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Crowd cheers Ernst’s negative prognosis on GOP’s latest health care bill

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Senator Joni Ernst. (file photo)

Republican Senator Joni Ernst faced a loud crowd at the University of Iowa Friday afternoon as she took questions at a town-hall-style meeting.

Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act were the hot topic. The audience cheered when Ernst said it’s unlikely the GOP’s latest proposal will pass.

“We do have two members that have stated firmly they will not be supporting. There are likely others that will not be supporting,” Ernst said, as the crowd applauded.

The event was punctuated with lots of shouting and booing. A group of protesters gathered outside. Ernst told reporters afterwards that she expected it to be worse.

“I that know that tensions are running high,” she said. “There’s a lot of passionate feelings in this area, but Iowa has once again proven that we can have civil discourse.”

Ernst visits each of Iowa’s 99 counties annually, but this was the first time since Ernst became a senator in 2015 that she held a public forum in the state’s most Democratic county. The latest data indicates there are more than twice as many registered Democratic voters as there are Republicans in the county.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

Iowa party leaders debate state’s finances, federal health care bill

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Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann and Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price.

The leaders of Iowa’s two major political parties had a face-to-face discussion of state government finances Thursday.

It’s a debate likely to continue for months among the 2018 candidates for governor and the legislature. Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann said Republican Governor Kim Reynolds showed “steady management” by withdrawing $13 million from the state’s economic emergency fund to cover the state budget deficit.

“If you have a shortfall, we can’t cut services in the middle of a fiscal year like that. That would be completely irresponsible. We’d be going back to the Culver years if that’s what we did,” Kaufmann said.

Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price said Republicans opposed the use of “one time money for ongoing expenses” when Democrat Chet Culver was governor.

“I was in the governor’s office during that time and (Republicans) railed at the fact that we had to….occasionally do the exact same thing that Kim Reynolds is doing,” Price said.

Kaufmann said the shortfall was an unavoidable. Price said former Governor Branstad and Reynolds have drained “about half” of the billion dollars in the state’s cash reserve and “rainy day” fund.

“This is a manufactured crisis,” Price said. “…This is coming about because the state is giving out way too many tax credits to corporations.”

Kaufmann said the $13 million Reynolds removed from the economic emergency fund will be paid back.

“You can prepare a budget, but there’s always going to be factors that come into play,” Kaufmann said. “The commodity prices, sales tax revenues — that had to be reacted to. I think this was the most appropriate way for the governor to do that.”

Kaufmann and Price made their comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs Friday night on Iowa Public Television. The two chairmen discussed a variety of other issues, including health care policy. Kaufmann, the Republican leader, suggested a GOP-sponsored bill pending in the U.S. Senate that would repeal ObamaCare would be a “starting point” for negotiations on replacing ObamaCare.

“If there is a message from the Donald Trump victory and if there’s a message that’s been sent to us by Iowa voters and, I think by the entire country, that is: ‘You’d better remember what you promised in the campaign,'” Kaufmann said. “Repealing and replacing ObamaCare was one of the prime promises that were made.”

Price, the Democratic leader, said the latest GOP proposal would be a “disaster” for consumers.

“Democrats agree on one thing and that is that everyone should have health care. Health care is a right, not a privilege,” Price said. “…We may disagree exactly what the process, what vehicle it is that’s going to get us to our goal, but we all agree on the same goal.”

And Price noted the Democratic Party platform “supports a single payer” health care system.

Reynolds: budget fix without special session ‘right thing to do’

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Governor Kim Reynolds.

There will be no “special session” of the Iowa legislature this fall to discuss fixes to the state budget and the debate is now shifting to topics for the 2018 legislative session. Governor Reynolds announced yesterday she’d be able to cover the short-fall in last year’s state budget by withdrawing $13 million from the state’s economic emergency fund.

Reynolds said in July, she was getting “a lot of push” to have legislators reconvene to fix things.

“That was reckless and we took our time and we monitored where the revenue stood and it was the right thing to do,” Reynolds said during a stop in southwest Iowa on Wednesday.

The governor’s budget director said during a briefing at the statehouse that more than $70 million in money that was due the state by June 30th was actually paid in July. That whittled the deficit for the last budgeting year to a level Reynolds had the authority to erase on her own, without legislative action. Reynolds said it’s now time for policymakers to look at changing Iowa tax rates in 2018.

“I’m optimistic about Iowa’s future and the economy and we’re going to continue to put policies together that really build on what we’ve done the past six years,” Reynolds said, “so we can keep our economy growing.”

