NEWS

Iowa Senate OKs $6 billion, two-year state spending bill

William Petroski
bpetrosk@dmreg.com

The Iowa Senate on Thursday approved a two-year state appropriations bill worth more than $6 billion that includes money for a 2.62 percent increase in kindergarten-through-12th grade school funding for next year and a 4 percent increase the following year.

The so-called "standings appropriations bill," which passed on a 26-21 vote, is traditionally one of the last bills passed prior to adjournment and provides money for various state government programs. Democrats were all in favor and Republicans were opposed.

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Senate File 510 also includes a host of policy measures, including language requiring school training to investigate incidents of bullying or harassment, and new rules on mammogram information sent to medical patients. In addition, the measure establishes a state employee retirement incentive program for eligible employees of the state's executive branch and it makes the program optional for the legislative and judicial branches, and Board of Regents' institutions.

Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, spoke against the bill, saying legislation that includes many subjects violates the Iowa Constitution.

"I believe that a catch-all bill, in no matter what form, would be inappropriate. We should be running these as individually smaller bills. When you have 30 or 40 subject matters, it does not allow the individual senator to vote on the individual issue," Chelgren said in an interview after the vote.

Sen. Robert Dvorsky, D-Coralville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee

Sen. Robert Dvorsky, D-Coralville, said he believes the Senate bill represents good work by lawmakers, but he recognizes it must still be reconciled with a budget bill being developed by House Republicans. That means the final legislation will be determined in a House-Senate conference committee.

The Senate bill provides $2.98 billion for fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1, 2015, and $3.21 billion for fiscal year 2017, which starts July 1, 2016.

School funding would be increased by $155 million over current levels for the upcoming academic year, and it would be raised by an additional $213 million for the second year. The Iowa Senate voted in February to authorize 4 percent increases in school aid for each of the next two school years, but Senate Democratic leaders have lowered their first year proposal to about 2.62 percent in an effort to compromise with House Republicans, who have offered 1.25 percent the first year.

The Senate bill also provides money for supplemental state appropriations, including $1 million for the Iowa Department of Corrections and the Fort Madison state prison. It provides $2.8 million more for the Iowa Department of Public Health for substance abuse treatment, and another $1.5 million for a collaborative effort to help heart attack patients.

In addition, there's $750,000 to establish a new Refugee Family Support Services Pilot Program.

Here are some of the policy measures included in the bill:

  • Requires the Iowa Department of Education to ensure each school district has access to adequate training to investigate complaints of harassment or bullying by offering training on an annual basis to at least one employee per district. The requirement is subject to an appropriation of funds.
  • Requires the School Climate and Bullying Work Group to submit a report by Dec. 15, 2016, to the Department of Education and the Legislature.
  • Directs the Judicial Branch to evaluate the current practice for collecting outstanding court debt.
  • Permits the county commissioner of elections to require precinct election officials to utilize digital images to compile write-in reports for delivery to the county's special precinct board for tallying, rather than requiring delivery of the physical ballots.
  • Requires an employer, for the first year of adoption, to treat an employee that adopts a child the same as a biological parent of a newborn child for the purpose of employment policies, benefits, and protections.
  • Requires the Department of Public Health to adopt rules that require facilities that perform mammography services to include information on breast density in mammogram reports sent to patients.
  • Adds assault between people in intimate relationships to the definition of the crime of domestic abuse assault.
  • Creates a new crime of unauthorized placement of a global positioning device.
  • Removes a requirement that court be held in Avoca in Pottawattamie County.
  • The state Geological Survey is established in the Iowa Hydroscience and Engineering unit at the University of Iowa College of Engineering.
  • Lengthens the time the Iowa Pharmacy Board is allowed to temporarily designate substances as controlled substances to two years before the Legislature must act to codify the change.