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.