9:35 and good morning from Emma Harvat Hall at Iowa City hall for the first of the year's LWV legislative forums. The co-sponsors are the Iowa City Education Assn. and the school district. School Board members Patti Fields, Toni Cilek and Liz Crooks are on the scene, along with a lot of the usual suspects. House Candidate Larry Marek (House 89) is here with Senator Becky Schmitz. We also have sightings of Senator Bob Dvorsky and Reps. Mary Mascher and Vicki Lensing so far.
9:38 and now we add Joe Bolkcom to the mix. The North Central Jr High students have also arrived; for you newcomers, they're here every time and usually ask the most interesting questions. Other notable educators are Superintendent Lane Plugge, ICEA's Nancy Porter, and Sue Dvorsky.
9:40 and starting 10 minutes late; a schedule conflict with the Chamber of Commerce breakfast. The GOP delegation - Hahn, Greiner, and Kaufmann - are MIA. Reports are that Dave Jacoby
Bolkcom: yesterday was filing deadline for individual member bills. Budget is #1 fous - teacher quality, early, higher ed, and health care. Budget is tight. "We may have to say no to a number of things." Big effort to insure all Iowa kids, do more for uninsured adults, cost containment, wellness, cost containment.
Energy: a proposal to get 25% renewables by 2025 in Iowa. Working on lower payday loan rates and gift card fees/expiration. Smoking local control and also a statewide ban bill. Culver deserves credit for putting bottles on the table, details still being worked out. We need to expand and improve it.
Dvorsky: Chairing Senate Approps. Budget "very very very very tight" (four verys). Community bases corrections and prison: need to have a plan, make sure we don't fill them up, look at whole correction system and treatment. Econ development: seeing if we can continue Vision Iowa (CR, Coralville have projects).
Bob discusses Ruth Bonfiglio, longtime community activist from Coralville, who died this week. "Ruth was there for everybody in the community." "The last thing she did was try to convert a bunch of Republicans at Oaknoll." He sounds choked up; Ruth truly was special to the community.
Schmitz: Statewide SILO has support. Successful Families Caucus is emphasizing financial literacy esp. in high schools. Trying to figure out wha to do with worker shortages; there's more cooperation with high schools and community college. Mental health: shortages and reimbursement issues. Bill passed this week which will allow counties to apply for some funds. State of Judiciary: Chief Justice Ternus has emphasized juvenile justice progress. Now have CASA in all 99 counties (court appt. special advocates).
Lensing: very active first two weeks. Biggest challenge is living within mean while honoring commitments. Oversight Cmte. has heard about student credit cards and debt. Still working on best road to financial literacy. Parents may not even have those skills. Lottery: Ombudsman has concerns about interity of system due to problems in Canada. Some voting machine/election issues wil come up. Final draft of open meetings/records in next 10 days. Bottles: hope we actually see it. Make sure redemption centers have the $ to keep going. I hear a lot, people are excited about it, still need details.
Mental health: house needs a full parity bill.
Mascher: we've been proud to say 'promises made, promises kept.' GOP often promised things then said 'oops, no $," and we're not going to do that. We'll maintain commitments to education.
State of the State was exciting - this will not be a do-nothing session. Smoking ban and local control will make a big difference. Education Cmte: model core curriculum. Last year was voluntary, now we're talking about a mandate. Most districts already on board voluntary. We need to keep looking at that curriculum each year to keep challenging kids. STEM: Science, Tech, Engineering, Math. Encouraging more kids into those areas.
Ed Appropriations: SAM grant for school administrator managers. Tracks time of administrators. A lot of that time winds up being very menial tasks. Typical principal works 75-80 hours a week.
Jacoby: Last year was great, but this year we need to 1) thoroughly review values fund. My top concern is the economy. We have severe budget concerns. We want to meet our commitments, but not increase taxes. Hoping to move to 2-3 year budgeting.
Want to help insulate Iowa from recession -- Iowa runs 1-2 years behind national cycle. Johnson county is somewhat but not completely insulated.
