Catch-all budget bill gets loaded down

DES MOINES -- A fairly open-ended, catch-all budget bill has touched off a feeding frenzy among interest groups and lobbyists hoping for one last shot at getting their pet project or idea into state law before the Iowa Legislature's 2013 session adjourns.

The standing appropriations bill, Senate File 452, was formally sent to a House-Senate conference committee Thursday to rectify differences on a budget measure that was weighted down in both chambers with policy issues that had stalled or previously been declared dead in the normal legislative process.

Among the non-money provisions included by the House were issues dealing with keeping the identity of gun permit holders confidential, allowing all-terrain vehicles (ATV) to use secondary roads and city streets, requiring state employees and elected officials to pay 20 percent of their health-insurance premiums, changing the definition of a mobile home park, changing  collective bargaining rules, creating a financial literacy fund, creating a crime for interfering with radar and laser speed meters operated by law enforcement, changing laws pertaining to eminent domain and other issues that have failed to move to the governor's desk this year.

For their part, senators included an $8 million, four-year commitment of state money for the Newton-based Iowa Speedway, background check requirements for school employees and motor vehicle-based businesses catering ice cream or other products specifically to children, authorizing bonding authority for counties seeking to build new courthouses, addressing a city franchise fee dispute involving the city of Des Moines, granting a sales tax exemption for off-duty police providing security services,

The Senate also revived proposals to match up to $2 million funds raised privately by the Iowa Food Bank Association so the agency can purchase commodities and transport them to other food banks, as well as to crack down on vehicle fees scofflaws by requiring drivers to register vehicles that have been in Iowa for more than 90 consecutive days. But senators turned down additions that sought to mandate drug-testing for public assistance recipients, require voters to provide a photo ID to receive an election ballot, and establish education savings accounts for parents to use per-pupil state funding to educate their children in public or private schools or at home.

“It's a free for all,” said Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, in assessing the standings bill.

Veteran legislators, lobbyists and Statehouse observers say the bill's original purpose was to authorize standing appropriations and provide an avenue to make technical corrections if need be to legislation that had already passed, but it has taken on considerable extra baggage in recent sessions.

“I don't know if it's more so now than it was in the past. People assume it's the last bill and they try to put in things,” said Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the S.F.452 conference committee. “It's sausage making, it really is.”

Just because issues get in either House or Senate version for consideration by the conferees doesn't mean they will become law, he added. “They're eligible but that doesn't mean they'll remain in there,” he said.

David Roederer, director of the state Department of Management, said Iowa has a unique “funnel” system that sets thresholds and deadlines for non-money bills designed to winnow the session's work, but the standings bill runs counter to the spirit of that process.

“This has been a troublesome trend,” he said. “It's really not the way the system is designed. It makes it more difficult to adjourn.”

Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said having to revisit issues in the waning days of the session does slow the shutdown process.

“Since I've been in the Legislature, the standings bill has always had a lot of policy in it. I don't know how we move away from that. It's become a crutch,” Jochum said.

“I would say most of the policy issues that have not been resolved in both chambers by this point in the game probably are not going to see much more hope other than a last-ditch effort as an amendment to a bill,” she added. “It's a revolving door this time of year. Sometimes you just have to say no. We're practicing that a lot this year. Some things just can't happen.”