctor shopping (choice of doctor) bill.

Continue reading…