Money matters as session’s end nears

DES MOINES - Iowa legislators are likely to have one eye on the calendar and the other on their pocketbooks as they go back to work today, the 99th day of their scheduled 100-day session.

With the session scheduled to end Tuesday, lawmakers are trying to wrap up work on major priorities - commercial property tax reform, education reform and mental health services. If they can't reach resolution in time, they'll be paying their own way because Tuesday marks the last day they can collect daily expense money - $135 a day for non-local legislators and $101 for Polk County lawmakers.

Lawmakers paying for their own meals and lodging is “one of those things that sends a powerful signal” that it's time to complete their work, said House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha.

In addition to House-Senate conference committees on all of the budgets other than transportation, which has been signed by the governor, lawmakers are looking at floor debate. The House calendar includes the $1.6 billion health and human services budget, the redesign of mental health services, lowering the state tax on in-state sales between Iowa companies to strengthen the supply chain with manufacturers, and the creation of a seven-member Iowa Public Information Board to handle complaints about violations of open meetings and public records laws.

Much of the activity will be in House-Senate conference committees to resolve budget differences - some of which are sizable.

“You need to at least get to the point where you can compare apples to apples,” Dvorsky said after the conference committee on the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund met and found the House and Senate budgets differed by $10 million.

Paulsen hopes conference committees have a “global” budget number today. That would tell them the total size of the budget pie and how big a slice they get.

Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, said he was encouraged that the parties were negotiating budget numbers Friday. House Republicans have proposed spending $6.06 billion, Gov. Terry Branstad's budget is $6.24 billion and Senate Democrats have proposed $6.3 billion.

“We have closed that gap, I believe,” Paulsen said, adding that there's no single issue holding up resolution.

“It's like the budget is every year,” he said. “It's a whole mess of different issues coming together. It's a whole mess of line items. It's regents or line items in (Health and Human Services) budget or the total standings bill or the total number on top. All those numbers have to come together.”

Paulsen said lawmakers have already had the easy parts of their discussions.

“The hard part is that last little bit, whether it's 5 percent, 10 percent or 20 percent,” he said. “You can put whatever number you want there, but it's the last bit that often becomes the hardest.

“But we're to that point where we are talking about the final pieces,” Paulsen said.