Senators spar over job creation, education funding

DES MOINES – Iowa senators marked the Ides of March Tuesday with a number of partisan clashes.

Majority Democrats pushed through two job-creation proposals by 26-24 margins over GOP objections. Minority Republicans also tried unsuccessfully to block Democratic efforts to delay a decision to set base funding levels for K-12 schools in fiscal 2013 – action that would affirm Gov. Terry Branstad's call for the Legislature to begin budgeting on a two-year basis.

Senators voted to channel $10 million to job-training efforts designed to help low-skilled unemployed and underemployed adults to complete industry-recognized certificate programs at local community colleges.

Senate File 328 would pump $5 million into the statewide Pathways for Academic Career and Employment (PACE) program that would help community colleges partner with state agencies and local communities to help eligible low-skilled, low-income adults and dislocated workers get certified and trained for new job skills. Another $5 million would be used to take pilot Gap Assistance Programs at three community colleges statewide in providing assistance for books, tuition and other expenses for students working to complete the certification process and land employment.

“This works. It gets under-employed people a skill. I don't understand the opposition to it,” said Sen. Brian Schoenjahn, D-Arlington. “We're asking for funding for people who have fallen through the cracks.”

However, Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, said it would be better to invest the $10 million in existing work training and job development programs at community colleges rather than “creating two spanking new programs.”

“It's reinvent-the-wheel legislation,” said Bartz, a minority Republican who ended up on the short end of a 26-24 outcome.

On a separate 26-24 party-line vote, senators extended a “save our small business fund” and program by one year through March 31, 2012.

Senate File 301 would give state economic development officials the ability to negotiate terms of financial assistance for eligible businesses, including offering interest-free financing for up to six months and increasing the percentage of funds allocated for certain operational expenses. The bill also would extend the due date for loan repayments to March 2017.

Critics noted the fund was established this fiscal year with $5 million to help businesses with 35 or fewer employees that are struggling to get access to capital due to the national recession, but that only $1.4 million of the funds had been obligated and $660,000 have not been disbursed. Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, said there was no longer a problem associated with access to bank loans and the money would better be used to balance the state's budget or provide property tax relief that would save Iowa small businesses.

“In 16 days, this bill will die a much-needed death,” said Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa. “The fact that we want to extend this beyond that point seems unreasonable. The emergency and the lack of funds are no longer a priority for us and when they were, only 28 percent of this bill actually was utilized.”

Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, an Iowa State University economics professor, said he was surprised that Republicans were opposing a pro-small business, pro-jobs creation program that isn't costing the state a lot of money. “We are not out of the recession yet, we're not recovered, these businesses still need our help,” he said.

Sen. Steve Sodders, D-State Center, said the program has been credited with creating 137 jobs and leveraged $1.6 million in private investments. “We believe this is the right track to go down,” he said. The measure goes to the GOP-led House, where its future is uncertain.

Senators also voted 26-24 along party lines Tuesday to delay a decision on establishing an “allowable growth” rate for K-12 school districts for fiscal 2013 – something that state laws says should have been accomplished within 30 days after Branstad made his budget presentation on Jan. 27. Quirmbach noted that a similar decision was delayed last session due to the economic uncertainty and he said there was no point setting a fiscal 2013 rate when lawmakers have yet to agree on a fiscal 2012 allowable growth level.

House members and Branstad have called for zero growth over the next two fiscal years, while legislative Democrats support a 2 percent increase in base school financing for the fiscal year that begins next July 1. The governor and legislative Republicans also are in favor of providing up to $215 million in fiscal 2012 to “backfill” education costs that were shifted to local districts and property taxpayers due to underfunding by the Legislature.

Senators were in accord on several bills that passed Tuesday, including a 50-0 vote on legislation (Senate File 456) designed to conform Iowa law with federal requirements that allows a person who was subject to a disqualifying mental health disorder or judgment to regain their right to possess a firearms in a fair and impartial process. Also Tuesday, the Senate voted 38-12 to establish a statewide health information exchange expected to be up and running within 18-24 months and fully implemented in five years; voted 49-1 to remove fourth-generation bengal cats - the eight-pound cross between a domestic cat and an Asian leopard cat, not the tiger - and savannahs bred but not for sale in Iowa from the list of dangerous wild animals.