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Abortion among chief unresolved issues of ’11 session

June 28, 2011 By

A dispute about abortion policy is a major stumbling block to the effort to close down the 2011 legislative session this week. 

Representative Dave Heaton, a Republican from Mount Pleasant, doesn’t mince words. ”If both sides would remain very stubborn on this issue, whether or not we would go home could revolve around this,” Heaton says.

Senator Jack Hatch, a Democrat from Des Moines, uses the phrase “cruel and usual” to describe the GOP proposal to end the 33-year-old state policy which has allowed state tax dollars to be used to pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or fetal deformity.

“It’s legal under the law to have an abortion, but because poor women can’t afford it, that’s setting up a separate class,” Hatch says.

Legislators face a July 1 deadline to pass a new state budget for the new state fiscal year that begins Friday. But Heaton and the 59 other House Republicans have voted on three different occasions to forbid the use of state tax dollars, in the Medicaid program, to pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or fetal deformity.

“A month and a half ago, we knew that this day would come,” Heaton says. 

Hatch and the other Democrats in the Senate are digging in.

“It is a change in policy that we can’t accept either,” Hatch says.

Hatch says many Republican legislators, including Heaton, have voted for the existing abortion policy in past years. 

“I’m a little surprised that they’re drawing this very harsh requirement against women that’s preventing us from coming to a conclusion,” Hatch says.

However, Heaton says he’s hopeful this “impasse” over abortion policy can be resolved.

“Each side recognizes that in order to get a bill and send it to the governor, we will have to find some area of agreement,” Heaton says. 

The abortion-related issue is included in a budget bill that outlines state spending for the Departments of Public Health and Human Services.  

Legislators have yet to hammer out an agreement on the level of general state funding for K-12 public schools.  And the two political parties cannot agree on a property tax reform plan. 

Neither the House nor Senate have spent much time today voting on legislation.  Most of the activity has been in committee rooms, or in private statehouse offices, as groups of lawmakers discuss the details in various bills that must pass the House and the Senate before the 2011 legislative session can conclude.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

GOPers say Obama’s only interested in keeping his own job

June 28, 2011 By

Republicans dismiss President Obama’s visit to Alcoa as a political stunt designed to obscure his record on the economy. 

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus says the 2012 election will be all about jobs.

“It’s going to become painfully obvious that the only job the president is interested in saving is his own and that’s why he’s in Iowa today.” Priebus says. “He’s in Iowa today because he is interested in saving his job.” 

Matt Strawn, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, says the “political ground” has shifted in Iowa since Obama won the state in 2008.

“The number one thing I hear from employers in Iowa when it comes to creating jobs is that they cannot tell you what the cost will be to their business of implementing ObamaCare,” Strawn says. “And that is the chief impediment to hiring here in Iowa.” 

Strawn and Preibus made their comments a few hours before Obama’s arrival, during a conference call with reporters.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

President says Iowa plant shows way for manufacturing

June 28, 2011 By
President Barack Obama spoke this afternoon at an eastern Iowa plant that he says is an example of how the country must adapt to new ways of manufacturing to turn the economy around.

The Alcoa Davenport Works is more than one mile long and produces aluminum for airplanes, automobiles and other applications. The president mentioned that fact as he opened his remarks.

Obama said almost every airplane in the world has some Alcoa product in it. “In fact it turns out that you’re responsible for the wings on Air Force One, so I want to thank all you for getting me here in one piece,” Obama said. The plant employs 2,200 people and Obama talked about the way it has bounced back from the recession. He says the workers that were laid off at Alcoa during “the darkest days of the recession” have all been hired back and the plant managers are talking about hiring more people in the near future.

Obama toured the facility with the company chairman before making his speech. He talked about how manufacturing has changed and that has in some cases hurt workers as fewer are now required to do jobs. But, he said the important thing is for the country to adapt.

“This plant’s been in operation for 60 years, and what you’ve learned, is that if you want to beat the competition, you’ve got to innovate, ” Obama said, “you’ve got to invest in new skills, you’ve got to invest in new processess, you’ve got to invest in new products.” Obama pointed out that the company has recently invested $90-million in some new equipment. He says that’s what’s needed to keep up.

“You had to up your game, and that’s what we’ve got to do as a country as a whole,” Obama said. Obama made a pitch for himself, saying he ran for president in the first place to change things. He asked the audience to continue supporting him.

“I know these are difficult times, many of you probably have friends who’re looking for work, or family members who are looking for work, or are just getting by,” Obama said, “And when that happens, sometimes it’s tempting to turn cynical and to be doubtful about the future and to start thinking maybe our best days are behind us. But that’s not the America that I know. That’s not the America I see here in the Quads and in communities all across America today.”

Obama has designated the six western Iowa counties that border the Missouri River as disaster areas but did not mention the flooding during his 16-minute speech. He shook hands with some of the Alcoa employees after his speech before leaving the plant.

