Newsletter April 11 2012

FROM THE DESK OF REPRESENTATIVE DE BOEF April 11, 2012 Let’s Finish the Job Senator Jack Kibbie last week told the pres...

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FROM THE DESK OF REPRESENTATIVE DE BOEF April 11, 2012

Let’s Finish the Job Senator Jack Kibbie last week told the press that it was time to go home and plant corn. This isn’t the first time someone has said that. There are a lot of legislators who are active farmers and many begin to worry about when they are going to be able to go home and do their planting. It is the way things work with a citizen legislature. But it’s not time to go home yet. There are a lot of issues that still need to be addressed here at the capitol. Most of the work on the non-controversial issues has been completed. It is time to focus on the big issues. There is a significant difference between the Senate and the House on the size of the state budget. Each of the budgets concerning public safety, prisons, education, and health and human services will have to be resolved before we adjourn for the year. There are tens of millions of dollars that separate us. In looking at the state budget, it is becoming more apparent that Iowa is recovering from the recession. We may have the opportunity to restore some funding for vital state services, including human services, state universities, prisons and the courts. But it is not time to get carried away though. We still must be cautious. The federal government is reducing its funding to the states and could put us under a great deal of pressure to deliver services at the current level. And we have yet to see the full impact of gas prices on consumer spending. The House is wrestling with what to do about property tax cuts. The initial plan was to reduce commercial property taxes by 40 percent over the next eight years. Cities and counties are telling us that the reduction is too severe and could put a crimp in services to their local residents. If property tax relief is to happen, I think the Legislature is going to have to come up with a “hybrid“ between the House and Senate proposals with property tax relief coming in at around a 25 percent reduction. Yesterday, the Senate passed back over to the House their version of education reform. The bill is much different than what the House sent over. It takes a softer approach than that proposed by the House and Governor, where the House said teachers would be evaluated annually, the Senate agreed that there would be an annual evaluation, but it would be done by their peers rather than administrators. On the third year, teachers would be administratively evaluated. The House, along with the Governor, would require students to complete end-of -course exams that would be factored into graduation requirements. High school juniors would be required to take either college entrance exams or career readiness exams at no cost to them. The Senate version did not address end of course testing. As to the controversial Online Learning, the House and Senate both agreed to proceed with caution with this innovative concept. Two Iowa school districts, at this time, have been offering fulltime Online Only Education Programs and receiving full state funding for students enrolled in these programs. The House limited the statewide enrollment to 900 students with a cap for the number of students from any one district. The Senate takes a different approach and prohibits more than 50 percent of a student’s course work from being delivered over the internet. Both the House and Senate agree on placing heavy emphasis on building reading skills in the early elementary grades. Both recognize the importance of reading in a student’s further development. If you can’t read, you can’t learn. The House, like the Governor, will hold third graders back who cannot demonstrate sufficient reading skills, but it would provide for good- cause exemptions. The Senate maintains that holding back a third grader would not be mandatory, and consideration would be given to competency in other areas. Consultation with a parent or guardian

would be required before a third grader could be held back. Both agree that significant investments would be made to provide for remedial programs to make sure that students would be given every opportunity to catch up with their peers. Even though we will not see sweeping school reforms, I am confident that we can come to agreement where we will begin to take major steps toward restoring Iowa’s top- in-the- nation ranking for K-12 schools.

There are some other things that perhaps need to be discussed this year; Gas Tax: I have heard from many of you that we need to do something about the condition of our roads. There was a time this year when I thought that the state’s gas tax would be debated. That didn’t happen, because Iowans put out the stop sign on any gas tax hike with the high gas prices and the state has a record amount of state funding for highway construction this coming year. The issue will not go away, because we will still have a number of roads in bad condition and a shortfall in funding next year. Mental Health: The Legislature has worked for two years in redesigning our mental health /disability system. I have concerns with the proposal being offered. I fear this proposal will hurt rural Iowa in favor of our big urban areas. The smaller counties have been responsible. Now we are being asked to sacrifice because of the bad behavior of the urban areas. I hope we can come up with a solution that doesn’t hurt rural counties. Sex Offenders in Iowa Nursing Homes: People were shocked to hear of the situation in northwest Iowa where a sex offender residing in a nursing home assaulted another resident. Iowans want to make sure our seniors are safe, and the House passed legislation to greatly strengthen current protections. But now, the bill is just sitting in the Senate and there is a chance they won’t act on it. This should be a priority for all Iowans. School Start Date: Creating a state-wide uniform starting date was passed on the House floor. Advocates for tourism and family vacations are advocating for a start date that would begin no earlier than the fourth Monday of August. The number of school days would not be diminished and would be set at 180 days. This bill has momentum and has support from the Governor. Public Information Board: Transparency in government is very important. Government can be intimidating to a citizen and this legislation would help a person navigate through state government when having problems in the process. This bill has been evolving over the last year and finally we now have an opportunity to pass it. These are some of the things we need to deal with before we go home. My message to Senator Kibbie would be “No, it’s not time to go home and plant corn just yet”. It would be wrong to all of a sudden agree to a budget number, see the exit door, and then dump all these other important issues to the side. I think it is imperative that we finish our work before we go home.

Retirees from the Legislators One evidence that we are nearing the end is the retirement speeches are taking place. We have 18 House members retiring this year. Half the speeches have been given. I gave mine this past Monday. It was awesome to have my grandchildren here to lead the pledge to the flag! As a result, the majority of my family was here to listen to my speech. I want to thank my constituents for the privilege at serving them in the legislature the past 12 years. What an honor! Visitors at the capitol this week: My family, including my husband, Harold, 3 of my kids, two spouses and 11 grandchildren, who led the pledge to the flag.