Iowa Politics Today: IPERs to be reviewed; AARP campaigns to save Medicare; Clarifying landowner rights vs. trespassers

Another week in Iowa's capitol. As lawmakers looked to make more progress on budgetary matters, the governor said he will be appointing a panel to look at retirement plans for state employees, AARP wants to be proactive about potential Medicare changes to come, and two laws seek to clarify just what happens when a 'get off my lawn” moment goes south.

IPERS REVIEW:

Gov. Terry Branstad plans to appoint a panel of citizens to review the state's retirement plans to look at whether changes need to be made to ensure their long-term stability.

Branstad said Monday he has been talking his former chief of staff, Gretchen Tegeler, now president of the Taxpayers Association of Central Iowa, and others about the future of the state pension systems, the largest of which is IPERS. It covers about 350,000 employees of state and local governments, including schools, with 52 percent either retired or inactive.

'A lot of private sector have made transition from the old system of defined benefits to defined contributions,” Branstad said at his weekly news conference. 'The benefit is portability. So if you leave one position, one job, and go to another, if you have a defined contributions system, you can just roll it over and still have it.”

However, Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said any changes would be made slowly so as not to affect people receiving IPERS benefits.

They believe IPERS is a well-run pension, but believe 'it makes sense to get people with knowledge and expertise, and people who are part of these various pensions to take a long-term look at it.”

They did not indicate their timetable for that review.

SAVE MEDICARE:

AARP today launched a campaign to protect Iowans from congressional proposals to change Medicare.

About 17 percent of Iowans, or 543,000 people, were provided coverage by Medicare last year. AARP estimates that 20 percent of Iowans, 625,000 people, are between the ages of 50 and 64 today and will transition into Medicare over the next 15 years.

Congressional proposals to change Medicare into a voucher system would dramatically increase health care costs and risks for both current and future retirees, AARP said.

'Older Iowans depend on Medicare for affordable healthcare,” said AARP State Director Kent Sovern. 'A voucher system would dramatically increase health care costs and risks for current and future retirees. It could mean many thousands of dollars out of their own pockets.

FURLOUGH UPDATE:

Gov. Terry Branstad, who has repeatedly said he wants to reduce layoffs and furloughs of state employees to deal with a $118 million general fund budget shortfall, said Monday those decisions will be left to individual departments.

'We do respect and recognize, not just the Judicial Branch, but other departments and agencies of state government have to make decisions they think are most appropriate,” the governor said Monday. He believes that by exempting K-12 education and Medicaid from cuts and fully funding the property tax backfill to local governments his administration has avoided the disruption caused then Gov. Chet Culver ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cut.

Friday the Judicial Branch, which is a separate branch of government, announced its employees will be furloughed for a day to deal with a $3 million funding cut.

Likewise, decision about how to deal with state employee unions not accepting the state's request to give up their 2017 pay raise is will be left to individual departments, Branstad said. The state has not been able to get that concession from two unions. A third - AFSCME, which represents 19,000 state employees - will vote in February whether to forego the 1.25 percent raise that started Jan. 1.

CHANGING PHONES:

The decrease in wired phone lines in Iowa is the same as the increase in wireless phones - 25 percent, according to the Iowa Utilities Board.

The number of 'total access lines” or wired phones dropped by 367,342 between 2009 and 2015, the IUB said in a report to the House Commerce Committee. Over the same time period, the number of wireless phones increased 554,653 from 2,190,054 to 2,744,707.

TRESPASSING CHANGE:

A measure aimed at protecting landowners from being sued by trespassers who should not have been on their land won approval Monday by a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. Backers of Senate Study Bill 1011 said the legislation would 'codify” Iowa's current common law standard and protect property owners against any future granting of expanded liability via court decisions. Land owners still would have a duty of care to refrain from 'willfully or wantonly” injuring a trespasser and to use reasonable care to avoid injuring a trespasser once 'the trespasser's presence becomes known.” The liability provision would not remove responsibility for property owners to protect children from having dangerous conditions or from having items on the property that might attract children to come on the land. A similar bill (House Study Bill 35) has been introduced in the Iowa House. A House subcommittee approved a separate trespassing bill (House File 69) on Monday that sets the fine for trespassing first offense at $200 rather than the current range of $25 to $625. The penalty increases for each subsequent offense.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'If we were perfect we wouldn't need to meet every year,”

Rep. Greg Forristall, R-Macedonia.

Links From Today's Other Coverage

' Iowa legislature cuts $118 million from this year's budget

' Iowa utilities regulator to seek exemptions from public records law

' Legislative Democrats, education lobbyists call GOP's school aid proposal ‘woefully inadequate'

' Lawmakers clash in school ‘home rule' discussion

' Iowa looking into potential wrongful convictions