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March 13, 2009--Volume 7, Number 3
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Wage Discrimination Bill Passes Senate Protecting Ada Hayden Heritage Park
Wage Discrimination Bill Passes Senate
The Senate recently passed Senate File 137, a bill to strengthen the wage discrimination laws in Iowa. The bill is similar to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act recently passed at the federal level.
Lilly Ledbetter was the victim of gender-based pay discrimination for many years without knowing it. When she finally found out, she sued. In a bizarre ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court denied her complaint because she had not filed suit within six months of first being discriminated against, even though she did not learn she was being underpaid until years later and even though every paycheck she got over the years was substantially less than those of her male co-workers.
SF 137 prevents this denial of justice from happening in Iowa by making each discriminatory paycheck a new basis for action. That way, a pay discrimination victim will have access to relief whenever the injustice comes to light, even if she or he has been kept in the dark for years.
Protecting Ada Hayden Heritage Park
One of my proudest accomplishments while serving on the Ames City Council was working to establish the Ada Hayden Heritage Park. Converting the old Hallett’s Quarry to the city’s largest park, we both honored the first woman to earn the Ph.D. degree at Iowa State and secured the city’s back-up water supply.
Now proposed development around the park has raised concerns that resulting runoff from lawn fertilizer could imperil the water quality in the park’s lakes. At the request of the city, I have authored Senate Study Bill 1213 to give cities the authority to regulate the use of phosphorus-containing fertilizers in residential applications. The bill would not affect any agricultural applications but would allow cities to act where residential applications threaten surface water bodies or drinking water supplies.
I am pleased to report that my bill has now passed out of the Senate Local Government Committee, which I chair. It now becomes Senate File 343 and awaits floor action in the Senate.
Geothermal Incentives
In Senate Study Bill 1292, I propose creating a tax incentive for geothermal systems installed in residential properties, where there has been less progress. My bill would abate for ten years the part of the residential property tax assessment related to the value of a geothermal system newly installed in a new or existing home. That tax break would save the homeowner roughly 8-10% of the cost of a system. Since the proposal would apply only to newly installed systems, it would not cost local governments any property tax revenue they are currently receiving.
I want to thank Jim Lohr of Ames for his advocacy and an impressive amount of background research on this issue. SSB 1292 passed out of Senate Local Government Committee this week. It will probably go to Ways& Means Committee, where it has the chair’s support, and then to the full Senate.
2% Allowable Growth Approved
The Senate has passed and the governor has signed Senate File 218 pledging a two-percent increase in the allowed per-pupil support (“allowable growth”) for the K-12 schools for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2010.
Moreover, we hope to be able to use part of Iowa’s share of the federal stimulus money to fund fully the four-percent allowable growth that the legislature approved last year for the fiscal year beginning this July. This latter plan is conditional on working out the administrative details of the federal legislation.
This is a hard budget year. We have to tighten things up severely. This year is the first time I have ever supported a bill for less than four percent allowable growth, and, frankly, without the federal stimulus money we would not be able to fund fully the four percent we approved last year.
As much as we must tighten this year though, we must also focus our limited funds on our priorities. Some argued for a zero-percent allowable growth bill this year, but I argued against. Even in the tightest of times, our kids are still our top priority, and we must do for them what we can, even if it is less than what we would like.
Textbook Sales Tax Exemption
At the request of ISU’s Government of the Student Body, I have sponsored Senate Study Bill 1161 to exempt from sales tax the purchase of college textbooks by registered college students.
The current textbook sales tax system is a mess. At UNI, which does not have a university-sponsored bookstore, students have to pay sales tax on all textbook purchases. At Iowa State and the University of Iowa, purchases from off-campus bookstores are also taxable, but purchases from the university-sponsored bookstores are supposed to be tax-exempt.
Except….except that in order to preserve the peace with the off-campus stores, both the ISU and U of I bookstores charge sales tax even though state law doesn’t require it. Students must then file a refund form with the Department of Revenue to get their money back. Because the GSB at ISU has promoted the refund program, about 10% of ISU tax rebates are claimed. At the University of Iowa, almost none are claimed.
So, we have a system where some students do pay tax and some don’t, and some who do can get their money back and some can’t, but of those who can get their money back, few do and then only by doing a bundle of paperwork that neither they nor the Department of Revenue wants!
Time for a change?
SSB 1161 would require all colleges to make a list of assigned texts available online, so that students and bookstores (public and private) could easily determine which books were exempt. Then all a student would have to do would be to produce a current college ID at the point of sale and the tax would not be charged.
Unfortunately—here comes the budget impact—SSB 1161 would cost the state about $3 million in lost revenue that we can’t afford to lose this year. However, I have pledged to all the students that I will introduce this bill again next year and the year after and the year after that until we get this thing fixed.
In the meantime, if you or your student buys books at the ISU Bookstore, by all means, file for your refund! The instructions are at www.gsb.iastate.edu/tax/.
City Control of Hoglots
Again this year I offered my bill, SSB 1161, to give cities local control of the siting of large animal feeding operations. The bill would allow cities siting control within two miles of the city limits, where they already exercise subdivision authority. The bill would exempt small and pre-existing operations. This limited but useful control would give a city a valuable tool to protect well fields and new subdivisions at the edge of town.
The bill did proceed out of subcommittee and got additional public attention, but it is unlikely to move further this year. I am frustrated that the legislature can’t seem to act further on hoglots, because the flaws in the current system are many and manifest. I will keep at this issue until we succeed.
High School Hoops
I spent last Saturday night watching the 3A and 4A high school girls basketball state championships. What a great display of talent!
Congratulations to the Ballard High Bombers for winning the 3A championship in grand style! They had a remarkable season.
Congratulations, too, to the Ames High Little Cyclones for their second-place finish. Though underdogs in their last two games, they knocked off the top seed in the semifinals and gave the eventual champions a real battle down to the very last minute of play.
I represent both the Ames district and a corner of the Ballard district and couldn’t be prouder of these two exciting teams. Next weekend, I’ll be watching the outstanding Ames High boys’ team as they, too, battle for a state championship.
On Visitors and Newsletters
Communicating with my constituents is a crucially important part of my job, and I take it very seriously. I especially appreciate those of you who come to our beautiful Capitol to visit. I value your input and thank you for the time and effort you take.
This year our schedule of committee meetings has been horrendous. (I’m on six different committees.) On top of that, we have had subcommittee meetings on many dozens of individual bills. All of this formal discussion makes for better legislation, but too often this session it has also meant that I have been away from my desk when some constituents have come to visit.
I have seen many dozens of visitors, but if you are one of the ones I missed, I apologize. If you ever need to talk to me about any issue, please feel free to call me at home at 515-292-8984. Weeknights after 8:00 p.m. and all day Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are best.
Regarding newsletters, you will note from the masthead that this is the third issue of my newsletter this year. We had significant systems problems in sending out the second edition, and I have reason to believe that there were receiving problems, too, with some email providers. If you missed the second edition—and lots of pictures of visitors—you can find it on my website at: www.iowasenatedemocrats.org/quirmbach/newsletter/2.htm.
Recent photosDownload photos at www.iowasenatedemocrats.org/quirmbach/photos.
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