From the Desk of Representative Chuck Soderberg
On January 14th, the 82st Iowa General Assembly gaveled into session for the second year of the two-year Assembly. As I begin my fourth year in the Iowa House, it is an honor to represent you and serve as your District 3 Representative. I will work hard on your behalf and want to thank everyone providing input on a variety of important issues since the 2007 Session adjourned last April 29th. I will continue to openly communicate with you on issues by holding frequent Saturday morning Legislative Forums as well as provide you with weekly written legislative activity updates throughout the Session. If you would like to receive my electronic newsletter via email, just email me or drop me a note with your email address.
I am very appreciative of the committees I was selected to serve on. They are:
1. Commerce and Regulatory (serving as the Republican committee leader) – banking, insurance, telecommunications, energy, utility and regulatory.
2. Ways and Mean – tax issues and tax reform.
3. Natural Resources – conservation, water quality and outdoor recreation.
4. Human Resources – health and health care issues.
With this year’s 100-day legislative session in full swing, this week was very active as the governor laid out his legislative agenda and proposed budget during his annual Condition of the State address, the Chief Justice Marsha Ternus gave her Condition of the Judiciary report, and numerous committee meetings were held.
Make-up of the Legislature
As of 2007, the Democrats control the Governor’s office and the Iowa House and Senate with a 53-47 and 30-20 advantage, respectfully, in this year’s General Assembly. The Majority party, the Democrats, establish and control the entire legislative agenda and the committee process. Republicans make every effort to work with the new Majority party to craft and adopt legislation to make a positive impact on Iowa. However, we will not compromise our values in doing so.
Governor Recommends Spending Increase of Over 20 Percent in Two Years
On Tuesday, the Governor laid out his FY 09 budget recommendations. He identified three key points - (1) Limit spending, (2) Live within our means, and (3) Protect our Reserve Accounts. I am in 100% agreement with all three budgeting points. Unfortunately, the Governor’s proposed budget does reflect his own budgeting guidelines. The proposed budget spends $6.4 billion in FY 09. When combined with his budget last year, the state government spending increase is more than $1 billion. That's a $1 billion increase in two years, or a 20 percent increase over a two-year period. For a point of reference, the EIGHT previous bipartisan budgets proposed and approved by Governor Vilsack and Republicans grew by $1 billion in total. Despite strong revenue growth (over 10 percent growth year-to-date), the Governor still proposes at least $100 million in new tax and fee increases. The big items are a $70 million corporate tax increase and a $20 million tax increase on beer, pop, juice and water.
Even though the Governor proposes to increase spending by over $1 billion, there is nothing in the budget for the property taxpayers. He left property tax relief measures completely out of the budget. According to the nonpartisan Fiscal Services, property owners face a $500 million tax increase over the next six years. With property owners facing such significant property tax increases, House Republicans will again push for property tax reform this year with the state paying the property tax increase associated with K-12 allowable growth.
Even though there are spending proposals requiring at least $500 million of new bonding debt, the bond repayments are not included in the proposed budget. Using irresponsible financial tactics, such as not including the bond repayments in the budget or the use of "interest-only" bonds, will mean an enormous long-term cost to the taxpayers.
Community Colleges and Private Colleges are Losers in Governor’s Budget
While K-12 schools and the Regents Universities were high priorities in the Governor’s budget, community colleges were not. The Governor recommends Pre K-12 should get a $185 million increase - $100 million in allowable growth, $75 million teacher pay increases and a $15 million increase for preschool. The Regent Universities would receive an additional $60 million. Iowa’s 15 community colleges, who educate 90,000 Iowans each year, would get a woeful $3.5 million increase. And students at Iowa’s 31 private colleges see no financial support increase. This is unacceptable.
Right to Work, Prevailing Wage and Work Comp Recap
Although we are only three days into this legislative session, some interesting things were mentioned in the Governor’s Condition of the State. Specifically, Governor Culver said: “So, for the benefit of working Iowans, I challenge you to try to find consensus, and to not be afraid to debate difficult issues, like, prevailing wage, independent contractor reform, choice of doctor, fair share, and the right to bargain matters like employee discipline and discharge.”
As with last year, we fully expect there will be another attempt this year to gut Iowa’s Right to Work law. The Right to Work principle affirms the right of every American, to work for a living and make the personal choice whether or not to be a member or financially contribute to a union.
Since the Right-to-Work law was enacted in 1947, it guarantees that no person can be required, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union. South Dakota and Nebraska have also adopted Right-to-Work laws. If Iowa loses its Right-to-Work status, it could cripple the economic growth that Iowa now enjoys. Do NOT be fooled by phrases such as “Fee for Service”, “Agency Fee” and “Fair Share”. They describe the same thing – a repeal of Iowa’s Right-to-Work laws. Republicans will fight hard to retain this law.
The first Legislative Forum I will be participating in will be held in Sioux City on January 26th at the Siouxland Senior Center beginning at 10:00am. I hope to see you all there.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach me during the week at (515)-281-3221, on weekends at (712)-546-6136 or email me at Chuck.Soderberg@legis.state.ia.us