Thursday, April 9, 2015
N/Warren Town and County News
Page Eleven
Senate News
By State Senator Julian B. Garrett
Julian.Garrett@legis.iowa.gov.
School Start Date
Senator Gronstal withdrew his Motion to Reconsider
the school start date bill. It has now gone to the Gover-
nor for his signature. Schools cannot start before Au-
gust 23 except for elementary attendance centers that
are on a year-round calendar.
School Funding
Republicans on the Conference Committee consid-
ering a possible school funding increase rejected a
Democrat proposal to increase it by 2.625%. Even at that
level, the Governor's proposed budget would have to
be cut substantially to get spending below expected rev-
enue.
Second Funnel
The end of last week was the second funnel date in
the session. Bills that have not passed at least one cham-
ber and passed out of a committee in the other chamber
are likely dead for the session. Appropriations and tax
bills are not subject to the funnel dates.
Budget Work
Hopefully we will get agreement soon on the amount
the state will spend in the new fiscal year beginning July
1, 2015. The Appropriations Subcommittees will then
be able to begin work on the details of the various parts
of the budget. I am once again the lead Republican on
the Justice Systems Budget Subcommittee. We will work
out the details of the budget for the prisons, the courts,
the highway patrol, the law enforcement academy and
the Attorney General's Office, among others. If we can-
not get an overall agreement, it may be that each cham-
ber will work with its own budget amount though that
will slow down the work considerably. We will still have
to have an overall agreement on each part of the budget
before we can adjourn. You may recall that in 2011 we
did not adjourn until June 30 because we did not have
agreement on the budget until then.
911 Work Group
I have been selected to serve on a 911 Work Group
that will work on modernizing communications among
the various state and local law enforcement and emer-
gency personnel. Hopefully we will be able to establish
a system that will allow all of the different agencies to
readily communicate with each other, at a reasonable
cost.
Gun Rights
The Senate passed a bill to allow Iowans to own sound
suppressors for firearms. The House has passed a more
comprehensive gun rights bill, but we were not allowed
to vote for it in the Senate. The House is working on
amendments to the Senate bill.
Senate Visitors
Senate guests last week included Girl Scouts from
Norwalk.
Upcoming Forum
I will be at the City Hall in Norwalk for a legislative
forum Saturday, April 11, at 9 a.m. Also present will be
Representative Gustafson, Norwalk Mayor Tom Phillips
and City Manager Marketa Oliver. The public is wel-
come and invited to ask questions or make comments
on whatever is on their mind.
As always, feel free to contact me with your ideas or
concerns at Julian.Garrett@legis.iowa.gov.
HEALTHY IDEAS
(NAPS)--Many areas of
the country are experiencing
a shortage of professionals
such as psychiatrists, psy-
chologists, counselors and
social workers. The human
impact as well as the costs
of mental illnesses left un-
treated can be staggering,
say the experts at the
University of Phoenix.
$**
It's now possible to have a
"house call" by your doctor
via your smartphone and the
meVisit--which stands for
mobile e-Visit--system, a
technology designed by a doc-
tor for use by doctors. Learn
more from Jeffrey Lewis,
president of the Institute for
Healthcare Innovation, at
jeffrey@institute.bz.
/
More than 420,000 out-of-
hospital cardiac arrests occur
annually in the U.S. Most of
these victims die, often
because bystanders don't
know CPR or are afraid
thefll do something wrong.
The AHA is training the next
generation of lifesavers with
CPR in Schools. Learn more
at www.heart.org/CPRin
Schools.
Legislative Newsletter
Stan Gustafson
Iowa House Representative
District 25
This was the second funnel week, which means if a
Senate Bill is not voted out of the assigned House com-
mittee or a House Bill is not voted out of the assigned
Senate committee, the Bill is dead for this session. We
had a light debate schedule this week, as subcommit-
tees and committees were busy pushing Bills through
the process. The Judiciary Committee, on a bipartisan
vote, amended and passed SF427 Wednesday evening
which relates to possession of firearms and suppressors.
It has not yet been scheduled for debate on the floor.
The Legislature has passed SF227 which sets August
23 as the earliest school start date and will be sent to the
Governor for his signature. I have received emails from
constituents opposed to this Bill, criticizing it because
it is "just about money" or the state fair. According to
information I received from the Travel Federation of
Iowa, the 12 days between August 11 and August 23
will generate an estimated $12.57 million more in state
and local taxes.
The first bill the House Republicans approved in 2015
was school funding. Schools are getting th e first bite of
the apple when it comes to state spending. The prob-
lem is the apple, due to falling revenues, is not as big as
many had hoped. Other important responsibilities, such
as funding Medicaid, economic development and pub-
lic safety, still have to receive funding in addition to
education. The House position continues the
legislature's trend of providing significant increases to
the state's K-12 system, bringing the five year total in-
crease to over $570 million, a nearly 22% increase. Ac-
cording to the Department of Education's Allocation
Summary documents, Iowa will spend $10,231 per stu-
dent in FY 15. That means in classroom of 20, Iowa
spends just over $200,000. Senate Democrats have taken
the position that the Legislature needs to enact a 4%
increase now, regardless of the current state revenue
numbers, and then figure out how to fund it later. Short
term decisions which are contrary to available data
rarely result in long term success. Saddling the folks in
our communities with higher taxes and more debt is a
destructive financial course for our local schools and
taxpayers.
I have also been given information Which leads me
to believe approximately 80% of the education budget
is for teacher salary and fring e benefits. If this is accu-
rate, then 20% of the 6% (i.e. 1.2% increase) Supplemen-
tal State Aid originally requested would be enough for
everything else needed other than teacher salary in-
creases and benefits. Thus the 1.25 % increase in House
File 80 would cover the needs of education other than
teacher salary and benefits increase. Therefore, we are
primarily talking about teacher increased compensation
(and benefits) when we talk about any additional funds
over the 1.25% increase.
I have gotten many letters and emails from across
the State which talk about teacher cuts, such as a Middle
school having to cut two of the four tennis coaches, two
of the four soccer coaches, a teacher for students with
reading difficulties and a teacher for students with math
difficulties or, another school district having to maybe
eliminate "non-required" programs. I would hope that
a school district would fund the required (needed) pro-
grams first before funding "non-required" programs
and make sure that the students have necessary skills,
such as reading and math, before they learn to play ten-
nis. I even got an email from a former school board
member in a school in which the superintendent did
not put in a program which would help the teenage boys
because the money wasn't there, yet the teachers all got
a "hefty" salary increase. What I don't hear from the
teachers/administrators who complained about need-
ing to cut teachers and programs is whether the remain-
ing teachers all got salary and/or benefit increases.
Senator Garrett and I will be attending the "Com-
munity Chat" in the City Council Chambers at the
Norwalk City Hall Saturday, April 11, at 9 a.m. Plan on
attending if you are able. You can find my webpage
under the "Our Members" tab at www.iowahouse
republicans.com.
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