Soderberg Newsletter23

Chuck Soderberg COMMITTEES Appropriations, Chair Commerce Environmental Protection Legislative Council STATE REPRESENT...

0 downloads 163 Views 101KB Size
Chuck Soderberg

COMMITTEES Appropriations, Chair Commerce Environmental Protection Legislative Council

STATE REPRESENTATIVE

Fifth District Statehouse: (515) 281-3221 e-mail – [email protected]

HOME ADDRESS 631 3rd Ave SE Le Mars, IA 51031 Home: 712-546-6136

House of Representatives State of Iowa Eighty-Sixth General Assembly STATEHOUSE

Des Moines, Iowa 50319

March 5, 2015

From the Desk of Representative Chuck Soderberg Week eight was the first legislative deadline where a bill is required to pass out of committee to remain eligible for further consideration. The Iowa House primarily focused on committee meetings and subcommittee meetings. There was no floor debate. If the House policy bills did not pass out of a House committee, they are no longer eligible for further consideration this year. The appropriation bills, or budget bills, are not subject to this legislative deadline. Information on all the bills, amendments, and floor action can be found on the Iowa General Assembly web at: www.legis.iowa.gov.

Where Has the State Budget Increased Over the Last Several Years? Let’s take a look back over the last several years on how your new tax dollars have been spent. From FY 2012 through FY 2015, this is how and where your new Iowa tax dollars were spent. 1) Education (43%) • Clearly funding for education is a priority for House Republicans. o K-12 school funding has grown $328.2 million between FY 2012 & FY 2015. o Iowa’s community colleges and universities funding has increased $97.7 million since FY 2012. o Even though Iowa’s economic growth is soft, primarily in the agricultural and agricultural related areas, we are still willing to commit $100 million of the total additional revenue of $200 million (50% of the new revenue) to our K-12 schools for next year (FY 2016). A 4% Supplemental State Aid increase would cost the state $210 million, exceeding our total new available revenue all by itself. This prioritization will mean cuts to the rest of government. 2) Medicaid (22%) • We have been forced to absorb enormous growth in our Medicaid obligation because of broken promises by the federal government. State funding for Medicaid and mental health services has grown by $215.5 million since FY 2012. • The federal government has punished Iowa by steadily increasing the State’s share of Medicaid costs. This has shifted $162.4 million of Medicaid costs to Iowa’s budget over the past three years. 3) Property Tax Relief (19%) • Since taking control in 2011, House Republicans set out to end the practice of underfunding property tax credits. All of Iowa’s property tax credits, such as the Homestead Housing and the Veteran’s property tax credits, are now fully funded. An additional $185.2 million has gone towards property tax relief because of our efforts to fully fund the tax credits since FY 2012. 4) The Rest of Government (16%) • The rest of government has grown slowly in recent years. Notably, we have forced the executive branch and departments to find money for salary increases within their current funding levels.



Iowans’ other priorities that have been funded include: increasing support for adoptions, implementing the state’s water quality initiative, and putting additional state troopers on Iowa’s roads to make them safer.

House Republicans have changed the culture surrounding the budget process. For too long, the budget conversation was disconnected from the amount of revenue coming in. Money was spent, obligations were made, and programs were purposely underfunded without respect for how the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa were doing. The House Republicans stand firm and will not waiver from our simple, common sense budgeting principles: • • • •

We will not spend more than the state takes in. We will not use one-time money to pay for ongoing expenses. We will not intentionally underfund entitlement programs to balance the budget. We will return unused tax dollars to Iowa’s taxpayers.

School Funding Conference Committee Meets to Resolve Differences As mentioned last week, SF 171 and SF 172, setting school aid for the FY16 (2015/16 school year) was sent to a conference committee on February 26th to resolve the differences between the House and the Senate. The committee met twice this week. The Senate proposed a 4% growth amount, while the House, and the Governor, have advocated for a 1.25% increase in funding. The House continues to support a 1.25% proposal, which would provide an additional $100 million in state dollars going to the K-12 education system next year. This number includes the $50 million for the state’s new Teacher Leadership Compensation (TLC) system. The House proposal continues the legislature’s trend of providing increases to the state’s K-12 system, bringing the 5-year total increase to over $570 million, a nearly 22% increase. The Revenue Estimating Conference estimates the state’s revenue that we are REQUIRED by law to use for our state budget. While the state’s revenue increase provides the legislature dollars to increase some appropriations for FY16, built-in expenses, prior commitments by the legislature’s action in past years and the Medicaid cost increases consume more than the available $200 million for the upcoming year. The House proposal for school funding for next year, which fits in line with the Governor’s proposal, would spend half of that new available revenue on the state’s K-12 education system. The House’s 1.25% proposal ($100 million) can be funded with our projected ongoing revenue. Let there be no misunderstanding, this K-12 School funding increase still mean reductions will be required to other areas of our state government. The Senate’s 4% proposal ($210 million) cannot be funded using our ongoing revenue. If every new state revenue dollar was used for K-12 school funding, it still would not be enough. During the Conference Committee meeting, I asked the meeting Co-Chair, Senator Quirmbach, how the Senate Democrats intended to fund a 4% increase. The answer was “we need to pass the bill, then we will figure out how to pay for it”. That budgeting approach is unacceptable and not responsible. We would never do that in our personal lives, so why would we spend the Iowa taxpayers’ hard earned tax dollars in that manner?

Opportunities to Learn About Issues and Voice Your Concerns Thank you to those who attended our Legislative Forums last Saturday in Hinton, Le Mars, Brunsville and Westfield. We had great attendance at all four forums. As we work on various issues, I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions, comments or know someone who would like to receive my electronic newsletter via email, please feel free to reach me during the week at (515)-2813221, on weekends at (712)-546-6136 or email me at [email protected].