10:05 we start with Q & A. First question is campaign finance reform. Mascher: VOICE bill is in Ways and Means. "I don't know that there's the support to get it out of that committee." It's still alive but not sure there's the votes. Jacoby: concerns are gathering the support and the $ involved. "I certainly see the merit of it. You wouldn't find too many people, D or R, who don't want to change the campaign finance structure." A hot House race can run $250,000.
Bolkcom: Senate has moved it to approps. I met with some large donors and Citizen Action this week. Even the big donors are fed up, and there's an effort to get them to lobby for it. Leadership, in both parties, has not bought in. The leaders have a responsibility to raise $, and they're reluctant because they're successful. Public finance will only happen wth a bipartisan effort and with support from the parties. Need to make sure it won't disadvantage one side or the other. Don't expect action this session.
Lensing: we need some education for the general public. There was concern last year on the price tag. Last year's bill was voluntary at first. In an election year, competitiveness will make parties shy away. Legislation moves in small steps... keep talking about it.
Jacoby: the caucus process is fantastic, but look at the disclaimers of who's running ads. 527s can do things candidates can't. That's where a lot of those phone calls were coming from, especially the negative ones. Need to make them more responsible.
Schmitz: I was told to spend 50% of mt time raising money, I would have rather spent 100% of my time talking to voters. My race in a mostly rural area cost $200,000, and I had concerns about this long before I ran.
JP Claussen of the Iowa City Education Assn.: how can we make teacher quality $ permanent?
Mascher: We've been discussing including that in the formula, make it part of allowable growth. "We know how that works, and that's how we got to be 42nd in the nation. That has to be targeted money." We're rewriting school funding formula, and we want to incorporate that.
Patti Fields, school board: it turns out the WHOLE school board is here (look around). What are prospects for funding modifications on early childhood.
Mascher: no talk of rollback, the commitment is there. We can improve existing legislation. Jacoby: part of the problem is our funding structure year to year. Every year school district spends inordinate amount of time on budget, and multiyear budgeting would free up time for other things.
Dvorsky: Some would say school budget is 9% increase, but 3% of that is earlier commitments. 3 more is governor's initiatives, and the rest is moving funds over from general fund. Mascher: next big issue is 0 to 3 education. We need a children's living trust. Increase pay for day care providers, and get them some professional benefits to reduce turnover. Business community is behind this, these kids are workforce of the future. Schmitz did interim work on child care best practices, addressing daycare quality. Some peer review underway. Need to get people connected right at newborn. Early brain development is critical.
10:25 and the questions come from general public (as opposed to sponsors). Chris Squire of the anti-smokers. "There's one piece left: clean air smoke free legislation." What are the chances of getting clean bills without exceptions, and will you pull a bill if it gets bad?
Jacoby: I'm concerned about dept. of heath awarding Quit Line contract to out of state provider. "They pulled the rug out from under the University of Iowa" and the winner was not the low bid. "The least we can do is keep it local." As for legislation, "due diligence would be a statewide ban, and not pass it off on local entities. I don't know the reality of getting that out without exemptions." Issue cuts across party lines, some people who backed tax won't back anything else.
Bolkcom: Will be difficult to keep casinos from getting exemptions. Huge support, but it'll be a tough fight.
Martha Yoke asks about chronic mental illness assistance. Says combining that with substance abuse is not compatible. Schmitz: House is looking at a different approach, which make make insurance companies doing it without mandate. Still a work in progress. Last year people didn't want substance abuse in the bill.
Nancy Porter, teacher: after school programs. Mascher: it's a system approach. Businesses are interested in this too, they need employees with good parenting skills. Living Trust for Kids will help in this area and in parenting skills education. Dvorsky: Linn County is doing some good things with this. Mascher: Horace Mann's Hispanic program is excellent in student achievement impact and in bringing in parents. Porter says great, but our funding is being cut.
Janelle Rettig says she's concerned if bottle proposals make REAP have unprotected funding. Also concerned about funding natural resources through regressive sales tax increase.
Bolkcom: Chet deserve credit, but I don't see support for a dime deposit and 8 cents back. There needs to be a handling fee increase. Not sure about connecting REAP $ to this, I share concern about setting up a fund that could be raided. I like the constitutional amendment approach to set $ aside. Not sure yet how to get that money, sales tax or other, but getting it before the voters will be the best way to set the $ aside. Getting closer each year to get full REAP funding, given the nature of who we send to the legislature.
