Iowa Senate OKs closing of ISU's Leopold Center, other budget cuts

Spending bills that will force the closure of Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and likely reduce court services statewide were approved by the Iowa Senate on Monday as lawmakers dealt with a tight state budget.

The appropriations bills included money for Iowa's agricultural and natural resources programs, the state's judicial branch and the justice system. The measures now head to the Iowa House for final consideration as lawmakers push to adjourn their 2017 session.

Each of the Senate measures were approved on 29-21 votes.

The House also gave approval to budget bills dealing with the state's education budget and the administration and regulation budget. Those bills were approved on 58-41 votes.

AGRICULTURE/NATURAL RESOURCES

Senate File 510 specifically orders the elimination of the Leopold Center and it calls upon ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to oversee the process of winding up the center's affairs. About $1.5 million in money previously directed to the Leopold Center would be shifted to ISU's Nutrient Research Center.

The legislation would cut the state's general fund budget for state agriculture and natural resources programs by 5.6 percent compared to the current fiscal year. Majority Republicans said the $38.8 million in general fund spending for the 2018 state fiscal year would place a priority on water quality, producing food and keeping state parks open.

Other funds providing for agricultural and natural resources programs would remain flat for the coming state fiscal year at $89.7 million.

Sen Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, spoke against closing the Leopold Center, saying it has aided farmers in all 99 counties and has helped them develop new markets and more efficient ways of farming in ways that are more environmentally responsible. He unsuccessfully offered an amendment to restore authorizing language for the Leopold Center to allow it to continue, saying it would at least allow Iowa State University to find funding sources that might be available.

Sen. Tom Shipley, R-Nodaway, spoke against keeping the Leopold Center open and he said funding would be redirected to the Nutrient Research Center that will replace much of the work of the Leopold Center. He said the Legislature faces budget choices, adding, "I have a lot of faith in the people at Iowa State University."

Quirmbach said the Leopold Center is involved in a broader range of work beyond nutrient research. "We have quite a bit to lose here," he added, saying there has been an outpouring of public support for the Leopold Center.

The amendment to keep the Leopold Center open failed on a 28-22 vote with Republicans offering all the votes to closes the center.

Sen. David Johnson, an independent from Ocheyedan, contended that Senate Republicans have wanted to get rid of the Leopold Center "for a long, long time." He said Iowans can't all be "4,000 or 6,000-acre farmers in this state."

JUDICIAL BRANCH

Senate File 508  appropriates about $178.8 million million to Iowa's judicial branch for general operations, plus jury and witness fees, for the 2018 state fiscal year. That represents is no change compared to the current state budget year.

State Court Administrator David Boyd said in a letter last week that the fiscal year 2017 appropriation was $5.5 million short of the amount needed to maintain a full court system for all Iowans.

Receiving a status-quo appropriation for the upcoming state fiscal year will mean more difficult decisions, Boyd said. He commented that all options will be considered, including but not limited to layoffs, reductions in hours, and reductions or eliminations of specialty courts and other new programs.

"Make no mistake these are tough times. Tough decisions will need to be made," Boyd wrote. "Court services will probably have to be reduced in order to live within the funding appropriated to the branch."

Sen. Robert Dvorsky, D-Corvallville, opposed the bill, saying the courts are a separate and equal branch of government. "We have slowly tried to strangle the courts. I don't know why. You will see a lot less hours in the rural areas and a lot of cases delayed — all sorts of things with this level of funding," he remarked.

Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, said the budget stops short of allowing the courts to provide justice to Iowa citizens. "Things are not fine," he added.

Sen. Mark Chelgren,R-Ottumwa, the bill's floor manager, defended the judicial branch budget. If more money had been provided to the courts, it would have come out of public safety programs, he said.

"It is easy to be in in the minority and just say, 'You have to spend more money,' " Chelgren said. He commented that he wishes the state still had a budget surplus, "but that just isn't the reality"

JUSTICE SYSTEMS

Senate File 509 appropriates $559 million for the justice systems budget. It includes cuts of $1.45 million in victims' assistance grants, which support victims of sexual abuse and other crimes. The Department of Corrections was cut by about $5.5 million in 2017 and will see another $1.6 million decrease in the coming fiscal year.

The measure was amended Monday to allow $1.3 million to be shifted to the Iowa attorney general's office from the consumer litigation and education fund. The amendment also says the balance of the victim compensation fund may be used to support up to 24 positions for victims' compensation functions in the attorney general's office. The office may also hire five more persons with federal money.

The bill includes about $1 million more to the Iowa State Patrol, representing a 1.7 percent increase. The additional money is intended to support Department of Public Safety Academy training for new troopers. The legislation also permits the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to contract with a nonprofit organization to resolve civil rights complaints.

Dvorsky spoke against the bill, saying the Iowa Department of Corrections has already been cut too much. He said the most outrageous action is cutting help for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. “This must be part of the war on women," Dvorsky said.

Chelgren said the priorities of state agencies were considered in developing the spending bill. He said efforts were made to reduce the impact of the budget cuts as much as possible, but some hard decisions had to be made. He called criticism of the victims' assistance grant cuts as "political hype" and he said money will still be available to help crime victims.

ADMINISTRATION AND REGULATION

House File 640 outlines $47.4 million in spending for the state’s administrative departments, including the Department of Commerce, the governor’s office, the Department of Revenue and the Secretary of State.

The bill provides $700,000 to the Secretary of State to implement a controversial voter ID program recently signed into law by Gov. Terry Branstad. That includes $85,000 to issue new identification cards to Iowans who do not have a state-issued driver’s license or non-operator’s license. It also includes $50,000 for voter outreach and $500,000 for a revolving loan fund to purchase new electronic poll books.

Democrats were critical of the proposal, because no other department covered by the budget will see a funding increase and most will see decreases.

The proposal would cut about $391,000 from the Department of Inspections and Appeals, including $41,279 from the Child Advocacy Board, which oversees the Iowa Court Appointed Special Advocate Program and the Iowa Foster Care Review Board.

“The state budget is being balanced on the backs of this state’s most vulnerable,” said Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City. “If there’s somebody the least among us unable to advocate for themselves it is probably foster children.”

EDUCATION

House File 642 effectively would reduce education spending from $928 million during the current fiscal year to $908 million next year.

A round of mid-year budget cuts already reduced the Department of Education’s funding by $7.7 million and the Board of Regents’ funding by $18 million.

The 2018 budget calls for another $5.2 million in cuts to the Department of Education and $9.9 million from the Board of Regents.

The bill’s floor manager, Rep. Cecil Dolecheck, R-Mount Ayr, said the cuts to the Board of Regents "will no doubt" result in a tuition increase for Iowa students.

“Maybe we need to do a better job as a state funding the priorities that the people sent us here to fund,” said Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Ames. "Because education is one of the very top ones. From the time kids are born until the time they decide they don’t want to take any more classes, we need to provide education for all. And we need to make sure that we fund it adequately so that everyone has that opportunity.”

The bill cuts $238,834 to a vocation rehabilitation program, which provides job training to those with disabilities. Dolecheck agreed the cuts likely would jeopardize all or part of the federal matching grants supporting that program.

But the bill does maintain a commitment to increase funding to K-12 education by about $40 million in 2018.

Dolecheck said crafting this budget was the most painful thing he's had to do while in the Legislature.

“Hopefully these revenues will turn around here shortly," he said. "And maybe we can do some tax revisions as far as the tax credits and things are concerned, and turn this back around.”