Iowa lawmakers looking for 'common ground' as overtime session begins

DES MOINES – Don't be fooled by the church-like quiet and empty desks in the Iowa House and Senate these days.

“There's actually quite a bit of work that's taking place,” House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said after he sent most House member home in the middle of last week.

Across the rotunda, the Senate was in session for two minutes Thursday – just long enough to offer a prayer and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We're making real progress,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said, about the scenes negotiations that continued through the week.

Paulsen hopes those negotiations clear the way for proposals both chambers can begin looking at when legislators return to the Capitol today.

Still, no one is willing to say when this overtime session of the Legislature will wrap up its work. April 29 marked the last day that legislators received daily expense money – about $134 per day for each outstate lawmaker.

“There's a possibility that we could actually finish the work next week,” House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, R-Garner, said. “But there's a lot of room to come together, some space to be crossed there. I guess I'm not going to move everything back home.”

Looking at the $147 million budget gulf between the parties and Gov. Terry Branstad's insistence on a two-year budget – something the Legislature hasn't tried in about 30 years, Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, predicted adjournment could be several weeks away.

It's not just budget matters that are left on the legislative agenda: commercial property tax relief; a bill calling for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to study Internet gambling; an overhaul of the mental health delivery system; banning late-term abortion; flood protection for Cedar Rapids; and allowable growth for K-12 education.

The House plans to take up Senate File 526 Monday, which was approved by the Senate 38-12, and would allow advanced deposit wagering on horse races by phone or computer. It also calls for a study of Internet poker and whether the state should get involved. It's estimated 150,000 Iowans are playing illegally.

The bill also would change the current law requiring voters in counties where casinos are located to extend their approval every sixth year. SF 526 calls for one renewal vote after eight years. After that review, a referendum would go on the ballot only if 10 percent of the residents of the county who voted in the previous presidential or gubernatorial election signed a petition calling for it.

The Senate is likely to wait until after a May 3 Linn County referendum on extending a local option sales tax for 20 years before taking up a bill to provide state assistance to a flood protection plan in Cedar Rapids.

Both chambers have approved commercial property tax plans, but “we've got a bridge to build” to reach a compromise, Paulsen said.

“We've got time to work on it,” he said. “Both sides committed to do something.”

Gronstal sounded less optimistic.

“We have a version that targets small businesses and Main Street. They have a version that targets Wall Street,” he said. “Ours is a zero property tax increase because we replace local governments' lost revenues.

“Common ground on that one – elusive would be an understatement,” he said.

Gronstal has made no decision on when – or whether – a bill that would pave the way for MidAmerican Energy to build a small-scale nuclear power plant will hit the Senate floor.

“It's not ready yet,” he said about House File 561 that was approved 68-30 by the House.

It's one of a number of bills that could get left behind for lack of agreement, leaders hinted.

“Pretty much everything that's not a budget bill could -- I didn't say would -- fall by the wayside,” Gronstal predicted. “If people haven't found common ground by one day before our scheduled adjournment date, it's obvious that common ground is elusive.”

So far, knowing when one day before adjournment will come is itself elusive.

Gazette Des Moines Bureau Chief Rod Boshart contributed to this story