Very important legislation was brought before the Iowa House this past week. Dozens of bills were debated and passed. While all of the bills are of importance to some constituency or another, the most notable pieces of legislation dealt with TouchPlay machines, the Education budget and the Health and Human Services budget. Those two budget bills account for about 80% of the total state budget, which totals slightly more than $5 billion.

The TouchPlay debate was anticlimactic. Given the Senate's earlier overwhelming approval of an outright ban on TouchPlay games, the House was left to decide only when the ban would take effect. We did it in an unusual way. The House first voted for the ban to take effect 45 days after the Governor signs it, but later the House approved another bill, which extends that deadline until September 1st. The Governor has already agreed to sign the bill containing the 45-day deadline, but the September extension is up in the air. So the games are banned; we're just not sure when.

The education budget proved to be the disaster. Senate leaders have already declared it dead on arrival. That's because it's less of a budget than it is an opening bargaining position. House Republican leaders low-balled education funding knowing they will have to compromise with the Governor and Senate leaders who are committed to improving education. The vote was 53-44. I voted against the bill, as it is woefully inadequate.

The House education budget bill did nothing to improve teacher salaries, despite the fact that teacher pay has slumped to 41st in the nation. It put no money into pre-school programs for 4-year olds, even though research points to early education as a key to future academic success. Community colleges received less than half of what they asked, but they were treated great compared with state universities, who were allocated a stingy 15% of their request.

As the ranking member of the Health and Human Service appropriation, I am pleased that, in contrast to the education budget process, Chairman Heaton and I were able work in a collaborative manner to move us toward providing safety and security for Iowa’s most vulnerable citizens, along with improving the health and well being of Iowans. Nearly all of the suggestions and requests of Democrats were considered and acknowledged in the bill. As a result, I voted in favor of the bill (along with 25 other Democrats) and the bill passed by a vote of 79-17 which is in sharp contrast to the Education budget bill which garnered only two Democratic votes. We obtain positive results when we work in a bi-partisan manner. The biggest winners of this bi-partisan cooperation are the beneficiaries of these programs and the Iowa taxpayers who provide the resources for our vulnerable populations.

There was good news in the human service budget, which included the following: a much-needed 3% increase in state payments to medical and child welfare service providers; a sizable increase in funding to maintain Iowa’s children’s health insurance program (hawk-i); an increase in child care rates and funding for anticipated growth in the number of children requiring care while their parents go to work or school; additional money to provide dental services and mental health services to children 0-5; an increase in funding for drug courts; funding to allow nursing home residents on Medicaid to keep an extra $20 per month for personal needs; the addition of 12 clinical consultants to better address child abuse situations; and funding for the Preparation for Adult Living Services (PALS) program, addressing the needs of youth who turn 18 while in the foster care system.

With this budget the Department of Public Health will have more funds to allocate for lead poisoning prevention, will be able to start a hepatitis treatment and prevention effort, and will have $2 million more for substance abuse treatment programs. A new cancer and transplant drug repository will be established at the University of Iowa to accept donations of unused drugs and make them available to persons in need of them.

Since we were discussing and debating health issues, I offered an amendment that would increase the tobacco tax by .64˘. Research instructs us that when the price of tobacco products increases, tobacco usage decreases. The proposal would bring the tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1 and use the revenue to offset spending from the Senior Living Trust Fund. The amendment was blocked by House Speaker Rants, who ruled it “not germane,” or not relevant.

The Health & Human Services budget still has a shortfall in additional funding for the frail elderly, which, while increased by $750,000 over last year, still fell well below the Governor’s proposal to expand this effort by $3 million.

The budget bills are now largely in the Senate's court, and then House and Senate leaders can begin hammering out the final budget agreements with the Governor.

You can write me at the State Capitol, Des Moines, IA 50319; call me at 515/281-7328 or e-mail me at ro.foege@legis.state.ia.us.

Ro

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