Time to Take Care of the Budget
Last Friday we received stark news from the REC that should cause the focus of the session to shift from meaningless bills of renaming departments and giving up our electoral votes, to helping keep Iowa a business friendly state and balancing our budget.
The Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) met today to estimate state revenues for the current fiscal year (FY2009) and next year (FY2010). The state’s fiscal year runs from July 1st through June 30th.
The REC is a three person committee of experts who estimate state tax revenues. The Governor and Legislature are bound by law to use the REC’s estimate to build the budget. The REC is comprised of the Governor’s designee, the Director of the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, and a third person agreed upon by the other two members. It meets three times a year, once each in the fall, winter, and spring.
By law, if the REC lowers its revenue estimate at the spring meeting (which is what happened today), the governor has 14 days to re-submit his budget to ensure it complies with the 99 percent expenditure limitation law.
In December, the REC estimate for fiscal year 2009 was determined to be $5.991 billion. Today it lowered that number by $130 million. This means state revenue for this year is 2.6% less than FY2008.
For FY2010, the estimate was reduced by an additional $270 million from the December estimate; this includes the $130 million reduction for FY2009. This means revenue for FY2010 is expected to be 2.8% less in FY2010 than in FY2009.
The current budget continues to be out of balance. The expected ending balance was going to be $30 million so we must cut at least $100 million from the current year’s spending. The legislature must deal with this ASAP.
We have got to fix this problem without raising taxes and punishing the people of Iowa. They should not pay the price for the Governments mismanagement. During a year that has been filled with uncertainties it is time that a message comes out of the Statehouse that is clear and speaks loudly, that we are here to help solve the problems at hand without creating new ones.
It is time we stop the assault on small business and employers that could help put the 80,000 unemployed Iowans back to work.
It is time to make it clear that we cannot borrow our way out of this problem by bonding and leaving our children to carry the load.
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Take the Time
Well, I survived my first funnel week at the Statehouse. It was a hectic week with meeting on top of meeting trying to get everything through the committees that the majority party wanted to advance.
The Capitol was a buzz that we were going to see the “Doctors Choice Bill” come to the house floor for debate, but the Democrats were unable to muster enough votes in their own caucus. This bill, along with “Fair Share”, “Prevailing Wage” and Chapter 20, better known as Collective Bargaining, have been put on hold.
As I stated in my previous newsletter, I am not anti-union, but I feel that when we are looking at record high unemployment in the State, the last thing we need to do is increase the cost of doing business. We need to be looking at ways to create jobs and balance the budget.
I witnessed first hand, the type of knee jerk reaction that has gotten our State budget in the condition it is currently in. I walked into the Rebuild Iowa Committee meeting last week and was informed that we would be voting on a bill (HSB 271) spending an additional $100,000,000 to rebuild areas that were ravaged by natural disasters. We were being asked to vote on a bill that we had not yet seen or discussed. Our caucus refused to vote until we had time to work though the document. It would have been irresponsible to simply vote to spend taxpayers’ dollars without a detailed explanation and discussion as to how this money would be spent.
During the next few weeks we will be making decisions that could have long term implications in the State. Throughout this process all Iowans need to be vigilant in keeping informed on the pending bills. You can get information on various bills by going to the legislative website, www.legis.state.ia.us and reading up on the status of bills, etc. Please contact your legislators on issues of concern to you. Their contact information is also available on the legislative website. If you would like assistance learning how to get around on this website, please feel free to contact me.
Funnel Week
It has been an exciting first few weeks at the Capitol. This week is funnel week. This is the point in the legislative session where, if a bill has been passed out of committee, it can be funneled to the House floor for a vote. At the beginning of the session both parties stood and made a very clear statement that their focus would be to rebuild the State from a devastating year of natural disasters and help over 80,000 unemployed Iowans get back to work. We will see if the majority party will help deliver on that promise, or if they will to continue getting distracted with legislation that does nothing to put unemployed Iowans back to work.
We have seen an overwhelming amount of people contacting us about a wide range of issues such as various labor bills, the bill that would strip Iowa of its electoral votes, the bicycle laws, or all the insurance mandates. I want to encourage all of you to be involved and do not be afraid to voice your concerns about these pressing issues. The decisions made here on a daily basis affect all of our lives.
Fair Share
This week HF 555 was read in and assigned to the Labor Committee. This bill is commonly known as “Fair Share” by the people who introduced it. Many feel this would repeal Iowa’s Right-to-Work law. Right-to-Work laws guarantee that no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union. In 1947, the Taft-Hartley amendments to the 1935 National Labor Relations Act affirmed States’ rights to pass Right-to-Work laws. Iowa has been a Right-to-Work state since 1947, just after the Taft-Hartley amendments were enacted.
HF 555, which was introduced this week, would repeal the Right to Work provisions afforded to Iowa’s public employees and force fair share fees upon public non-union employees. The “fair share fee” would be the amount charged to an employee (covered by a bargaining unit) who is not a member of a union to cover the costs incurred (by the union). HF 555 also amends the Right-to-Work protections against forced payment of union dues and fees for public employees (section 20.8) by notwithstanding current law to require payment of the fair share fees for non-union employees of a group covered by a bargaining unit. Additionally, HF 555 requires that negotiations include whether a fair share fee shall be charged to nonmembers of the union.
Public Safety
Many communities in Iowa rely solely on the brave persons who serve their EMS or fire department on a volunteer basis. HF 82 is aimed at ensuring the safety of their employment when they miss work due to their duties as volunteer service providers. The legislation would protect an employee from being terminated for joining a volunteer service organization. It would also protect an employee from being terminated because they miss work while fulfilling the employee’s duties as a volunteer service provider. With nearly 20,000 Iowans serving as volunteer service providers, this issue affects many individuals and employers. While the bill is aimed at protecting volunteer service providers, the concerns of those in the business community were addressed as well. First, an employee will have to notify their employer when they join a volunteer emergency service organization. This will protect employers by notifying them of those employees who may miss work due to their duties and who will be protected under this legislation. When an employee misses work while they are responding to an emergency, an employer can deduct that missed time from their wages. Additionally, if an employee is currently at work and wants to respond to an emergency, they will have to make a reasonable effort to notify their supervisor before leaving. The employer will then have discretion over whether that employee may leave work at that time. With HF 82, volunteer firefighters and EMS will have a clear policy that protects their employment when they join and participate in a volunteer service organization. Employers will also have a clear policy as to their rights when handling employees who miss time while fulfilling their duties as volunteer service providers.
State Budget
On March 20th, the REC (Revenue Estimating Conference) will meet to review the estimates for FY 2009 and FY 2010 general fund revenue. Unless revenue increases in the next two weeks, the REC could decrease FY 2009 by $100 million or more. Even if the REC keeps the FY 2010 estimate at its current mark (-0.4 percent), FY 2010 will be decreased by the FY 2009 amount because base revenue will decrease. (Meaning that the “new” -0.4 percent would be $100 million less that the “old” -0.4 percent.) That would mean the FY 2009 budget would again be out of balance and the FY 2010 budget recommendations by the Governor and budget targets by the Democrats would be meaningless.
Electoral College
I was happy to hear that Governor Culver and Secretary of State, Michael Mauro, parted ways from the Democrat leaders Senator Mike Gronstal and Senator Staci Appel. In my previous newsletter I explained how Iowa could become irrelevant with the passage of SF 1128. We still need you to stay involved. This issue is far from dead.