The Longest Legislative Day in History
Prevailing Wage Bill Meets Unusual Fate
After a six hour debate, the bill to set a prevailing wage produced a vote count of 50- 46. It takes 51 votes to pass a bill. In an unusual move, Speaker Murphy (D-Dubuque) has decided to keep the voting machine over the weekend; thinking one of the five Democrats who voted no will change their vote. Everyone head home for the weekend except the Speaker, a few other Democrats to rotate sitting in the Speaker’s chair, and a few Republicans on rotating shifts. Literally, leaving the voting machine open means the machine that receives our votes is open for changes. The machine is normally closed minutes after all members are done voting. If you would like to see the counter of how many hours Iowans have waited to view the result of this vote, please visit www.iowahouserepublicans.com.
I voted no on this bill as it sets a government wage and fringe benefit package for public projects. This bill will allow big, rich, out of state contractors to bid on projects and will leave our local contractors out in the cold. Unions support the bill and say it will keep project money local. That is not the case. This bill is about price fixing because the only contractors that can bid on these “prevailing wage required” projects will be those big companies that can afford to pay higher wages and fringe benefits. This bill does nothing to put Iowans back to work. In addition, property taxpayers will foot the bill for this legislation. Counties and school boards estimate costs will increase by 10-20%. I voted with taxpayers and small contractors, not big unions, or big, out of state contractors.
I heard from many constituents who are questioning why we would pass legislation to increase costs in these economic conditions. That’s a great point and another reason I voted no. The last three states to enact prevailing wage was in the early 1970’s (Minnesota, Tennessee, and Vermont). Nine states have repealed their prevailing wage laws (Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Utah). Iowa does not need this law. One of the worst parts of this legislation was language added in an amendment: prevailing wages will apply immediately, with emergency administrative rules, to Linn and Johnson counties (disaster areas).
Your Vote Won’t Count
One of the worst bills ever introduced at the Capitol is Senate Study Bill 1128. The bill description is as follows: “This bill creates a compact for the state of Iowa whereby the state agrees to certify its electors for president of the United States based on the national popular vote for president, rather than on the popular vote for president within the state. The agreement is cited in the bill as the “National Popular Vote Compact”. To take effect, the compact must be enacted by any number of states whose electoral votes, in the aggregate, constitute a majority of the entire number of electoral votes nationally. The compact provides that any member state may withdraw from the compact. However, if a withdrawal occurs six months or less before the end of a president’s term, the withdrawal shall not take effect until a president has qualified to serve the next term.”
In essence, this bill would allow that if the majority of Iowans voted for Candidate A, but the majority of the states voted for Candidate B, all of Iowa’s electoral votes would be cast for Candidate B (not the one winning in Iowa). This means the big states of California, Texas, Florida, and New York would determine election outcomes, the small states would not have a voice, and Iowa voters would be completely disenfranchised. Senator Staci Appel introduced this legislation in the Senate, and it is backed by an organization called National Popular Vote.
New Location for Legislative Forum
In the future, our forums will be meeting at the Warren County Administration Building, 301 Buxton 2nd floor, Indianola. We have made this change because of the overwhelming turnout at our last meeting. Look forward to seeing you on March 14, 2009.