The Week of Distractions

There have been many controversial bills come out over the past week. Of course there was the Prevailing Wage bill that we spoke about last week. And we’re having a public hearing on Monday night from 7:30pm – 9:30pm at the Capitol. We believe we will be debating this bill on the house floor Thursday.

Then we heard about Senator McCoy coming out in the news calling for the state to dismantle any school, which does not have a minimum of 750 students. This is a terrible idea and will not go anywhere but caught a lot of media time and was a great distraction from the real issues at hand that the State has done a poor job of managing our tax dollars and now they want our children to pay the price and once again strip our communities of local control.

Senate Study Bill 1128 is another example of the attempt to strip Iowa of it’s sovereignty. But this time it is not coming from Washington DC, but right here in our own state! And even worse for me is it is coming from Senator Stacie Appel who happens to be my Senator. She is the Chairperson of the State Government Committee on the Senate side. It calls for Iowa to cast its electoral votes with who wins the national popular vote rather then who wins the state of Iowa. If you want Iowa to become completely irrelevant in the Presidential election and leave that decision up to the east and west coast then this is your bill. Once again a very poor bill for the people of Iowa but will be getting a lot of attention and create yet more distractions from the issues at hand and the current budget condition.

House Study Bill 80 Private Cause of Action could easily become a playground for lawsuits and be viewed upon as a stimulus plan for trial lawyers. HSB 80 is too loose and lacks some basic restrictions No requirement of showing intent, No requirement of showing the person hurt actually relied upon the misinformation given to them and many others to numerous to mention. Here are a few examples of the crazy lawsuits we could see. A $54 million lawsuit against a Washington DC dry cleaner that misplaced a customer’s pair of pants (This merit less case was thrown out after 3 ½ years of costly litigation). In California a lock company was sued for being “deceptive” because they produced a lock stamped “Made in the USA” that contained 6 screws that came from another country (lasted 7 years before being thrown out). This could become a breading ground for frivolous lawsuits and be devastating to the business climate at a time when we need to be promoting growth. Laws like this exists in only 7 others states we should not ignore what 42 other states realize.

Finally I wanted to tell you about a forum we had Saturday at Country Kitchen in Indianola we had over 50 people there and it was a great event. Obviously we all did not agree on the issues, but there was one thing we all recognized is that our State and Country is going through a tough time and it is going to take all of us to come through it. I really touched on the need for transparency and accountability in the legislative process. There were a lot of questions on how people could get more involved and I am committed in helping people with this. If you need help understanding the legislative website or how to come up and lobby as a citizen please do not hesitate contacting me.