On Thursday, the House and Senate Commerce Committees will hold a rare joint meeting to discuss one of the bigger issues facing Iowans today – health insurance premiums. It was learned last week that 80,000 Iowans were receiving double-digit premium hikes for their state regulated insurance plans. Legislators will have the chance to ask Wellmark why this is happening and what can be done to lower the cost of health insurance for Iowans.
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A new February 2010 newsletter is available for viewing. Click the link below to see a PDF version.
Caucus Newsletter February 24, 2010
Included in this edition:
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Senate File 2088 “Government Reorganization” was passed 98-0 by the House this past Monday after countless amendments and two days of debate. The bill passed by the House is significantly different than the one passed by the Senate; making their reconciliation complicated. The version passed by the House is estimated to save $70.6 million to the state’s general fund and $55.7 million to other funds in Fiscal Year 2011.
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Next week the House will consider a bill that would make texting while driving illegal. House File 2021 was passed by the House Transportation Committee by a vote of 20–1 and will be before the house as House File 2456.
The bill does not apply penalties to or make illegal the use of cell phones while driving or the use of global positioning systems or navigational systems while driving. It is only a ban on texting while driving.
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On Wednesday, February 17, the Democrats released partial budget targets for the subcommittees. Once again, they only released the targets for the budget subcommittees, which flies in the face of budget transparency and being truthful to Iowans about the real cost of state government services.
This only shows roughly $2.5 billion of the general fund budget. The release shows that the Democrats are $475 million below the Governor in the subcommittee areas and will approve a general fund budget that spends the same amount as FY 2010.
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A new February 2010 newsletter is available for viewing. Click the link below to see a PDF version.
Caucus Newsletter February 17, 2010
Included in this edition:
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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.
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House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) released the following statement following the Democrats’ release of the partial budget targets:
“These targets give the public an incomplete picture of the Democrats’ spending plan. However, based on what I’ve seen, it appears that legislative Democrats plan to carry forward Gov. Culver’s property tax increases.
“House Republicans will not support a budget that spends more money than the state takes in. Republicans have outlined over $600 million in cost-savings during the last two years. We will continue to fight for limited government and responsible budgeting as the bills move through the process.”
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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.
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This afternoon House Republicans attempted to pull the following bills from committee and have them placed on the House calendar so they would not die in the funnel week.
The motion to pull them out failed on a party-line vote with Republicans voting for the motion and Democrats voting against.
HF 2262 – Claims sovereignty by the state of Iowa under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
HF 2214 – Defends Iowans right to purchase or not to purchase private health care insurance. Additionally the Legislature cannot require Iowans to participate in any health care plan, or impose a penalty/fine for not participating.
HF 2057 – Under current law, a sheriff has no right to require an individual acquiring a permit to carry to provide a list of weapons they own and their serial numbers. However, this is exactly what is occurring in one county in the State. Before this becomes the standard in other counties, HF 2057 stops this practice and protects the constitutional rights of Iowans.
HF 2218 – Narrowly construes the rule making authority for state agencies.
HF 2219 – Extends the period of time for a regulatory analysis of an administrative rule from 32 to 70 days.
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Increase in Iowa General Fund (State Budget) Expenditures over the last three years:
| Per Second: $10.12
Per Minute: $607.18 Per Hour: $36,431 Per Day: $874,338 Per Week: $6,120,309 Total: $957.4 million |
Methodology: The general fund budget increased by $957.4 million over three fiscal years (FY 2008 through FY 2010). This includes federal stimulus funds that were used to cover increases in general fund spending. This figure comes from the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA). This figure does not include $52.7 million of FY 2007 supplemental appropriations that were moved into FY 2008 in order to allow the Legislature to increase spending. ($6.297 billion in FY 2010 appropriations minus $5.340 billion in adjusted FY 2007 appropriations.) |
