Senate acts on nude dancing, health care issues

DES MOINES – The Iowa Senate voted unanimously Monday to close a loophole in the state's public indecent exposure law to avoid a repeat of a situation where a minor was permitted to dance nude at a western Iowa strip club.

Sen. Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield, said an amendment attached to Senate File 2197 was a “needed change” after an Iowa Court of Appeals decision threw state law into question on the issue.

Earlier this month, the court dismissed the state's request to review a district judge's 2008 decision that the state's public indecent exposure law was not violated when a 17-year-old girl stripped on stage at a Hamburg club in Fremont County.

A district judge agreed to dismiss the charges after the defense argued successfully that the establishment qualified as a theater exempted under Iowa's public decency statute.

Under the change adopted Monday, a person would be deemed to have committed a serious misdemeanor for permitting public indecent exposure in a theater, concert hall, art center, museum or similar establishment which is primarily devoted to the arts if he or she allows a minor to engage in a live act “intended to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons.”

The measure now goes to the House for consideration.

Also Monday, senators voted to expand access for low-income Iowans served by the IowaCare program, but nixed a costly change that would have expanded health coverage to more than 100,000 uninsured Iowans.

Rather than expand coverage, the Senate voted 28-20 to study a premium assistance program.

The more modest language approved in Senate File 2356 would expand the IowaCare program's provider network to 14 regional care centers -- rather than just University Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City and Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines – and provide for reimbursement of services. It also establishes an insurance exchange system to allow consumers to compare costs and benefits of various insurance offerings.

The full-blown proposal would have cost more than $150 million and required significant federal help, said Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines. The revised approach still would seek to leverage about $16 million in federal dollars – with half going to the Iowa City hospital and the remainder divided among the other participating provider centers.

Hatch called the IowaCare measure that finally passed 45-5 “a significant advancement,” but he criticized the insurance industry for thwarting reforms at the state and national levels.

“I think the state has gone about as far as it can on its own. We need federal health care to really make the national issues of health insurance affordability and accessibility,” he said.

Sen. David Hartsuch, R-Davenport, a licensed physician, said the modifications made by the Senate made “a bad bill into something palatable” but Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, said further study would mean the state would spend another year “twiddling our thumbs while real working Iowans continue to hurt.”

However, Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, applauded his fellow senators for not buying into “a state-based sequel of the bad movie being made in Washington with an all-star cast.” Ten Democrats joined 18 Republicans in supporting the study approach, and five Republicans opposed the bill on final action.

In other action Monday, the Senate voted 49-1 to establish new disclosure and reporting requirements for corporations or unions that spend money on political advertisements or advocacy efforts in Iowa.

Senate File 2354 requires corporations and unions to submit organizational statements and provide information to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board within 48 hours of making an independent expenditure to purchase broadcast air time or publication space for a political ad.

The measure was spurred by a January U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows corporations and unions to spend unlimited money on advertisements for or against candidates. The provision would apply to state and federal candidates in Iowa.

Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, was the only no vote on the measure that now goes to the House for consideration.

Comments: (515) 243-7220;

rod.boshart@gazcomm.com