Reynolds made her comments during an appearance yesterday in Shenandoah. The candidates who hope to challenge Reynolds in 2018 as she seeks a full, four-year term as governor are lining up to question the state’s finances. Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, the Republican running against Reynolds, said Reynolds needs to bring legislators back to Des Moines now to cut the current year’s state budget because tax projects are way off.

“But it looks like they’ve done the traditional ‘establishment’ solution and that’s borrow more money and hope that the problem gets better in the future,” Corbett told reporters at the statehouse. “Hope is not an economic strategy.”

State Senator Nate Boulton of Des Moines, one of the Democrats running for governor, questioned the governor’s approach, too.

“My hope would be that we won’t keep having these budget crises and I think a special session could have dealt with that,” Boulton said. “We have a cause and effect issue…We have an over-extension on corporate tax credits, exemptions and give-aways.”

The state is now providing businesses more than half a billion of tax breaks that Boulton says should be examined. Boulton was at the statehouse and talked with reporters yesterday who’d been in the governor’s office for a budget briefing.

Other Democratic candidates for governor issued written statements. Retired businessman Fred Hubbell said Reynolds and former Governor Terry Branstad are guilty of “extreme fiscal mismanagement.” John Norris, a former aide to Governor Tom Vilsack and Senator Tom Harkin, said Reynolds is “bankrupting Iowa with corporate giveaways and rotten Apple deals.” Andy McGuire, a former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party who’s running for governor, said Reynolds is “writing blank checks to out-of-state corporations and sticking hardworking Iowa taxpayers with the bills.”

(Reporting in Shenandoah by KMA’s Brent Barnett)

Governor withdraws $13 million from emergency fund to close books on last state fiscal year

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Dave Roederer

Governor Kim Reynolds will withdraw $13 million from the state’s economic emergency fund to balance last year’s state budget.

The governor’s budget chief told reporters this morning that $70.6 million in past-due payments were made to the state after June 30, dramatically reducing the deficit. If the deficit had been larger than $50 million, the governor would have been forced to call legislators back to Des Moines in a special session this fall to withdraw more. Iowa governors have the authority to withdraw up to $50 million from the economic emergency fund to cover a deficit.

Iowa Department of Management director Dave Roederer spent more than an hour briefing reporters on the accounting methods used to come up with the final number.

“This is the exact same thing that was done for 30 years, the system that we are using, the same progress,” Roederer said. “This is also audited every year by the auditor.”

One unexpected windfall came when some businesses paid the state more than $41 million dollars in income taxes in July — the withholding taxes from paychecks issued on Friday, June 30. Roederer told reporters this happens once every five or six years in the month of June when workers who are paid every two weeks have three rather than just two Friday paydays.

“Does everybody get this part?” Roederer asked. “Because this is kind of the key area that’s driving this.”

Some critics like Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett suggest creative accounting methods were used. Corbett is challenging Governor Kim Reynolds in the 2018 Republican Primary.

“It’s accounting gimmicks that were used,” Corbett said. “There may not be anything illegal about it, but in this case it just pushes the problem under the rug.”

The problem, according to Corbett, is that the state is spending too much. State Senator Nate Boulton of Des Moines is one of the Democrats running for governor and he said the state spending too much on tax credits for big businesses. Boulton, though, told reporters it’s too early to question the accounting methods used to close the books on the last state fiscal year.

“This is a very surprising, just sudden increase in funds that were found in the couch cushions,” said Boulton, who spoke with reporters in the Iowa Senate chambers after Roederer’s briefing concluded. “But at this point, we’re going to have to wait and see where all of that came from as we look through the numbers.”

This is the third time in 2017 that state officials have used the state’s cash reserves to cover expenses for the budgeting year that ended June 30th.

Two officials to reveal crucial state budget details tomorrow (AUDIO)

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Governor Kim Reynolds

There’s likely to be a “big reveal” tomorrow at the statehouse. Governor Kim Reynolds has the authority to withdraw up to $50 million from the state’s cash reserves to cover expenses in last year’s state budget.

If the deficit is larger than that, Reynolds will have to call the legislature back in special session this fall to withdraw more.

The final accounting report on the budgeting year that ended June 30 is nearing completing, according to the governor.

“My Department of Management and Department of Revenue are finalizing the numbers and they will do a update tomorrow,” Reynolds told reporters late this morning during her weekly news conference (audio here).

