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Week 14 –
Committee Reports NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT STAFF CONTACT: Sue Monahan SF 2348—Management of Cooperative
Associations HF 2601— FLOOR ACTION: SF 2348 provides for standards of conduct for a cooperative association’s board of directors and for an association’s officers. The bill establishes procedures for a director’s approval of a board’s decisions. The director and board may consider community interest factors when making decisions, including consideration of acquisition proposals. The bill provides that the association’s articles of incorporation may require the vote be by a greater than two-thirds majority. In addition, the House added an amendment, which increases the voting requirement for any amendment to the articles of incorporation that adds, changes or deletes a greater voting or quorum requirement by the members. [4/14: 48-0, Heckroth, McKibben “excused”] HF
2601 updates the inter-agency Missouri River Authority. The inter-agency Missouri River Authority
was established by code in 2002 to define how the state of In addition the bill directs the DNR to
coordinate regular meetings with the Missouri River Authority agencies to
determine the state’s position before the MORAST meetings. The bill directs
the agencies to attempt to reach consensus on substantive proposals or
actions before the MORAST meetings. In addition, the bill directs that any
substantive proposal or action considered by MORAST be determined by a
majority vote of the members of the Missouri River Authority if consensus
between the agencies cannot be reached. The bill directs the DNR to cast the
votes at MORAST that reflect the position of the Missouri River Authority.
Also, the bill directs the Missouri River Authority to seek input from all
stakeholder groups concerning the STAFF CONTACT: Theresa Kehoe SF
2411 – Open records and open meetings SF
2417 – Healthy Iowans Tobacco Tr SF
2422 – Power Fund SSB
3297 – Health & Human Services FY09 Budget SSB
3300 – Pension Systems HF
2647 – Judicial Branch FY09 HF
2662 – Ag and Natural Resources Budget FY09 FLOOR ACTION SF
2417 appropriates $35.4 million from the Healthy Iowans Tobacco Tr
HF 2647 appropriates $148.2 million from the General Fund to the Judicial Branch. This is a decrease of $200,000 from FY08. HF 2647 also appropriates $2.5 million from the Jury and Witness Fee Revolving Fund and $1.7 million from the Court Technology and Modernization Fund to the Judicial Retirement Fund. Other highlights include: · Prohibits the Judicial Branch from duplicating the State payroll system. · Requires the Judicial Branch to provide a semi-annual report to the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) specifying the amount of fines, surcharges, and court costs collected using the Iowa Court Information System (ICIS). · Requires the Judicial Branch to report to the General Assembly by January 1, 2009, regarding the revenues and expenditures for the Enhanced Court Collections Fund and the Court Technology and Modernization Fund. · The State’s contribution to the Judicial Retirement Fund is increased. [4/10 30-18] HF 2662 is the Agriculture and Natural Resources FY09 budget. The FY09 appropriation is mostly a status quo budget. Highlights include: · REAP (Resource Enhancement and Protection) is increased by $500,000 for a total of $16 million. REAP helps fund soil conservation and outdoor recreation projects throughout the state.
