April 18, 2009

Unfinished Business

Most everyone believes that the Legislature will end its 2009 session during the week of April 20. Will it leave town with a balanced budget? Yes. Will it have passed legislation that helps our communities? Yes. Will it have made everyone happy at a time when families and state government must cut their budgets? Definitely not!

This year is more difficult than most when it comes to making budget decisions. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to know what programs in the state budget will ultimately benefit from federal stimulus dollars. The federal government insists that the Governor make most of those decisions after federal guidelines are finished sometime later this year. What is clear, however, is that the state will spend fewer of our taxpayer dollars this year.

Thanks primarily to Representative Kurt Swaim, the Legislature is expected to finally pass a bill that allows remedies for people who are victims of consumer fraud. The best thing about the bill is that it will have little or no effect on businesses that conduct business fairly, and even when they make innocent mistakes. After the bill is passed, Iowa will join the other forty-nine states with a private cause of action for consumer fraud. I will have the honor of managing the bill in the Senate after the House passes it.

On Monday, April 20, I will chair a public hearing on a bill creating new restrictions on sex offenders. If, as law enforcement and victims groups hope, this bill is eventually passed and signed by the Governor, people need to thank a bipartisan group of legislators and legislative leaders. These leaders include Senate Minority Leader McKinley, Majority Leader Gronstal, President Kibbie, House Speaker Murphy, Majority Leader McCarthy, and Minority Leader Paulsen.

I am still unhappy with the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court that threw out the law I helped to write in 1998 that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. While it is legally impossible for the Legislature or the Governor to put the decision on hold or overturn the decision, many of us are looking at constructive ways that the Legislature can respond.

Finally, this year has brought about a number of controversial issues at a time when many people are worried about their future and the future of their families. Despite efforts to help working people and small businesses, we know that there are (and should be) limits on what government can do. As in all other times of crisis, the solution will be found in the hard work and the character of people in our local communities. Only by all of us working together, will we persevere. And we will persevere, and we will again thrive.

Thank you for all of your efforts.

Keep in touch!!

Keith Keith Kreiman

State Senator Dist. 47

cell: 515-210-0560  

www.IowaSenateDemocrats.org/Kreiman