From the Desk of Senator Dotzler
Typically, as the calendar turns to the month of April, serious work on the state’s budget begins in earnest.
In past years, the tradition was for joint House and Senate budget committees to meet in a public setting to hear reports from the various departments, giving legislators the opportunity to ask questions about the department’s respective mission of serving Iowa as well as assessing the accountability of their use of tax dollars.
Well, that’s certainly not the case anymore. The Republican majority did not hold a single joint meeting for reviewing budgets. Usually, a subcommittee – once it knows its respective budget numbers – begins the process of funding these departmental priorities and then pass their decisions up to the full appropriations committee for consideration.
I have been serving on the Senate Appropriations Committee for all of my 21 years in the body and I was shocked to see the Republican majority hold the appropriations meetings this week to distribute the budgets for Administration and Regulations; Justice Systems; Judicial Branch; Economic Development; Agriculture and Natural Resources; Education; and Health and Human Services with zero budget numbers or any authorization numbers for state employees in any department.
It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic that the majority party would do this to cut the public out of the process of understanding what is being funded and at what levels. No representatives from the two largest departments, Education and Health and Human Services, representing over $3 billion of the annual state budget, even showed up to respond to questions from legislators.
I asked the chairman of this committee if, when the committee had actual budget numbers, would he hold new meetings so that the public could have an opportunity to respond to the funding proposals. His answer was, “no.”
Budgets with no numbers?!
This week, Iowa Senate Republicans advanced budget bills out of committee, but there was one big catch: those budgets contained no numbers!
The Statehouse press corps took note of this strange and perhaps unprecedented move, calling out Republicans’ “placeholder” budgets that push the state spending plan through the legislative process without the review and discussion Iowans rightfully expect.
They even quoted Democratic Sen. Bill Dotzler, as he tried to make sense of budgets without numbers:
“You appear to be experts at three-card monte. People don’t know what the numbers are, they don’t know where the employees in the state of Iowa are going to be. We don’t have any of that information,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo. “It’s kind of like a shell game.”
This is no way to govern. Iowa taxpayers deserve transparency.
An Update from the Second Legislative Funnel
The Senate passed a major procedural deadline session last week, the so-called Second Funnel, in which most bills must pass one chamber and win committee approval in the other in order to remain eligible for passage.
Many controversial bills remain on the calendar this year, including a dangerous expansion of child-labor laws, school book bans and curriculum censorship, and expensive and unnecessary new red tape for families in need.
But the news isn’t all bad. We continue to see positive, bipartisan bills moving ahead, and at least a few bad ideas falling off the agenda.
Not all bad: These good bills could still become law
- SF 417 and HF 475 prohibit unfair real estate contracts that target older Iowans.
- SF 182 and HF 665 give communities another way to provide affordable housing and address problem properties.
- HF 272 and SF 186 ensure adoptive parents get the same rights and benefits as parents of biological children.
- SF 316 and HF 472 help veterinarians work with law enforcement to combat animal abuse.
The funnel worked: These bad bills won’t become law this year
- SF 516 would have made it harder to expand public conservation and recreation lands.
- SF 136 would have repealed Iowa’s gender balance requirement for state boards.
- SF 357 would have reinstated the death penalty.
- SF 481 would have cut unemployment benefits for some Iowans with larger families.
- SF 297 would have allowed healthcare providers to discriminate based on personal religious beliefs.
- SF 313 would have reduced firefighter training hours.
Quick Updates
- Local teacher honored. I’d like to congratulate Waterloo West High School teacher Catherine Leipold for being a finalist for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. The award is the highest recognition that a mathematics or science teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States. The program is administered by the National Science Foundation on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology.
- Grow it, Eat it winners. Congrats to Waterloo East High School’s agriculture education and FFA chapter for recently being awarded funding for their project focused on developing, implementing or enhancing local gardens and agricultural programs. The district will also work with their local nutrition department to incorporate the food that is grown into school meals.
- Medicaid eligibility reviews. With the end of expanded Medicaid coverage under the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, Iowa HHS is starting eligibility reviews for Medicaid members. Starting this month, Medicaid members begin receiving eligibility review forms in the mail. If you or someone you know receives healthcare coverage through Iowa Medicaid, keep an eye out for this form, and return it promptly to ensure your coverage is not disrupted. Additionally, if you have moved within the last 2 years, call HHS at 877-347-5678 to confirm that your address is up to date. For more information and resources click here.
- Cracking down on child labor. The U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services announced this week a Memorandum of Agreement to advance ongoing efforts fighting child labor exploitation. The agreement will help identify places and employers where children are likely being exploited, and facilitate increased coordination and information-sharing between departments to prevent child labor violations and ensure that victims have access to critical services.
- 14 years of marriage equality. This past Monday marked 14 years since Iowa became the third state in the nation to legalize marriage equality for LGBTQ couples. Unfortunately, marriage equality is still under attack today by Iowa Republicans, who introduced a bill to ban gay marriage in Iowa earlier this year. Iowa Senate Democrats proudly support marriage equality for ALL Iowans.
- High school classes, college credit. A recent Joint Enrollment Report showed over 50,000 Iowa high school students enrolled in college-level courses while still in high school, earning both college and high school credits simultaneously. These students earned a total of 1,804 awards along with their high school diploma, an increase of 60 percent from the previous year. The total number of awards earned included 580 associate degrees, 283 diplomas and 941 certificates.
- Safe Schools Convention. The deadline to register for Iowa Safe Schools’ GovCon is April 17. Since its inception in 2005, GovCon has grown to be the largest LGBTQ youth conference in the nation. This year’s keynote speaker is Andrew Fuller, the Iowa baker who won the Netflix game show “Is It Cake?”
- 988 is a lifeline. People feeling anxious or depressed, parents concerned about their child dying by suicide, and families touched by addiction contact 988 every day. But without sufficient funding for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in Iowa, these calls and texts are routed to national backup centers in states like California or New York. Senate Democrats support funding for 988 centers based in Iowa and staffed by Iowans who understand the struggles of our neighbors and can better support individuals in crisis.
This Week in the Capitol
