February League Forum

February League Forum

Good morning! 9:34 and live at City Hall for the February LWV forum. Cosponsors ARC and ICLU.

Present: Mascher, Lensing, Jacoby, Foege, Bolkcom, Dvorsky. Once again, all Dems, no Republicans. And they just disclaimed that.

We start with Mascher. I'll clean up typos later...

Mascher: Next week is funnel week. Working on budget bills. Baselines won't be final appropriations. Education budget totally inadequate; closed door discussions will produce real number. House passed 4% allowable growth. Will ripple through all education aspects.

Death penalty, touch play... I'd like feedback. Eminent domain passed house, on to Senate.

9:38 - Lensing. Very trying week... State govt. working on touch play, 60 speakers testified to House. State government bill is a "shell" waiting for what to include. Legislators all over the place on touch play, from do nothing to total ban. Public concerns: access by minors, monitoring. Small businesses relying for revenue, see it as "economic development." Legalities of contracts, gambling addiction. Not an easy issue. Thursday will be a long day.

Judiciary - death penalty on fast track. Party line vote in committee. Won't come to House for debate - we've been assured (and we hope). Only political reasons behind it.

Oversight - sentencing reform. Heard from judges, DOC, sheriffs, victims, etc. What we heard: system so complicated. Too many laws due to "tough on crime" attitude. We need to get SMART on crime. Last reviewed ion `78.

9:43 - Jacoby. Go West High wrestlers. Hygienic lab - working on new lab. It's only a pork project if you want bird flu and anthrax in your back yard. Road use tax formula - change so more taxes come back to areas where taxpayers are. (more $ to urban?)

HF 670 may affect public cable access, very important.

(Aside: I see three county supervisors here-Stutsman, Neuzil, Lehman.)

Wants $20 million for bioscience alliance. An investment to advance biotech. We need lab space.

Touch play: let us know.

9:48 - Dvorsky. Appropriations - looking at Hygienic lab. Don't thing federal will provide the funds we're seeking, will need more from state. University president search - several meetings with regents and passing along faculty concerns and wish for involvement.

Education - Vilsack involved in K-12, trying to put together comprehensive plan. Allowable growth no passed yet. Vilsack won't sign before comp. plan. Want package - resources and reforms.

Death penalty - Lensing and Foege doing good job on house side opposing. Senate will not bring out bill. And Vilsack would veto. Will just be used in election. Media Poll (see my post yesterday.) 1995 vote - I opposed.

9:53 - Bolkcom. We are working with Linn Co. legislators on corridor issues. Dvorsky set up meeting with government. on hygienic lab, UI funding, president search.

Commerce: predatory lending passed committee. Car title loan cap at 21%. Not much support from Rants in house. MH/DD meeting with statewide leaders, Foege attended too. Waiting list, cancelled services due to funding cap. Crisis, seeking solutions.

Seeking home visit for all IA newborns. Renewable energy incentives -wind, biomass. Water quality bill. Cities don't like proposed rules...

9:57 - Foege. Makes pun on being at the end of the "ro". Human services appropriations, ranking member. Medicaid biggest chunk of that. We need to protect and fund HAWK-I program and help more kids. More resources for child care - workers among lowest paid in state. PALS = Preparing For Adult Living. For kids aging out of foster care. About 550 a year, most do not complete high school before 18. We need to help them get started.

Mental health and disability funding: need about $10 million to beef up services. Tobacco tax could do that.

10:02 First question. Caroline Dieterle of ICLU. (I gave her mine to work into hers.) Would you introduce leg. to reclassify simple pot possession to simple misdemeanor? Praise for Pulkrabek. Needed in face of Mark Zieman's proposal to actually increase penalties.

Bolkcom: Jails overcrowded with drug offenses. It's a public health issue more than an incarceration issue. More $ for treatment. I think proposal deserves consideration. We've gotten stricter in recent years. Special problem in college communities - what happens to ability to get into law/med schools. Deserves consideration. Sheriff has gotten heat, but will enforce law. Former IC police chief came to me in private with this three years ago. No support in Des Moines.

