Government Affairs Weekly Report - Week 5: Feb. 6-9, 2017

by CBI Lobbyist Jeff Boeyink - Partner, LS2 Group
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The House and Senate ramped up a well-coordinated effort to begin moving major pieces of “must do” legislation this week. After a somewhat bumpy start to the session in regards to reaching agreement on budget-balancing legislation to cut over $100 million from the current budget, House and Senate leaders (along with the Governor’s office) have come together in a tightly choreographed schedule designed to streamline approval of some BIG issues.
 
K-12 School Funding Completed in Session’s First 30 days
This week the General Assembly and Governor wrapped up the school funding debate with House passage of SF 166 on Monday and with the Governor’s signature of the legislation Wednesday.
 
SF 166 increases state spending on K-12 schools in FY18 by $40 million (by far the largest spending increase for any budget line item in the upcoming budget year).

State Preemption of Local Ordinances
The House Local Government Committee began work on HSB 92, an act that preempts local government’s ability to enact ordinances regarding minimum wage, consumer merchandise, or packaging materials. The legislation was spurred by a number of local governments enacting minimum wage increases in excess of the state minimum wage.

However, the legislation has become more than just a minimum wage preemption vehicle and instead has been expanded to a broad preemption package that makes it clear local governments do NOT have the power to go beyond existing state law on a whole variety of issues.
 
HSB 92 cleared subcommittee Wednesday and was debated in the full House Local Government Committee on Thursday.
 
Collective Bargaining Reform
In the biggest news this week, and anticipated since Day One of the Session, the House and Senate this week embarked on a landmark reform of Iowa’s collective bargaining law for public sector union workers. HSB 84 and SF 213 are identical companion bills moving on parallel tracks in the House and Senate. HSB 84 cleared subcommittee and full House Labor Committee this week and will be eligible for debate in the House on Monday.
 
SF 213 cleared subcommittee and will have cleared the Senate Labor and Business Relations Committee before the end of business, today.
 
It is the intention of House and Senate leaders to complete legislative action on this reform package and send it to the Governor by the end of NEXT week.

Key provisions:

• Exempts public safety union workers from many of the reform provisions.
• Provides employers with the statutory right to evaluate their employees and makes it easier to discipline and fire poor performing employees.
• Eliminates the ability to bargain for payroll deduction for union dues or political contributions (means unions will have to use other means to collect dues and contributions from their members).
• Limits the scope of bargaining with non-public safety employees units to ONLY wages and other mutually agreed upon topics.
• Prohibits bargaining on insurance issues – which would allow the state to bargain for a statewide health insurance pool on behalf of ALL state employees and give local governments the opportunity to join (similar to the state’s public employment retirement system).
• Requires periodic and automatic union recertification votes.
• Prohibits arbitrators from considering the terms of previous collective bargaining agreements or a public employers “ability to pay” when making arbitration decisions.

Efforts on Behalf of Community Bankers of Iowa

• CBI CEO Dave Caris and I participated in a work session with lobbyists from the Iowa Bankers Association regarding legislative topics of mutual interest and to coordinate our advocacy efforts.
• Participated in tax reform discussions on a proposed method to reduce the bank franchise tax through the deduction for federal securities income (currently being reviewed by CBI legal team).
• Ways and Means Committee leaders have made it clear they will not consider any legislation that increases the tax on ANYONE. Thus, our focus in this year’s tax reform debate will be on lowering the bank franchise tax for our members.