Government Affairs Weekly Report - Week 15: Apr. 22-27, 2019

​by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Partner, LS2 Group
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Overview / Major Events
The 2019 Session of the Iowa General Assembly came to a close around 2:30 pm on Saturday, nearly a week EARLY (Session was scheduled for 110 days this year and that day doesn’t arrive until this Friday—May 3). The Governor now has 30 days to act on all the budget bills and a host of policy bills that will be delivered to her in the coming days. That said, expect her to act on the Health and Human Services budget early this week (as it includes a significant supplemental appropriation to keep the Medicaid system fully funded through the end of the current fiscal year).

Governor Reynolds weighs in on Session accomplishments
“We made historic investments into pre K-12 Education and put more money into community colleges and our public universities. We protected job creators who hire individuals with past criminal offenses and funded the Future Ready Iowa Initiative, so that Iowans can get the skills they need for cutting-edge careers. Our judicial nominating system was reformed to give Iowans a greater voice. Iowa will also have a first of its kind Children's Mental Health System. And with the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, Iowa is one step closer to seeing growth and prosperity in every single corner of our state.

“While a lot was accomplished, we’re not finished yet. Next year, I will push again for a constitutional amendment to restore felon voting rights and work to expand access to contraception. We will also continue our focus on growing the economy as well as create opportunities to attract top talent to Iowa by sharing our story as a vibrant, affordable, and welcoming state."

View the Legislative Bill Tracker.

Signature Issues from the 2019 Session
Here are a few of the bigger issues from this session:

• Sports Betting: awaiting action on the Governor’s desk is legislation that would allow Iowa’s casino properties to offer sports betting—both on site and through a mobile app.
• Children’s Mental Health: creation of a mental health system specifically designed to meet the needs of Iowa’s children was a high priority for Governor Reynolds and the General Assembly delivered on this promise.
• Property Tax Restrictions: while significantly watered down from the original legislation, this policy change would require super majority votes at the local government level to raise property taxes.

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Controversial Policy that made it into final budget bills
As always, a number of significant policy issues were included in budget bills during the closing hours of the legislation session. Here are a few:

• Transgender reassignment surgery: a recent decision by the Iowa Supreme Court said Iowans on Medicaid should be allowed to have gender reassignment surgery at taxpayer expense. The Legislature specifically prohibited using taxpayer dollar for such procedures.
• Limiting the power of the Attorney General: Iowa’s Attorney General will no longer have the power to enter national lawsuits on behalf of the state, unless receiving permission from the Governor, Executive Council, or General Assembly if these provisions in the Justice Systems budget become law.
• Changes to Judicial Nominating System: lastly, the citizen members of our judicial nominating commissions will now constitute a majority of the members of these commissions (with the other members elected by members of the Iowa State Bar). Also, the Commission Chairs will be elected from the members, rather than defaulted to the Senior Judge.

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Efforts on Behalf of Community Bankers of Iowa

• Multiple efforts by the Agribusiness Association of Iowa and Iowa’s Coops to put Coops ahead of banks regarding any liens against a farmer’s crops were defeated and removed from agriculture and DNR budget bills.
• House Republicans once again failed to provide relief to community banks in our struggle against credit unions. At their request, CBI joined the IBA to find an alternative to previous proposals to tax credit unions in a manner similar to banks (as House leadership indicates members are leery of any tax increases). Yet, after initial enthusiasm for efforts to use federal “field of membership” definitions for Iowa state-charted credit unions, we were once again denied.
• Speaker Pro Tempore Matt Windschitl has offered to gather the banks and credit unions this summer in talks in hopes of mediating a solution. Stay tuned as we gather more details on this potential opportunity.