Dieterle: so, will you introduce it?

Foege: I've discussed with House judiciary chair, he said absolutely no.

Lensing: Pulkrabek comments taken out of context: overcrowding. Present laws are so stringent and not enough $ for treatment. Problem is, former law enforcement people on committee still think it needs to be stricter. We need different people there. More hope in senate. No hope in House.

Mascher. I will consider offering but deadlines passed for this year. I have a proposal in to eliminate mandatory minimums. We take away judicial discretion, creates more overcrowding. I introduced med marijuana and industrial hemp leg. in past.

Dvorsky: No good to introduce now, but I applaud sheriff. Right now big issue is stopping death penalty. (But didn't they already say it's dead?) Sentencing commission should have been made permanent. But just throwing a bill out just inflames GOP.

10:11 Question from ARC. Voc rehab funding cuts.

Jacoby: The money won't come back from Feds. Worker retraining $also cut. Federal budget cuts will hit hard this fall but we won't know full impact till after election. PAY ATTENTION (repeats mantra from last month). He's getting passionate here - this is really his area of expertise. We need to invest in all our people with potential. $6-7 return on each dollar invested just in short term. Do we want to develop our work force in Iowa or not?

Foege: Constant threat of federal Medicaid cuts. Lost $60 million in indigent care last year. Another $5 mill lost last year. Pedaling as fast as we can - hurts most vulnerable people. Literally life and death decisions. Irony of death penalty debate - since we spend so much effort protecting the vulnerable, then we go talk about death penalty rather than positively supporting life (profound and deep guy, he is)

Dvorsky: No one at this table cut anything. We increased human services last year - because Senate shared Dem control.

Bolkcom: We met this week with GOP to try to get a proposal. We are having trouble w/ county funding cap. Will we allow counties to raise more property tax (no support now) or state funding (not there). So we'll try a short-term fix. Long term = need new leadership.

10:18 - League question. Election bill- wants paper trail ballots. How is it in House?

Lensing: don't know if there's a bill now. We passed a bad bill - mandatory photo ID to vote. Will probably come out in House but die in Senate.

Dvorsky: Would help if Culver would support paper trail.

LWV - He has.

Dvorsky - Had not heard that; Sec of State office should lobby for paper trail.

10:21 - Jim Clayton, anti-alcohol person. Keg registration. Question gets long and LWV cuts off.

Mascher: HyVee favoring, gives it more traction this year. Distributors and other retailers consider it an unfunded mandate and oppose it. Concern about tracking being changed, people removing registration from keg.

Clayton: Kegs already carry serial number.

Bolkcom: It's a struggle, organized interests opposing. Don't know if we'll get a bill.

Clayton: Opines some more.

10:25 - County supervisor Mike Lehman. MH/DD funding. SF69 capped funding - our present budget is $10 million. Eligibility will tighten and we'll lose people from system. Please educate other legislators.

This will probably be my last question so I can cut out and get to Edwards.

Bolkcom: SF69 has worked pretty well: state requires managed care plan and provides 50% of funding. But 10 years later we haven't given enough new resources. Either state picks up more (unlikely) or give counties more flexibility. Linn looking at cuts NOW, Johnson probably next year. This won't go away.

Foege: Dvorsky pulled together mental health meeting. Bigger problem for larger counties as they provide more sophisticated services (esp. Johnson and Linn) We hurt first, the rest will. Need to tweak formula and get some $$$.

Mascher: Many people signing no new taxes pledges, no matter what. Stanley's doing. We need people who say we won't support if you sign that pledge. It's irresponsible. Ask those questions. Some area legislators signing that.

Jacoby: Thanks for coming, it gets word out. I'm frustrated: we don't give local govt. the tools. Many people in leg. don't have local govt. experience and don't understand. There's no fat in local budgets, despite what some legislators claim. (He's ex city council).

Dvorsky: Now we're seeing effects of past cuts. Senate Dems trying to address. Fixing formula is an incremental step.

Off I go. As I left, the League moderator was asking the questioner to finish her lengthy anti-touch play statement and ask a question.