Split control Legislature may offer 2015 opportunities

DES MOINES - House Speaker Kraig Paulsen said Tuesday his newly elected 57-member GOP majority will be focused on maintaining fiscal restraint in a tight state budget and looking for ways to let taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money when the new Legislature begins its two-year run next January.

The Hiawatha Republican said it's too early to stake out positions or priorities his GOP majority will set next session but he expected there would be efforts to reduce taxes and balance spending with ongoing revenue as his party shared control with Democrats who return to the Statehouse with a 26-24 majority preserved in this months' election.

'I think we are going to have a tight budget year,” Paulsen told reporters after addressing about 30 Republicans at a Polk County GOP breakfast event.

Even with split control of the 86th General Assembly, the House speaker said he enters the new biennium with expectations that 'everything is on the table” until it's determined otherwise. He noted that lawmakers had successes, especially during the 2013 session, passing compromise measures dealing with commercial property taxes, education reform and health care expansion even though Republicans and Democrats shared control in working with Gov. Terry Branstad.

'The key to finding the middle ground is making sure you have conversations and when the opportunity presents itself, don't miss it. We were obviously very successful in that in 2013, we had some success in 2014. We'll have those conversations,” he said.

'I have no interest in taking things off the table before we've even talked about them. I'm sure not going to do that,” he added.

Paulsen said he has not talked with Branstad about a proposed gas tax increase given that the governor has sent signals he may be open to a discussion when his sixth term begins in January. He said he expects House Republicans will hold policy discussions in December when they begin to put 'meat on the bones” of some of their caucus priorities.

A state panel this week is discussing the possibility of reclassifying marijuana as a controlled substance so it could more readily be used by physicians prescribing it for medical purposes, but Paulsen said he expects the Legislature to first want to see how the limited law they passed last year is working before considering any expansion.

The law passed last session and signed by Branstad allows use of cannabidiol, an oil found in the marijuana plant for prescribed medical treatment of children with epilepsy.

But parents whose children could benefit from the law say it is too narrowly drawn and makes it difficult for them to obtain the cannabidiol, which is not produced in Iowa and is illegal to possess in other states.

Earlier this year, a legislative study panel recommended Iowa lawmakers next session develop a program to produce, process and dispense medical marijuana to address shortcomings in a new state law regarding access and standards to cannabis oil.

The 10-member committee of House and Senate members also called for the federal government and Iowa's Board of Pharmacy to consider reclassifying marijuana as a scheduled II controlled substance that would lessen criminal penalties and allow doctors to prescribe marijuana-derived medications.

However, House Republicans on the Legislature's Cannabidiol Implementation Study Committee balked at proposal to expand provisions of a state law granting legal protection for Iowans authorized to possess cannabis oil for medical use to treat or alleviate symptoms of intractable epilepsy to a longer list of chronic illnesses. They did join in unanimously supporting a call for the Legislature to explore ways to expand Iowans' access to cannabis oil products that have reliable standards for dosage and quality and can be legally attained without violating federal or other states' laws.

Paulsen said he expects lawmakers will want more information when they convene Jan. 12 on where things current stand with the new laws and the status of rules to implement it before they move forward.

'We need to figure out what exactly we did, how that's being implemented, what does and doesn't work, and then make a decision from that point,” he said. 'I'm not anticipating us running a bill to change what we did last year.”