Dvorsky: we need a comprehensive look at this. Glad Chet put bottle proposal on the table, but a lot of questions out there without answers. "A lot of rural legislators just hate DNR because of their regulatory function, and won't support anything."
Jacoby: we need to discuss our tax structure in Iowa. "Sales tax isn't necessary regressive unless it's stacked on some other tax structure." SILO "I want to keep the one cent local." REAP: "A statewide referendum is not a bad idea, but I'm not a fan on changing the state constitution, it's one of the strongest in the nation."
Judy Pfohl: rapid change to green-ifying state buildings? Dvorsky: LEED standards for state bldgs died in House last year. State Assn of Architects are getting really green right now. Lensing: I have a bill, not sure it'll go anywhere. Not all of our colleagues even accept that climate change exists. Jacoby: Iowa City School Districts has some great examples with the two new schools (Van Allen, North Central). We're swapping bulbs in some older school buildings too. Mascher: Some schools are at their bonding limit. Long term savings are real, but short term they cost more. We need to help those districts. Dvorsky: People will keep bringing up statewide SILO all session. Also, some GOP legislators were passing around a book "Unstoppable Global Warming" saying this is just natural every 1500 years. "We have to deal with these people every day in the legislature." Lensing: some of that is kind of astonishing...
Tim Krumm of the school board: concern about long-term funding and state economy.
Jacoby: "we need to make sure we remove barriers for job and business growth." In the corridor we have a lead on other areas. But can we fund commitments over the years? We also have to work with the companies that are closing or laying people off. Make sure the workers have training opportunities. "420 people (at Victor plastic) is significant to our school district." Need separate structures for different classes of property. "We ARE in a recession by any measure. How do we make sure it doesn't turn into a depression?" We're projected at 6.7 percent growth this year, but 2% next year.
Mascher: Business is discussing bringing more jobs into this area, 6 or 7 contacted the Chamber. State of State address had good economic development pieces. Says son is now working for a wind turbine company and training in Spain. "Those are the jobs of the future. There are lots of Iowans out there who can do that." Dvorsky: Funding for Center for Biomedical Discovery at UIowa creating many jobs. "It's a different paradigm in the way we deliver medical services." We also opened up the door to stem cell research. "The answer probably isn't another casino in Newton." 2009 you might see a lot of looking at our tax structure.
Kevin Johanson, a North Liberty parent: affordable health care and insurance industry profits. "They are one of the most protected industries because of successful lobbying."
Bolkcom: the need for reform is huge. Legislation calls for a health insurance consumer advocate. "It's also a national issue." Insurance payment to providers "is an incredible black box" with discount negotiations; "quite a mess." Jacoby: 1) Iowa has lowest Medicare reimbursement rate in nation and that needs to at least reach median. "Our providers are shortchanged and the costs are passed on." We have to cover the uninsured, but also look out for middle and lower income who are worried about losing coverage.
The student questions, en masse:
Jacoby: "I'm not so worried about the future when I hear questions like these from 7th graders." Takes on the pet question, says it's worth looking at. "What can we do in their early years so we have less pets at the shelter."
Mascher: "No Child Left Behind has caused many problems for educators and schools across the country." Lack of funding, states set inconsistent standards. "You will see it changed dramatically with the election coming up in November. Teaching to the test is never a good idea."
Lensing: we were pleased with tobacco tax but we're not done. But we may have to make exemptions, esp. casinos.
Schmitz: By Fresh Buy Local program can help farmers at farmers markets. Need to create more markets statewide. 90% of our food comes from outside Iowa (!) The pets again: Fairfield got people to donate to a spay/neuter fund.
Dvorsky: discusses governor's alternative energy initiatives. High corn prices mean farmers like ethanol, so it's a short term economic boom. Emmetsburg plant looking at converting to cellulose, getting federal $.
Bolkcom: lots of energy initiatives on the table. I'm introducing a coal plant moratorium bill. Economic model of corn ethanol is tricky espicially with subsidy.
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