Senate passes government reorganization bill

DES MOINES – The Iowa Senate voted Monday night to begin a sweeping government reorganization effort aimed at saving $118 million in state spending needed to close a cavernous budget gap and balance the fiscal 2011 ledger.

“We heard from folks from all across this state and the message was clear – state government should be leaner, services more efficient and we must eliminate waste. We listened,” said Sen. Staci Appel, D-Ackworth, in guiding the first major government revamp in 25 years.

Monday's debate featured an east-west tussle over the closure of an Iowa mental health institute, with senators deciding not to change the operation of the Mount Pleasant MHI but to establish a structure to shift some programs from the Clarinda MHI and eventually close that facility. Originally, the plan was to close the Mount Pleasant MHI and shift programs to Independence.

Sen. Hubert Houser, R-Carson, and Rep. Rich Anderson, R-Clarinda, issued a joint statement expressing outrage and charging the Clarinda facility had “fallen prey to political motives” at the Statehouse. Anderson called the Senate action “absolutely nuts and horrible public policy.”

Senate File 2088, which passed on a xx-xx vote, is a multi-pronged bill that includes provisions to cut costs and make government operate more efficiently, eliminate redundancies, modernize services and delivery, cut middle management, and save taxpayers money.

“This bill hits the mark,” Appel said of the measure that proposes to consolidate purchasing programs and computer networks throughout state government, reconfigure some mental health services, merge some smaller state agencies, and eliminate or consolidate a number of state boards, commissions or advisory panels.

With the nearly $60 million expected to be saved via a separate early-retirement incentive already approved by the Senate, Appel said she hoped passage of S.F. 2088 would bring the moving target to nearly $180 million in savings.

Gov. Chet Culver noted that an executive order he already signed was projected to save $141 million so he was optimistic the government-wide belt-tightening would get to the $341 million target he built into his $5.32 billion budget plan for fiscal 2011.

During Monday's debate, senators voted 38-12 to remove a provision that would have sought to close the Luster Heights prison camp. They also agreed to exempt the state Board of Regents institutions from state-mandated cooperative purchasing, centralized payroll, sale of assets and other provisions.

The debate stalled when 11 majority Democrats joined the 18-member GOP minority in supporting an amendment to block a proposal to move the community empowerment program for early childhood education from the neutral state Department of Management to the Department of Education.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, switched his vote to be on the prevailing side then called a closed-door caucus after which senators voted 31-19 to reconsider the issue and approve the move of empowerment to the education agency by a 27-23 margin.

Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, argued successfully to keep Iowa involved in the Midwest Higher Education Compact. He warned that striking that participation, as the bill originally proposed, would make Iowa the “doughnut hole” in the middle of a 12-state compact.

“I just believe we need to stay in the game here,” he said.

Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, D-Arlington, said compact participating costs Iowa $95,000 annually and the savings were $38,000 in fiscal 2008. “It's expensive in a year when we simply don't have that kind of money,” he said.

Kibbie said Iowa will still owe for two more years “even if we back out.”

Senators also voted 46-4 to retain the Property Assessment Appeal Board, which was targeted for elimination in the bill.

Majority Democrats turned back a GOP effort to establish measures to determine if the legislation actually saves money, “sunset” all government programs over a four-year period, create a two-thirds voting requirement to approve government bonding proposals, and require state employees to share in health-insurance costs among other things.

“There's absolutely no way to verify if we actually did that (save money),” said Senate GOP Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton in advocating more accountability. “It brings common sense to a system that is badly broken.”

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