The Capitol Report by Rep. Curt Hanson

Session report for week 16

We returned to the Capitol on Monday without staff and without pay, as the per diem pay expired last week. I hope this will cause the body to reach a compromise that will bring this session to a close.

However, I was not encouraged as the House and the Senate seem to be about $40 million apart in overall spending. Until agreement can be reached on the overall budget number, individual department budget bills cannot be passed.

Meanwhile, bills are placed on the calendar by the majority party leadership. We then do our homework by reading and discussing the bills in caucus as well as rereading constituent correspondence regarding the bills.

Often the majority party will pull bills off the debate calendar for reasons unknown to the minority party. Sometimes these bills will reappear on a future calendar; often they are not seen again.

I did take time this week to visit the new Civil War Exhibit that recently opened at the State Historical Museum. The exhibit highlights the contribution Iowans made to the Civil War effort. I was pleased to see the names of Civil War leaders from our area of Iowa included in the exhibit.

The leadership shown by President Lincoln during the Civil War preserved the Union. He was under tremendous pressure to end the war. Some groups called the war unconstitutional, and a popular general, who was not successful on the field of battle, ran against him. This divisiveness was even found locally during the Civil War. Troops home on leave, upon learning that a Fairfield publication, not the Ledger, was printing articles sympathetic to secession threw the type of the publication into the street and used their horses to trample the type into the mud.

Tuesday we spent a great deal of time discussing SF 2315, a bill dealing with Mental Health and Disability Services, in caucus before debating the bill on the floor. While the bill, as amended, answers some of the concerns that county supervisors and the county central point coordinators have expressed, many questions are not addressed.

County supervisors remain concerned about possible increases in costs if regional mental health service areas are created. They are also concerned about loss of local control. This bill appears to benefit the more populous counties.

I have not received letters in support of this reform from people or officials of the counties in this district. Any major reform must have the support of local people, and this bill does not have local support from the people in this area at this time. In addition, I discovered that the funding for this reform may fall short by tens of millions of dollars.

For all these reasons I think this bill is not ready for the needs of the majority of Iowans and I cannot support it at this time. The bill, however, passed and will be sent to the Senate where it is likely to be assigned to a conference committee.

Wednesday we passed a bill legalizing a mistake the city of Adel made in a local sales tax election several years ago. We then voted to extend the taxation incentive of ethanol-blended fuel for another year (94-0-6).

We also debated a government efficiency bill that would save an additional $3.5 million for Iowans. Many of these cost savings ideas came from citizens and state employees who suggested changes for improvement. Amendments to study building energy savings ideas, as well as the purchase or lease of high mileage passenger vehicles were all ruled not germane. I was disappointed that these energy savings ideas were not included in a government efficiency bill. The bill passed and will be sent to the Senate.

Wednesday afternoon we learned that the conference committees had taken a step backward and the House and Senate are now about two-thirds of 1 percent apart in total budget appropriations. Until this difference is resolved, it will make work on the various department budgets impossible and conference committees will be limited to policy agreements. Both the House and the Senate budgets are balanced and leave the state treasury with a nearly $1 billion surplus and the emergency accounts are fully funded.

Because conference committees are at a temporary standstill, House members were told by the leaders of both parties to return home and await a call to return to the Capitol. This is the same situation we faced last year.

Hardline factions in both parties are urging their members to stick to their positions and not compromise. I think many of us recognize that unwillingness to compromise is not in the best interest of the people. Extremism may make headlines, but it doesn?t solve problems.

It was not a productive week and taxpayers should be glad they are no longer paying legislators of either chamber. I hope we can return next week and finish the work many of us thought should have been completed last week.

(Curt Hanson represents House District 90. He writes a weekly column during the legislative session. He can be contacted on his cell phone at 919-2314. His email address is curt.hanson@legis.state.ia.us.)