Reynolds said the two officials will hold a briefing for reporters, but she will not be present. The governor’s budget director said in early July that his review of “cash receipts” indicated there was a $76 million deficit — and that would be reduced once all the bills owed to the state before June 30 were paid this summer and state agencies returned any unspent funds.

Iowa’s governor backs Graham-Cassidy health care bill in U.S. Senate (AUDIO)

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Governor Kim Reynolds

Kim Reynolds is among the 21 Republican governors who are pressing Republican senators to pass the latest alternative for repealing ObamaCare.

“Right now, this is the only vehicle that we have to address ObamaCare that’s failing,” Reynolds said late this morning during her weekly statehouse news conference.

AUDIO of news conference (discussion of Graham-Cassidy bill starts at 29th minute)

The bill authored by Republican senators from South Carolina and Louisiana would send federal spending on the health care law back to the states as block grants.

“If you take a look at welfare reform in the ’80s where they gave states, through block grants, the flexibility to manage the population, they cut the rolls in half,” Reynolds said, “so it can work.”

Reynolds told reporters she’s not aiming to cut the number of Iowans enrolled in Medicaid in half, but is instead focused on stabilizing the collapsing individual insurance market. The bill pending in the U.S. Senate, though, is a “long term” fix, according to Reynolds. She and other state officials are waiting for federal approval of a short-term waiver that would redirect ObamaCare subsidies for 2018.

“I can tell you that all parties want to get to yes,” Reynolds said. “…I have to have something in place so that we can start signing people up in November.”

Iowans who quality for federal subsidies to buy private insurance will start buying 2018 policies in November. Just one company has agreed to offer policies in Iowa. The state’s insurance commissioner has proposed redirecting the federal subsidies, paying insurance companies directly for care of seriously ill customers along with higher subsidies for younger, healthy Iowans who buy insurance.

The commissioner believes those steps will help reduce overall premium spikes, plus Wellmark has offered to sell individual policies in Iowa next year if those steps are taken.

Reynolds says 2017 legislature ‘most pro-jobs…in two decades’ (AUDIO)

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Governor Kim Reynolds. (file photo)

As Republican Kim Reynolds campaigns for a full, four-year term as governor, she is highlighting the work of the first Republican-led state legislature in 20 years. It’s all work that turned into the laws Terry Branstad approved before resigning and handing the governorship over to his lieutenant governor in late May.

“Promises made and promises delivered,” Reynolds said Saturday. “This past session we seized the opportunity to build on the success over the past six years, to build on the policies that we put in place to strengthen the economy, to improve our quality of life and to streamline and shrink our government.”

Today is the 118th day Reynolds has been governor. Branstad signed into law all the bills passed by the 2017 legislature before he resigned on May 23.

“Hardworking taxpayers, they found a place at the table,” Reynolds said. “We made it more affordable to own and operate a business. In fact, it was the most pro-jobs legislative session in two decades.”

Reynolds was among the speakers at this past weekend’s Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition fundraiser in Des Moines.

AUDIO of Reynolds speech, 14:23

AFSCME Council 61 — the union that represents the largest share of state workers — weighed in on twitter. A tweet advised the labor movement to “pay attention” to what Reynolds was saying and accused her of “bragging about what was done to Iowa workers” by the 2017 legislature.

Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann, another speaker at Saturday’s event (audio here), praised the Republican legislators who were in the crowd.

“That last session was nothing short of political courage public and simple on every front and, ‘Thank you!’ to those legislators and, ‘Thank you!’ to our governor,” Kaufmann said, drawing applause from the crowd.

About 600 Christian conservatives attended the event, which was held in Des Moines.

Trump gets ‘enthusiastic’ praise at gathering of Iowa Christian conservatives (AUDIO)

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Nearly 600 Iowa evangelical Christians rose with enthusiastic ovations when their president was praised last night during the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall fundraiser in Des Moines.

Steve Scheffler, the organization’s president, said since he’s not an elected official, he could speak frankly about the “unhinged…socialist, borderline Marxist” Democrats who he said “are doing everything in their power to destroy America.”

“And also, I have to tell you, I know that he makes mistakes, but I am an enthusiastic, passionate supporter of our great president, President Donald J. Trump,” Scheffler said and the crowd rose to applaud and cheer.

Scheffler added, however, that the people he was “the most disgusted” and “angry with” were Republican senators who have openly questioned Trump’s conservative credentials.

