February 9, 2012

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Are legislators scofflaws today?

February 9, 2012 By

The latest round of partisan sniping at the statehouse is over a state law which establishes today as the deadline for legislators to set the general level of state school funding for the academic year that begins in the fall of 2013.

Republicans want to get rid of the law and set up a different timeline for making those kind of decisions. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, says their idea is “sounder” financially because the decision gets pushed to later in the spring when legislators have a better idea of what state tax revenues may be.

“We think we can make a better decision and with greater confidence at that point,” Paulsen says.

But Democrats like Representative Sharon Steckman of Mason City say regardless of whatever alternative has been proposed, legislators need to follow the law that currently exists.

“I think at this time when schools are worried about the reform package is going to be like — there’s lots of variables out there — we need to give them the stability in at least knowing where their funding is going to be at,” Steckman says.

There is no penalty in the law for legislators who fail to meet this school funding decision deadline, and in the past this deadline has been missed. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal says when it’s happened before, legislators passed another bill spelling out an exception for the situation, but there’s no such bill pending today.

“I think it’s really kind of fascinating,” Gronstal says. “I guess this is their new attempt at regulatory reform: If you don’t like a state law, don’t obey it.”

Paulsen, the top Republican in the House, shoots back, accusing Democrats of over-promising to schools in the past.

“They ended up not being able to afford it. The governor ended up having to do a 10 percent across-the-board cut, which was more devastating to the schools,” Paulsen says. “I mean, that was crushing to them.”

The state law legislators are violating suggests the House, Senate and governor must agree on the general level of state aid for public K-12 public schools by a certain date. Under the calculations in that law, the date is 30 days after the governor submits his budget plan to lawmakers, and this year that 30 day period expires today.

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

Tax break plan for the Field of Dreams site clears first Senate vote

February 8, 2012 By

A bill that would provide a tax break to a project to expand the Field of Dreams site near Dyersville in eastern Iowa cleared an initial hurdle in the Iowa Senate today. One critic said the state should not be singling out one economic development opportunity over another, but Senator Tod Bowman, a Democrat from Maquoketa, couldn’t resist quoting the 1989 movie’s signature line.

“I probably can’t begin without saying if we build it they will come,” Bowman said. He went on to explain that the tax break would boost the rural economy by helping investors preserve the movie site and add a youth sport complex for traveling teams.

He says it’s estimated the expanded site would generate $272-million in revenues over 10 years with 95% of that money coming from out of state. Bowman said the project would get a sales tax rebate on sales that would never have happened without the expansion, so the state has no skin in the game.

But Senator Jack Whitver, a Republican from Ankeny, did not sign on. “It’s just I don’t want to be in the middle of deciding who wins and who loses in government,” Whitver said. In other words giving a tax break to the Field of Dreams project, but not for some other youth sports complex.

“At this time I’m just not comfortable saying we like you we’re going to let you succeed and not you in Ankeny or Sioux City or Council Bluffs,” Whitver said.

“Go the Distance Baseball” is seeking investors to underwrite the $38-million facility. Spokesman David Adelman says the tax break is important to the project.

“It significantly affects our ability to go towards investors, saying that the state is not interested in participating,” Adelman said. Under the bill, the project dubbed “Allstar Ballpark Heaven” would get a sales tax rebate for 10 years or up to 16-million-dollars once they’re up and running.

A similar tax break helped create the Iowa Speedway in Newton. The bill advances to the Senate Economic Growth Committee.

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Countdown to Chinese VP’s appearance in Iowa (audio)

February 8, 2012 By

Chinese Counsel General General Yang Guoqaing, Governor Branstad, Lieutenant Governor Reynolds.

Preparations continue for what Governor Terry Branstad has suggested may be one of the diplomatic events of the century in Iowa.

China’s vice president is due to visit Muscatine, then Des Moines next week and the Chinese consul general based in Chicago traveled to Iowa today to speak with reporters about the trip.

