Iowa lawmakers unlikely to be able to keep fingers off ‘hot buttons’

CEDAR RAPIDS - Every legislative session has an agenda - the leaders' list of important and necessary action.

Then there are 150 individual agendas of legislation that are each 'necessary and important” to at least one lawmaker.

The 2015 session appears to be no exception. Gov. Terry Branstad and legislative leaders have been talking about balancing the budget, raising the gas tax, developing a skilled workforce, and expanding broadband connectivity to the state's 36 million acres.

Those issues are sure to consume much of lawmakers' time and efforts during the 110-day session that opens Jan. 12 in Des Moines. However, here are a handful of hot button issues that will grab headlines, too:

School start date

With the Department of Education saying it will enforce its rule that schools are not to begin classes until the week of Sept. 1, many lawmakers want to give their local school district more flexibility.

'I expect a discussion,” said Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, noting that the position of the House has changed over the years. He expects the House to take up legislation that won't set a specific start date, but parameters for school districts. 'As we expect high schools to collaborate with each other and community colleges, it would make sense to have similar calendars,” Paulsen said.

Gov. Terry Branstad said he's willing to consider a change, 'but I don't think that we should be starting school in the early or middle part of August.”

Eminent Domain

Here's an issue that doesn't cut along political lines. Lawmakers tend to split along rural-urban lines and where they stand on property rights.

This year, the possibility of the Rock Island Clean Line electric transmission power line and an underground pipeline to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois are sparking the debate.

'There's a lot of tension over those issues,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs. He expects there will be efforts to change the law, which currently grants the Iowa Utilities Board authority to use eminent domain for public utilities. However, neither company in these cases is a public utility.

That makes Paulsen doubt the House will expand the application of eminent domain

'We've had an eminent domain debate every year since Kelo,” he said, referring to a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision expanding municipalities' ability to take land for development purposes. 'The House has traditionally come down on the side of landowners and property rights.”

Branstad is somewhere in the middle. While he feels strongly about private property rights, 'there are sometimes public policy reasons where you shouldn't be able to have one person block one important project.”

Medical marijuana:

Last year the Legislature basically decriminalize possession of cannabis oil for the treatment of epileptic seizures. However, families that sought the treatment said the law didn't go far enough because Iowans must travel out of state to get the non-intoxicating cannabis oil.

The Senate is open to tweaks, Gronstal said, but Paulsen doesn't anticipate running a bill related to legalizing marijuana - 'medicinal or otherwise” - this year.

Sledding:

Dubuque recently adopted restrictions on sledding in public parks and Branstad sees it as an issue that may land in lawmakers' laps.

They've wrestled with the issue in the past as cities sought to limit liability for sledding accidents on public property. Trial lawyers opposed the bills, one which was passed by the House last year.

'It's a delicate balance. Liability issue is a great fear to communities,” he said.

Unless the Legislature provides some liability limits, he expects to see more communities to follow Dubuque's lead.

Photo IDs:

Secretary of State Paul Pate wants the Legislature to require voters to present a photo ID to vote. Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, would go along with that in order to ensure clean elections. Gronstal called that an attempt to 'solve a problem that doesn't exist.”

Flag desecration:

An Iowa Supreme Court decision in favor of Westboro Baptist Church pickets who desecrated the American flag at funerals of fallen soldiers is likely to draw a proposal curb such activities.

Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, called the activities of the Westboro demonstrators wearing, walking on and spitting on the flag while shouting gay slurs a form of 'verbal domestic terrorism. He plans to introduce legislation to limit such expression that is 'purposely intended to elicit violence.”

Civil liberties advocates say his proposal likely will be unconstitutional.