COMMITTEE ACTION SF 2422 makes a number of changes to the four-year, $100 million Power Fund program, which was enacted during the 2007 session. Highlights include: · Confidentiality language guidelines are added, mirrored after Department of Economic Development. The Power Fund Board is required to adopt rules. · Allows Power Fund appropriations to be used for technical review of the applications and for the Energy Independence plan beginning in FY08. · Beginning in FY09 up to 5 percent of funds may be used for administrative purposes (up from 1.5 percent). ·
The bill is effective upon enactment. [4/14: 15-9 ( SSB 3297 is the FY09 Health and Human Services Budget Appropriations bill. SSB 3297 appropriates $1.2 billion from the General Fund and $475 million from other funds. This includes:
Children
Mental Health and Disability Services
Miscellaneous
SSB 3300 makes changes to the state’s public retirement systems, including the Peace Officers Retirement System (PORS) [Division I, Sects.1-19]; the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) [Division II, Sects. 20-51]; the statewide fire and police retirement system (“411”) [Division III, Sect. 52-54]; and the Judicial Retirement System (JRS) [Division IV, Sects. 55-57]. Changes from SF 2373 include:
The bill also has several miscellaneo
STAFF CONTACT: Julie T. Simon SF
2337 – Association of SF
2392 – Viatical settlements HF
2556 – Banking omnib
SF 2337 allows the Association of Iowa Fairs to have the power to purchase liability insurance as a purchasing group on behalf of eligible fairs that are members. The bill was assigned to the Ho SF 2392 is based on recommendations by the Iowa Insurance Division and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to regulate viatical settlements and strengthen consumer protection. The bill requires increased reporting by viatical settlement providers, provides transparency and education by increasing disclosures and information to the consumers who sell their policies so that they have a better understanding of the nature of such transactions. The bill also addresses growing nationwide concerns regarding stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI). This has become a vehicle used by many scam artists to prey on the elderly. Hedge funds and investment firms are bundling pooled insurance policies and trading them and the sooner the insureds die, the more money the firm makes. The bill places a five-year ban on selling STOLI policies, which should substantially decrease the financial incentives for a third-party or investor group. The ban does not apply to consumers who pay for their insurance policies with their own money. They may sell their policies after two years (the standard incontestability period), the same as current law. The consumer also may sell his or her policy at any time if any of these conditions apply: terminal or chronic illness; death of a spouse; divorce; retirement; disability; or bankruptcy. The House made technical changes, including a non-substantive re-write of the “prohibited practices” section to clarify the intent and make it easier to understand and implement, and allowed the use of affidavits as a acceptable method to show that an insured falls into one of the “exceptions” in the five-year ban on settling policies. The House also eliminated the requirement that viatical settlement providers and brokers obtain a $100,000 surety bond and eliminated a provision in current law that required life insurance agents to obtain a separate license when acting as a viatical settlement broker. Eliminating these two requirements will significantly reduce the entry-level barriers for legitimate life settlement providers and brokers. The bill passed the House 99-0. [4/10: Concur 49-0] HF 2556 is a proposal by the Banking Division of the Department of Commerce. It strengthens regulated
loan provisions by increasing the size of the bond paid
by licensees from $1,000 to $25,000 and broadens the
range of disciplinary actions in the event of specified
licensee misconduct. It provides
that a licensee may not broker loans without a mortgage
broker license, and deletes several exemptions previo The bill
also makes changes to regulations governing ind misconduct, including a civil penalty of up to $5,000. The bill provides that a licensee cannot broker loans without a mortgage broker license, and licensees m The bill passed the Ho STAFF CONTACT: Bridget Godes SF
2413 – Permissive act for certain school districts FLOOR ACTION: SF
2413 allows two school districts that missed deadlines to apply for
spending authority from the School Budget Review Committee (SBRC). The
first district ( STAFF CONTACT: Cathy Engel SF
2214 –Child Custody and Active Military Duty SF
2350 – Probate Omnibus Bill HF
2633 – Limited Liability Companies FLOOR ACTION: SF
2214 establishes that if a custodial parent is serving active duty in the
