Iowa Senate passes handicapped parking tag change

DES MOINES - Handicapped drivers issued placards after Jan. 1 to park in specially designated zones would have to renew the permits every five years under a proposal endorsed Wednesday by the Iowa Senate.

House File 588, which passed 47-2, would maintain current lifetime removable windshield placards previously issued to disabled Iowans but would make devices temporary and subject for renewal by the state Department of Transportation every five years if Gov. Terry Branstad signs it into law.

'It's permanent now,” said Sen. Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids, the bill's floor manager. 'That means you get to keep it forever, and so this bill is trying to clear up what is happening. Some people think that people are passing it on to other relatives.”

The proposal returns to the Iowa House for consideration of minor Senate changes.

In a separate measure, senators voted 47-2 to send House File 617 to the governor. The bill would establish specialty license plates that would offer space for decals by nonprofit groups approved by state transportation officials without revising existing specialty plates.

The decals would could not promote a specific product or brand name, said Sen. Chris Brase, D-Muscatine, floor manager of the proposal that now goes to Branstad for his consideration. DOT officials already regulate what can appear on a state license plate, he noted, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year established that states can limit the contents of license plates because they are state property.

'This is a good bill. It's worked well in other states,” Brase said. 'The law enforcement community likes this bill because it creates a standardized Iowa plate so when they see the plate they can recognize where it's from. It also would reduce some of the costs to our counties because they only have to keep in stock one design of a plate and then it would be up to the nonprofits to produce and to distribute the decals that may be applied.”

Bridge repair reports

Senators also voted 49-0 to approve House File 2345, a proposal to require county engineers to report annually on bridge repair work, but the measure returns to the House to consider an amendment to put a three-year sunset on the requirement.

Parental rights of rapists

Also Wednesday, senators voted 49-0 to send Branstad a bill that would allow a judge to terminate parental rights of convicted rapists as long as there is clear and convincing evidence the pregnancy was the result of a sexual assault. A separate measure would extend the statute of limitation for crimes involving the kidnapping or human trafficking of a minor.