IOWA
HOUSE ADJOURNS
Highlights of the House’s Legislative Session
Strengthening Iowa’s
economy:
HF 868, the Iowa Values Fund, contains policy language designed
to encourage economic growth and job creation. The bill contains
language relating to the composition of the Iowa Economic
Development Board, regulatory assistance, regional economic
development initiatives, cultural and entertainment districts,
rehabilitation project tax credits, the Endow Iowa Program which
offers tax credits to spur development and business tax credits
contained within the “High Quality Job Creation Act.”
Meaningful property tax
reform:
House File 847 – This bill reformed Iowa’s property tax code,
making it employer-friendly by limiting the rate of growth that can
be assessed on Iowa’s businesses. The bill also created a property
tax appeal board, giving property owners one final option to file
and appeal to their assessment and thus in many cases preventing a
lengthy court battle. (The Senate did not consider this bill)
$100 million in new K-12
funding:
Senate File 36 sets allowable growth for FY07 at 4%, meaning
K-12 schools will see a $99.5 million increase, on top of the $92.8
million allocated last year.
Teacher Salaries now
rank 29th in the country: With more than $20 million in
teacher compensation, and $57.5 million from $82.1 million in
allowable growth, the average classroom teacher salary increases
from 38th in the country to 29th in the
country.
Higher Educational
Standards:
Senate File 276 requires the Iowa Department of Education to
develop core high school curriculum increasing standards for high
school students based upon the recommendation of the ACT.
Additionally, the State Board of Education would be required to set
a goal of having 80 percent of Iowa’s graduates meet the new
standards by July 1, 2009.
Early Childhood: The
House answered the governor’s call for a strengthened early
childhood program by streamlining the process, providing $24.4
million in increased resources, and offering more local control and
better access to early childhood.
Mental Health Parity:
The Iowa House engineered a mental health parity bill that requires
group health insurance policies to provide coverage benefits for the
treatment of biologically-based mental illnesses.
Medicaid: The House
wrote and passed a bill that would plug a potential $180-million
hole in federal funding while at the same time extending coverage to
more people. Additionally, the House was able to fully fund existing
Medicaid obligations and increases. The House bill also increased
provider rates for the first time since 2001, offering health care
professionals a fairer reimbursement for services they perform on
those needing it most.
The Health and Human
Services Appropriations bill appropriated nearly $1 billion for the
Departments of Elder Affairs, Human Services, Public Health and
Veteran’s Affairs. The bill,
House File 825, increases funds for children’s health insurance
coverage (HAWK-I), increased reimbursement rates for child welfare
providers, an increase for child care eligibility and an increase
for nursing homes.
Extending prescription drug
coverage to seniors and the poor: Undeterred by the governor’s veto
last year, House Republicans again offered and passed a bi-partisan
prescription drug assistance program for seniors and lower-income
Iowans needing it the most. Rather than waiting for the new federal
Medicare benefit,
House File 821 offers savings now by implementing a way for
Iowans to enroll in existing discount programs.
Major step toward
controlling Iowa’s burgeoning deer population: The bill,
Senate File 206 will decrease Iowa’s deer population by 25
percent in four years by increasing licenses for hunters and giving
further flexibility to the DNR on when deer seasons are set. The
bill also requires the establishment of a deer harvest reporting
system to collect information from deer hunters so as to better
track the population.
Cracking down on Iowa’s
sexual predators:
House File 619 significantly toughened Iowa’s sex offender laws
by mandating supervised releases on sex offenders, forbidding sex
offenders to live within 1,000 feet of a school or child care
facility, requiring persons on the sex offender registry to wear
electronic monitoring devices and requiring that all persons who
must register on the sex offender registry submit a DNA sample. The
bill also requires updated photos of sexual predators to be posted
yearly, and allows the public greater access and input on
information about any sex offender.
Smashing up Iowa’s meth
labs: The Iowa House passed the toughest anti-methamphetamine
legislation in the country by severely limiting the sale and access
to pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient needed to make meth. This
bill, signed by the governor in March, limits patrons to purchasing
no more than 7,500 mg of pseudoephedrine in a 30-day period. Iowa
is the 2nd-highest meth lab producer in the country, and
this should significantly reduce that ranking.
Consumer Protection:
The House passed
HF 610, the anti-spam bill that establishes criminal penalties
for the transmission of unsolicited bulk electronic mail, or spam.
The House also passed
House File 614, which protects computer owners and users from
spyware and malware that is deceptively or surreptitiously installed
on their computers. Typically, this software is used to modify
certain computer settings related to access or use of the Internet,
collects personally identifiable information through intentionally
deceptive means, prevents the computer owner from blocking the
installation of such software, intentionally misrepresents the
computer operator that the software will be uninstalled, or uses
deceptive methods to remove, disable or make inoperative security or
antivirus software on the computer. In a move to protect people from
identity theft, the House passed
Senate File 270, which says that in actions for relief due to
identity theft, the statute of limitations does not start to run
until the identity theft is discovered. The bill also allows a
financial institution to bring civil action on behalf of a victim
who has lost money in an identity theft case.
Ways
& Means Update
Bills introduced in committee this week:
Committee did not meet this
week.
Bills passed out of
committee this week:
Committee did not meet this
week.
Week
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