“Vice President Xi’s visit will truly enhance the friendship and it will truly bring more people-to-people exchanges between our two countries,” he said during a news conference in Governor Branstad’s office.

Branstad revealed most of the details of Xi Jingping’s visit earlier this week. He’ll be the guest at an elaborate banquet inside the state capitol next Wednesday night. Branstad plans to invite all 150 legislators, the top judges in Iowa’s court system and some key Iowa business leaders to the event.

Chinese Counsel General General Yang Guoqaing talks with a reporter.“We hope that he goes away feeling as good about Iowa this time as he did when he came here the first time in 1985,” Governor Branstad said this afternoon.

Xi was a party leader in his province when he led a delegation from China to Iowa as part of a “sister-state”exchange. During that trip, Xi stayed with a family in Muscatine and he plans to reconnect with those folks next Wednesday. The consul general told reporters Xi has fond memories of his visit.

“It’s a truly, truly very touching story that such a high, senior level official…still remembered every scene, every movement, every member of the friends and families very vividly,” Chinese Consul General Yang Guoqaing said.

AUDIO of today’s news conference.

Iowa’s governor has been suggesting there are many ways in which Iowa can benefit, economically, from cementing relationships with the Chinese, from expanding exports of raw ag commodities to extending the retirement plans offered by Des Moines-based Principal Financial into Chinese cities where that country’s aging middle class is searching for options that would provide some sort of financial security beyond their work years.

Governor Branstad on Monday likened Xi’s visit to Iowa as on par with Pope John Paul’s visit to Living History Farms in 1979 and Soviet President Nikita Kruschev to an Iowa farm in 1959.

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Mayors deliver “more, not less” message at capitol (audio)

February 8, 2012 By

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett.

Mayors from Iowa’s 10 largest cities say they “need more, not less” tax revenue to remain the key hubs for jobs in the state.

 The newly-formed “Iowa Metropolitan Coalition” touts an Iowa State University study indicating 62 percent of the jobs in Iowa’s 10 largest cities are filled by people who live in adjacent suburban or rural areas.

Waterloo Mayor Buck Clark is among the mayors and other big-city officials who gathered outdoors for a news conference today on the statehouse stops.

“To specifically point out the importance our core cities have on the entire vitality and financial success on whole regions in the state,” Clark said, in explaining the event. “Our cities provide jobs and quality of life to our own residents, but they also fuel the economy of our counties and of our neighboring communities.”

Republican Governor Terry Branstad and legislators have been debating the idea of reducing the amount of commercial property taxes cities may collect. Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie argued city governments are running bare-bone budgets today and can’t afford more reductions.

“Cities need more dollars for economic development. We need more dollars for infrastructure. We need more dollars for flood (control and mitigation),” Cownie said. “We need more dollars, not less.”

Cities used to get money from bank franchise fees and from property taxes on machinery and equipment, but Cownie said state officials in the past shut down those sources of taxes, too.

“We have an ever shrinking source of revenues,” Cownie said. “I think we have a lot of ideas about what we could do, but certainly the solution for the future of Iowa is not to shrink the revenue sources to the place where this state and job opportunity is growing.”

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said the economies of Iowa’s largest cities are “equally as strong” as the state’s robust ag economy. 

“Cities oftentimes are on the front lines when it comes job creation,” Corbett said. “We work hand-in-hand individually, and our staffs do, with businesses that are looking to locate and expand in our community.”

According to the analysis from Iowa State University economist David Swenson, 29 percent of Iowans live in the state’s 10 largest cities and those cities generate 39 percent of the state’s gross domestic product.

AUDIO of today’s news conference.

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Dog racing days numbered in Iowa?

February 8, 2012 By

Bills that would end greyhound racing in Iowa are moving on two tracks at the statehouse.

Early this morning, a three-member panel in the Iowa House reviewed a plan that would let the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs and the Mystique Casino in Dubuque stop subsidizing the prizes for dog races, effectively ending greyhound racing at those two facilities. Representative Kevin Koester, a Republican from Ankeny, says there are “clear signals” nationally that the days of dog racing are numbered.