“I’ll just name ’em — Ben Sasse (of Nebraska) and Jeff Flake (of Arizona), who could have a nice conversation with the president, but they want to write books and try to demean him and I’m sick of it and the people that live in those states need to find a primary and take them out and put people there that want to lead and make this country great again.”

The crowd cheered those sentiments as well.

AUDIO of Scheffler’s speech, 6:40

Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann blasted two other Republican senators — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Arizona’s John McCain — for blocking the “rapid rate” of change that Trump seeks.

“I want to be crystal clear about what this party and the spokesperson of this party thinks about our president. We will absolutely stand behind President Donald Trump. We will not waiver. He is our president and we are proud of him as the Republican Party of Iowa, period!” Kaufmann said, shouting at the end his sentence, and the crowd rose again to applaud his sentiments.

AUDIO of Kaufmann’s remarks, 9:00

Congressman Steve King spent part of last week sending warning flares on Twitter after Trump met with the top two Democrats in congress about President Obama’s program that protected young immigrants from deportation. King did not mention immigration or even say the name Donald Trump during his remarks.

“We just elected a president and things are working along with some degree of significant success and some degree of frustration,” King said.

AUDIO of King’s speech, 12:30

King did post a picture of the event’s main organizer on Twitter, mentioning that “Scheffler just mentioned @RealDonaldTrump name and triggered a standing ovation at Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner.”

Iowa’s two Republican U.S. senators spoke at the Saturday night event, too. Senator Chuck Grassley used most of his time on stage to talk about political philosophy and the inspiration for his own governing strategy. Senator Joni Ernst mentioned a few issues, including Trump’s roll-back of federal regulations, like the Waters of the U.S. rule that was unpopular with farmers.

“I am here tonight just to offer you a little bit of inspiration and encouragement because it seems like in the media, all that we hear nowadays is all of the negativity and the controversy, but there have been some really positive steps forward this year. For one, we confirmed a new supreme court justice,” Ernst said, drawing whoops and cheers from the audience.

AUDIO of Ernst’s remarks, 9:00

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford was the event’s keynote speaker. Lankford was a youth pastor for 22 years and he began by talking about leading a Christian youth camp for 15 years before his election to congress.

“Learning how to deal with thousands of juveniles did prepare me better than you would think,” Lankford said, to laughter and applause.

Lankford spent much of his speech, though, urging the crowd of Christians to work “locally and individually” rather than relying upon government to address every societal ill.

AUDIO of Lankford’s speech, 47:30

Report: Senator Anderson to resign, taking job in Cherokee County

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Senator Bill Anderson.

The Sioux City Journal is reporting that a northwest Iowa Republican plans to resign from the state senate to take a job in Cherokee County.

Forty-year-old Bill Anderson of Pierson was an aide to Senator Chuck Grassley for eight years and he’s currently a policy advisor on Congressman Steve King’s staff. Anderson has been a state senator since January of 2011. The Sioux City Journal reports he will become the executive director of the Cherokee Area Economic Development Corporation.  

Anderson, a veteran of the Iowa National Guard, is a former member of the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee.

Anderson and his wife have run a business in Sioux City that provides accounting, bookkeeping and investment services.

Earlier this year, Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix removed Anderson from his role as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Neither Dix nor Anderson have commented on the demotion.

Anderson’s senate district covers Plymouth and Woodbury Counties and includes his hometown of Sioux City. The governor will set the date for a special election to fill the vacancy, once Anderson submits his resignation letter. According to the latest voter registration data, there are more than twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats in the district.

 

Man accused during trial of harassment resigns from Iowa Senate GOP staff

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A Senate Republican Caucus staff employee at the center of a sexual harassment lawsuit has resigned.

Kirsten Anderson is the communications director for Senate Republicans who was fired in 2013 hours after complaining about her work environment. She sued and, in July, a jury awarded her $2.2 million in damage.

During this summer’s trial, Anderson and other co-workers testified their office was a toxic workplace and the behavior of fellow staffer Jim Friedrich was cited. Friedrich’s coworkers said he routinely used coarse language and had talked about the length of the skirts worn by high school girls working as pages in the senate. Anderson testified that as Friedrich looked out his office window, he sometimes issued what he called “hot chic” reports as he saw female lobbyists walking toward the statehouse.

A spokesman for Senate Republicans told The Des Moines Register Friedrich resigned Wednesday, but no other details will be released because it’s a personnel matter.

In late July, the Senate’s Republican leader asked another senate employee to review the complaints about sexual harassment that were aired during the trial.