military service of the SF 2350 relates to trusts and estates, including the administration of small estates. The bill specifies that real estate conveyed to a revocable trust and subsequently sold or mortgaged by the trustee does not require a follow-up deed from the individual grantor and spouse. In addition, the bill increases the amount of the value of assets in a conservatorship before a bond would be required from $10,000 to $25,000. Also, the bill specifies that a surviving spouse must be given notice of the spouse’s right to elect to receive a life estate in the homestead. The bill also amends provisions in the probate and trust codes relating to shares inherited by born children under wills and revocable trusts. The bill also reorganizes and restructures current provisions in the trust code relating to creditors’ rights, spendthrift trusts, spendthrift trusts created for the benefit of the settlor, overdue distributions, and creates new provisions relating to creditors’ rights generally and discretionary trusts. Another aspect of the bill provides that a donor has the right to designate who will have standing to enforce a charitable trust established by the settler and may designate a person or persons to enforce the charitable trust if the settler is deceased or not competent. The Senate concurred with the House amendment. The amendment clarified that a creditor of a beneficiary will be able to enforce an action again a trustee if the beneficiary had an enforceable right relating to a distribution from the trust. [4/15: 47-0, Hatch, Heckroth, McKibben absent]. HF 2633 revises the current “Iowa Limited Liability Company Act” codified in code Chapter 490A, and places it in new code Chapter 489. This revised act is based on the uniform act drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws. The bill provides for formation of an LLC, the signing, filing of records and reports. In addition, the bill governs the relations of members and managers to non-members and third parties. The bill provides default rules for members’ relationship among themselves, templates for member-managed and manager-managed LLCs and duties. The new act governs dissolution and winding –up of an LLC and organic changes such as mergers, conversions, and domestications. [4/16: 50-0] STAFF CONTACT: Jace Mikels HF
2612 – DNR omnibus policy bill FLOOR ACTION: HF 2612 as amended by the Senate makes various changes to conservation and recreation activities by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, including modifying fees and penalties. Changes include: · modifying requirements for local REAP committees, · allowing the adoption of rules regarding maintenance of ATV parks and trails, · protection of state-owned and state-managed lands, · exemptions for permit requirements for vehicles taken onto frozen lakes or rivers, · hunting accident reporting, · reciprocity agreements regarding hunting and fishing regulations, · clarifying military personnel eligibility for lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, · hunter education requirements, · allowing the use of laser sights when a blind individual is hunting, · clarifying “trespass while hunting deer” penalties, and · increasing the fine for violations involving aquatic invasive species. The Senate also amended the bill to include language from legislation that passed the Senate last session to require children under the age of 13 to wear personal flotation devices while in a vessel on state waters. [4/16: 50-0] SF 2406 – Appointments to statutory
boards and commissions FLOOR ACTION: SF 2406 is a Code update and clarification for appointment of members of the General Assembly to statutory boards and commissions. This bill eliminates boards that are no longer statutorily required. Legislative appointment will be for two years and will run from the start of one General Assembly to the start of the next General Assembly. Currently, terms are of varying lengths with different start and end dates. Leaders must complete their appointments by the fourth Monday in January of the first session of the General Assembly. The Legislative Services Agency (LSA) is responsible for notifying all appointees, as well as the affected boards and commissions, of the appointments. Additionally, LSA will maintain an up-to-date listing of all legislative appointments. The bill also standardizes language, unless otherwise specified, that legislative appointees will always be eligible for travel, per diem and expenses. Also, current law will be changed to allow appointments by legislative leaders to be made separately by each respective leader. For a handful of boards and commissions, legislative membership will be increased from two to four members, one representative from each caucus. [4/14: 48-0 (Johnson, McKibben “absent”] STAFF CONTACT: Julie T. Simon SF
2378 – Open records, open meetings SF
2414 – Ban on FLOOR ACTION SF
2378 [see SF 2411 by Appropriations] revises It also creates Iowa Code Chapter 23 to deal with enforcement of the open records and open meetings provisions and establishes a five-member Iowa Public Information Board to take questions or complaints on possible violations of the laws. In essence, the Board will be an advocate for openness in government across the state. The Governor appoints the members but the
Board is independent from other public agencies, and would operate in a
manner similar to the Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. The Board is to provide an “efficient,
informal and cost-effective process for resolving disputes.” It has the
authority to issue informal advice, and to decline a complaint in specific
situations (e.g., frivolo It would take complaints, mediate and resolve disputes between citizens and public officials informally, but also could bring cases in court against violators. This would alleviate concerns regarding conflicts of interest by the Attorney General and county attorneys who enforce the laws but also are responsible for representing government. Although the Board does not have legal jurisdiction over the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branches, citizens continue to have the right to file lawsuits to resolve disputes involving those offices. In a contested case
proceeding, a respondent may defend against a proceeding
before the Board charging a violation of Chapter 21 or 22 on the ground
that if such a violation occurred it was only harmless error or that clear
