'Sticking points' slow Iowa Legislature adjournment

DES MOINES – The morning after Iowa legislative leaders unveiled a wide-ranging tax relief plan that was a top priority for lawmakers and the governor, progress toward adjournment slowed to a crawl.

“We're going to move what we have available to us,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Friday when asked about bringing the tax relief package to the floor on May 17, the 124th day of a planned 110-day session.

What was available was the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure bill, House File 638. The House dispatched the conference committee report 91-2 and the Senate voted 27-18 to send the bill to the governor.

However, the “big three” priorities of Gov. Terry Branstad, and legislative Democrats and Republicans remain unresolved.

Gronstal reacted sharply to suggestions he didn't have the votes in his 26-member Democratic caucus to pass the tax plan to provide relief to all property classes, return a share of the state ‘s $800 million-plus surplus to income taxpayers and provide a break to low-income working families.

“I'm not going to talk about what the vote counts are,” Gronstal told reporters when asked about Senate Democrats' lengthy Thursday night closed-door session to discuss Senate File 295.

There were “sticking points,” Gronstal said.

“I think there's a whole bunch of elements to this bill,” he said. “It's important for people to talk about them, to understand their impact on their local communities, to have those discussions.”

Senate Republicans, on the other hand, seem to like the plan, according to Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock.

“We've said from the onset that we want property tax relief to be something that all taxpayers across Iowa would feel,” Dix said. “The bill addresses that. I believe that all Senate Republicans will support the bill.”

That's not likely to be the case for Democrats, according to Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, chairman of the tax relief conference committee. However, he expects the Senate to pass SF 295 Monday with more than half of Democrats voting for it.

“The reality is we're in a split-control situation and we took two plans and merged them together,” McCoy said. “Sometimes you need to remind people that elections have consequences and I think that's going to have to happen across the state.”

Waiting until next week to debate the bill “gives time for members to go home and talk with local people about how the property tax plan affects them,” McCoy said.

Also on the unfinished business list is House File 215, education reform, where there are reports of continued negotiations, but no consensus.

Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, a retired teacher and member of the House Education Committee, said conference committee members are stuck on policy language on teacher evaluation policy, home school and home rule.

“Those are the three they are trying to get some compromise everybody can live with,” she said. “What that will be, I don't know. I don't know what Republicans in the House can settle with.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, believes the conference committee, which hasn't met in at least two weeks, can work through those differences even though they've been stumbling blocks from the earliest discussions.

“I'm trying to be optimistic,” Paulsen said. “I expect them to conclude their work and I expect us to pass an education reform bill.”

The stalemate on a third priority, the expansion of health care access to low-income Iowans and the Health and Human Service budget grinds on.

All parties to the conference committee on Senate File 296 say discussions continue. Paulsen again insisted that although the Legislature is in in extra innings, “it's more important to get it right than to get it done fast.”

“People are working on it. I think they are working hard on it,” he said. “We need to make sure we get that right.”

Conference committee member Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, said lawmakers need the governor's trust and reassurance that he will respect their work to find a compromise between his Healthy Iowa Plan and Senate Democrats' Medicaid expansion plan.

“We would appreciate the governor's assistance but not necessarily direct participation. It's a legislative issue,” Heaton said.

Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, agreed lawmakers are trying to determine whether Branstad is serious about reaching compromise.

“There are things going on now that would enable the three tribes to kind of sit down and have a pow wow,” he said.

Also ahead, there may be a last-minute GOP-led attempt to raise the state motor fuel tax 10 cent over three years. That's prompted the Republican Party of Iowa to tweet: “You can count on the Republican Party of Iowa to stand up for hardworking Iowa families and oppose hiking the gas tax.”

Freshman Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, is promising to continue his efforts to change Iowa's eminent domain law to protect southern Iowa landowners who have been served legal papers in a protracted battle to develop a lake, supposedly, to provide drinking water to area communities. He will use every means available to prevent landowners from losing their farms “just so rich people can park their jet skis on their front lawns.”

Although lawmakers did not make as much progress this week as they might have hoped, Paulsen predicted lawmakers will adjourn next week.

“We'll be back next week and, hopefully, wrap it up quickly,” he said.

The House is adjourned until Monday afternoon, but most representatives will not return until Tuesday. The Senate is adjourned until Tuesday.

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