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Hot, humid, sticky summer weather, coming to Iowa

June 28, 2011 By

With the Fourth of July weekend just ahead, the forecast calls for hot, dry weather to roll into Iowa just in time for the holiday.

D-T-N meteorologist Bryce Anderson says within days, we’ll be going from overnight lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s to highs well into the 90s, with heat indices likely into the triple-digits.

“Things are going to start acting a little bit more like summertime around here and it’s high time because June has not been that great,” Anderson says. “It’s been cool. It’s been rainy. It’s been very stormy. There’s a lot of row crops that are behind normal, behind average as far as the progress goes. We really need to have some heat to get things underway.”

Anderson says the warmer temperatures forecast for later this week will be good news for Iowa’s various crops, especially the corn.

“Some of that heat that has just smothered the Southern Plains, down into Florida, Georgia and so forth, that’s going to move northward,” Anderson says. “We are going to have temperatures that are more in the normal to above-normal category. Rainfall is also going to tail off a bit and at this time, I think that’s all to the good.”

The forecast may make a lot of people hot, sticky and uncomfortable, but the farmers will love it. Because of the cool, wet spring, Anderson says the steamy temperatures will be welcomed by growers, as hot weather is key in proper crop development.

“It could be hot and humid but actually for corn, that would be very good,” he says. “This corn crop needs to have a little more tropical-like conditions to really start to get established and make some headway. We’re looking at quite a little of the corn crop nationally that’s not going to be pollinating until the month of August. That’s pretty late.”

Forecasters say today’s highs in the 70s and 80s across Iowa will give way to the upper 80s and low 90s tomorrow and mid-90s by Thursday.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Weather

Eastern Iowa plant preparing for President’s speech

June 28, 2011 By

President Obama is giving an economic speech in eastern Iowa this afternoon. The president will speak inside the Alcoa Aluminum manufacturing plant in Bettendorf.

The stage is set up in front of several massive rolls of aluminum and underneath large overhead cranes that move the product around the plant for the manufacturing process. Information from the company media relations department says the plant produces aluminum for all major types of aircraft, including panels for the president’s plane, Air Force One.

The plant employes 2,200 people, including several who were laid off during the recesssion and later recalled.  That is one of the reasons the president is speaking at the plant. The president is supposed to speak around 1 o’clock.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Property tax reform the main budget sticking point

June 28, 2011 By

The main sticking point holding up the conclusion of the 2011 Iowa legislative session remains the different approaches the two political parties have proposed on property taxes. 

Governor Branstad has said for months that reducing commercial property taxes is one of his top three priorities for the year, although he now seems to be holding out the possibility a deal may not come this week.

“We have been working with both sides on this, trying to see if it’s possible to get something worked out that’s acceptable and we’re continuing to have those discussions, so we’ll see,” Branstad said at his weekly news conference.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, concedes there’s a possibility no compromise will be reached this week and legislators could return in a “special session” later to tackle the issue.

“I suppose anything’s a possibility,” Paulsen says. “But property taxes, obviously, very extremely important and so we continue to work on it.”

Republicans have proposed cutting commercial property tax rates by up to 25 percent. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, is one of the architects of the plan Senate Democrats have proposed, which would create a new state tax credit for commercial property owners.

“Our tax cut is bigger than their tax cut,” Bolkcom says.

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines says it appears legislators from both parties are nearing agreement on the components of the state budget.

“The big wild card is commercial property tax relief,” McCarthy says. 

The new state budgeting year begins on July 1.  The biggest conflict on state spending is over how much state aid to forward K-through-12 public schools for the 2012/2013 school year.

Filed Under: Business, Education, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Palin film debuts today in Pella

June 28, 2011 By

The political spotlight is bright in a couple of Iowa cities today. While President Obama is set to speak about the economy in the Quad Cities today, Sarah Palin will be in Pella to attend the world premiere of the movie “The Undefeated.” The documentary is about the former Alaska governor’s rise in politics.

Elaine Sagers is on the board of directors for the Pella Opera House, which was chosen as the site for the premiere just a few days ago. “The last couple of days, things have been very hectic because with any event of this magnitude, there are thousands of details to work through,” Sagers said.

The theater has 340 seats, two of which will be occupied by Palin and her husband. The other tickets were given away for free. “How fast can you blink? That would be how fast the tickets to the movie went,” Sagers said.

Many tickets were set aside for Marion County Republicans and Palin supporters in the area, but Sagers says those aren’t the only people in attendance. “I would say most of the attendees are just local community leaders…several of the folks who were invited are patrons of the Opera House,” Sagers said. “They really wanted this to be a community event, not a political event.”

Stephen Bannon is the writer and director of the documentary, which will be released nationally on July 15. It will be shown for the first time today in Pella at 5 p.m.

After the movie premiere, 1,000 people will attend a cookout with Palin – who still has not said if she plans to run for president. Palin does not plan to speak to the media today in Pella. The film premiere and cookout are closed to the media.

Filed Under: Politics & Government
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