and convincing evidence demonstrated that grounds existed to j Other states with similar boards have found that an overwhelming majority of questions and issues by citizens and government officials can be handled informally by telephone or e-mail. In cases where this is not satisfactory the Board would move to mediation and, if necessary, go on to a hearing. Any party continues to have the right to go to court to seek enforcement and the right to seek a court injunction to prevent examination of a public record. The Board will provide for thorough
“in-service training” for officials and employees of school boards, counties
and municipal governments. This
education effort also should greatly enhance the comfort level of front-line
workers who previo The Board will offer training on open meetings and open records laws for citizens, and disseminate information about the public’s right of access. It will report annually to the Governor and the General Assembly, and can make legislative recommendations. [4/14: 43-6]
COMMITTEE ACTION SF 2414 limits the A willful violation of any provision of the campaign finance chapter is a serio Charlie
Smithson, ECDB Director and Legal Counsel, noted that SF 2414 removes a
source of conf Currently
any candidate or officeholder, regardless of income level, may Smithson said it is clear by current prohibitions in the law that it is the intent of the General Assembly that campaign funds are not intended to be additional sources of money that supplement the living expenses of a candidate. SF 2414 is a Leadership
bill (Gronstal/McCarthy) and in addition to an earlier subcommittee meeting,
State Government met as a subcommittee of the whole to disc The bill takes effect upon enactment. [4/15: short form] STAFF CONTACT: Julie T. Simon SF
2134 – County veterans affairs offices FLOOR ACTION SF 2134 is an Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA) proposal. Currently, county commissions of veteran affairs may employ an executive director and other necessary administrative or clerical assistants when needed. This bill requires that county commissions employ a director, or administrator, and other necessary administrative or clerical employees. It also:
The bill describes the duties of the executive director, administrator, and clerical assistant, including informing members of the armed forces, veterans, and their dependents of all federal, state, and local laws enacted for their benefit, and helping all Iowa residents who served in the armed forces and their relatives, beneficiaries, and dependents receive any compensation or other aid or benefit to which they may be entitled. The bill allows two or more county boards
of supervisors to share the services of an executive director or
administrator. Each commission will
establish an office that m The Ho STAFF CONTACT: Kris Bell SF
2415 – Regional Fire Districts SF
2416 – Wage Payment Collection SF
2418 – Earned Income Tax Credits Awareness SF
2419 – Speculative Shell Buildings SF
2420 – TIME 21 SF
2423 – Administrative Services HF
2663 – Secure an Advance Vision for Education HF
2668 – Disposal and Recycling of Used Oil Filters HF
2669 – Collection and Recycling of Mercury-Added Thermostats FLOOR ACTION: SF 2415 allows regions in the state to participate in a pilot program for emergency response districts and provides for a district tax levy. The bill sets up governance and reporting requirements. [4/10: 49-0 (McKibben excused)] SF 2416 relates to wage and hour law enforcement and the classification of employees and subcontractors by construction contractors. The bill increases penalties for employers who do not pay wages as required by law. The bill also makes changes to provide for better enforcement to prevent the misclassification of employees as subcontractors in the construction industry. By misclassifying employees as subcontractors, employers avoid paying workers’ compensation and unemployment and payroll taxes that they are required to pay for their own employees. [4/14: 28-21 (Angelo, Behn, Boettger, Gaskill, Hahn, Hartsuch, Hogg, Houser, Johnson, Kettering, McKibben, McKinley, Mulder, Noble, Olive, Putney, Seymour, Ward, Wieck, Zaun, Zieman no; Heckroth excused)] SF 2418 directs the Department of Human Services to provide materials and publications related to the Earned Income Tax Credit to certain households. The also requires the Child Support Recovery Unit to assist obligors of child support and medical support to maximize their tax refunds by publicizing the services of volunteer or free income tax assistance programs. [4/14: 47-0 (McKinley present; Heckroth, Wieck excused)] SF 2419 amends Iowa Code chapter 427. Current law provides a property tax exemption for construction, reconstruction, or renovation of a building as a speculative shell building. The exemption begins in the assessment year that the speculative building is first assessed for taxation or the assessment year in which the reconstruction or renovation first adds value. The bill provides that the exemption may begin in the assessment year in which the reconstruction or renovation commences if it involves completely replacing or refitting an existing building or structure and the city council or county board of supervisor gives prior approval of the exemption. The bill takes effect upon enactment and applies retroactively to January 1, 2007. [4/14: 47-0 (Hatch present; Heckroth, Wieck excused)] SF
2420 allocates funds to the “Transportation Moves the Economy in the
Twenty-First Century” (TIME-21) fund from new revenues generated from
increases in pick-up truck and trailer registration fees, and title
fees. It generates approximately $130
million by the year 2012 and does not include an increase in the gasoline
tax. [4/15: 35-14 (Angelo, Behn, Fraise, Hancock, Hartsuch, |