“Having spent time listening to both sides, the issue comes down to not if the dog racing by greyhounds will last forever…it’s a matter of when…it clearly is going to end,” Koester says.

Representative Brian Moore, a Democrat from Zwingle, says this proposal violates the “integrity” of the agreement state officials struck in 1983 when they legalized greyhound racing.

“I think we need to honor this business,” Moore says. “There’s too many times that a particular side isn’t making out as well as the other side and then we think we have to yank the rug out from under them.”

Early this month another bill on the subject cleared an initial hurdle in the Iowa Senate. That legislation would have the casinos in Council Bluffs and Dubuque pay the state $70 million over seven years in exchange for ending greyhound racing in their facilities.

Casino representatives suggest there are often more dogs than people at the greyhound parks in Iowa, while a lobbyist for the greyhound industry says the casinos have stopped promoting the races, making it difficult for patrons to follow the action. According to a casino lobbyist, 27 greyhound tracks around the country have closed in the past five years, leaving just 23 operating today.

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Another gun bill emerges in Iowa House, aimed at “weapons-free” zones

February 8, 2012 By

Iowa cities and counties would not be allowed to ban firearms in government-owned buildings if a bill gun rights advocates are pushing for becomes law.

The legislation would establish a fine of as much as $5000 for city and county officials who would let such gun restrictions stand. Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says he’s aware of at least 13 localities in Iowa that have some type of ban on firearms in public places.

“A lot of people think that if we put restrictions on firearms that all of a sudden that’s going to make our city streets safer. Really? There’s criminals out there that don’t abide by the law right now,” Windschitl says.

The bill cleared an initial, three-person panel Tuesday and now awaits action in a House committee. Kate Carlucci of the Iowa League of Cities says communities should be able to decide whether public places should be weapons-free zones, as many businesses are making that call.

“A city should have the power to exercise that same right as a private business owner,” Carlucci says.

Windschitl also would like to let gun owners bring their weapons inside the statehouse. “I’m appalled that they’re not allowed to, and that’s actually an administrative rule and I’ve looked at trying to change that for years,” Windschitl says. “But I know in the current climate there’s people that wouldn’t want to see that changed.”

After the 9/11 attacks, metal detectors and security guards were stationed at the public entrances to the statehouse……..

 

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Statehouse showdown over state support of K-12 schools

February 7, 2012 By

Democrats in the Iowa Senate have voted to dramatically increase the level of general state aid for K-12 education in the future.

In the current year, Iowa’s public schools saw “status quo” support from the state, meaning no increase over last year. Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, says that’s unprecedented.

“It has never been the case prior that we have done so little to help advance education,” Quirmbach says.

The level of state aid for schools is set to increase by two percent, starting this fall. But this morning Senate Democrats approved a bill that would set aside four percent more in general state aid for schools, starting in the fall of 2013. Quirmbach says that’s $142 million more for K-12 schools.

“That is well within our ability to pay given the likely level of revenue growth over the next two years,” Quirmbach says. “Our economy is recovering.”

Republican senators rejected the idea. Senator Shawn Hamerlinck, a Republican from Dixon, ridiculed the Democrats.

“We hear all the time that, ‘We’re doing this for the kids.’ ‘Our schools are barebones.’ ‘We care about the youth,’” Hammerlinck said.

But Hammerlinck accused Democrats of promising money they may not be able to deliver.

“Right now, it’s nothing more than a sound bite or a soapbox that you stand on, to score political points,” Hammerlinck said.

Republicans in the House do not intend to bring up the Senate Democrats’ proposal for state funding of schools in the 2013/2014 school year. Republican Governor Terry Branstad has asked legislators to repeal the state law that requires lawmakers to set the level of state aid for schools two years in advance, to give administrators time to plan. The current legal deadline for taking that action for the 2013 academic year is this Thursday.

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