Political Football

Your Capitol Voice   From: Representative Jeff Kaufmann, R – Wilton (D-79)

            The 2010 legislative session ended last week and many citizens are evaluating laws and policies that passed.  I want to discuss the decisions that I believe will benefit Iowans and those that will not, and in some cases make a bad fiscal situation worse. 

            Policies I believe will benefit Iowans

1.  A texting ban for all citizens and a cell phone ban for teenagers is a good start for safer roads.
2. Attempts at expanding gambling failed.  I believe that new casinos or gambling opportunities are poor choices for economic development.
3. The “Ed Thomas bill” will help law enforcement protect citizens from newly released patients that are prone to violence.
4. The creation of uniform state standards for issuance of a “concealed carry” permit will ensure that our Second Amendment rights are not dependent on the county where we reside.
5. Government reorganization initiatives yielded millions of dollars of savings.  We could and should have gone much farther but this was a good start and a solid bipartisan effort.
6. Several veterans’ initiatives will strengthen Iowa law in favor of our servicemen and women.  It was a good policy year for vets but the Veterans Trust Fund is still not as strong as it used to be.  Lottery proceeds are not good enough for the long-term sustainability of this fund.
7. Iowa will continue to use incentives to encourage and support our biofuels industry.  I do not believe that a mandate is good or necessary policy at this time.
8. A law further protecting genetic information from use by insurance companies or any other entity is good policy. This is an example of state law catching up with technology.

Policies I believe are not good for Iowans

1.  Traffic fines and court costs were raised by an average of 92%.  Policy based on the need for revenue is not a good precedent and the amount charged for some of these fines is simply unreasonable.
2. Attempts to protect property rights failed along straight party line votes.  Given the push for regional flood plain planning, protection of property rights is a necessity to ensure individuals are not co-opted by centralized urban planners.
3. Attempts to place limits on tuition increases by the Board of Regents failed. I will continue to lead this cause regardless of the political challenges.
4. Open meetings and open records legislation should include a better and clearer enforcement mechanism.  That did not happen this year.
5. The amount of pork in the final bills was unnecessary and difficult to justify to any taxpayer in these poor economic times.  Carefully hidden under the titles of flood relief or I-Jobs, specific earmarks and projects for particular legislators often had nothing to do with flood/disaster relief or long-term job creation.
6. Property taxes will increase due to policies that placed fiscal pressure on local governments like school boards and city councils.  Almost 200 million in potential increases this year alone and a potential for almost one-half billion over the next three years.  Bottom-line: This year’s state budget will increase taxes despite election-year rhetoric.
7. We entered this session with a 1.1 billion dollar budget gap. We left with a 1.0 billion dollar budget gap. (This does not even include the 1.6 billion in bonding debt we have acquired in the last two years.)   
8. Key point: Our budget situation next year will be worse than this year because of fiscal policies that did not account for past mistakes and the current recession.  You will hear that our budget is 5.3 billion and balanced.  Highly misleading.  In addition to the 5.3 billion that was spent from our general fund, the State also spent 726 million in one-time money from either the feds or our reserves.  This 6 billion dollar budget is the second largest in Iowa history.  In my opinion, there is no way to justify this, hence a partisan budget that was passed along straight party lines.

In summary there were some good bipartisan policy initiatives this year. The budgetary work, though, was often partisan and has placed Iowa in a more precarious financial situation than when we started the session. Our next legislative session will be challenging; certainly the most challenging in my six years as your legislator.

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