PDI Policy Perspectives - February 19, 2017

PDI POLICY PERSPECTIVES | February 19, 2017

Legislative Session Update

Grow Iowa Day Thanks

Other Issues

Bills Being Tracked for PDI

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Legislative Session Update

Monday, February 20, 2017, marks the 43rd Session Day of the 2017 Session of the Iowa General Assembly, the start of week seven. This past week has been the most contentious week in the Capitol in many years, as protestors swarmed the buildin


	Over 4600 union members flood the first floor of the Iowa State Capitol protesting Collective Bargaining legislation, February 13, 2017

g to watch debate on legislation to alter Iowa's laws governing the collective bargaining rights of non-public-safety public employees, otherwise known as "Chapter 20." The crowds reached a high point of over 4,600 on Monday, as protesters filled the entire first floor of the Capitol and were especially thick outside the old Supreme Court chamber where a public hearing was being held on the bill ( HF 291).

Consideration of the bill began in both chambers simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon. With Republicans controlling the House, Senate and Governor's Office, the Democrats in the minority were forced to use the only tool the minority party has - the ability to say your peace on an issue by offering amendments and slowing debate as much as possible. On Thursday, the third straight day of debate, the majority party employed a mechanism called "time certain" in order to end debate and force a vote on the legislation. This is mechanism that is very rarely employed in the Iowa House and was used in the Iowa Senate for possibly the first time, at least in anyone's memory.

With debate time expired, remaining amendments and then the bill was voted on without further comment. The bill first passed the House, 53-47, with all Democrats and six Republicans voting against the bill (Representatives Baudler, Heaton, Hanusa, McKean, Lundgren and Moore). The bill then passed the Senate, 29-21, with all Democrats and


Union members turn their backs to the Iowa Senate during the final passage of Collective Bargaining legislation, February 16, 2017

independent Senator David Johnson voting against the bill. The Senate did so while under a "Call of the Senate," a rarely-used procedure Democrats invoked to insure all 50 Senators were locked inside the Senate Chamber for the final hours of debate on the bill. The Governor signed the HF 291 into law on Friday.

The intense debate on collective bargaining made it nearly impossible to accomplish any other substantive work this week. While many subcommittees on bills and committee meetings still took place, legislators' attention was largely focused on the task at hand with the collective bargaining debate. Now with two weeks before the first major legislative deadline - the first funnel - legislators will need to focus on moving priority bills through subcommittee and committee if they want to keep them alive for the year.

Collective Bargaining

So, what did this big collective bargaining bill do? I'm sure you saw it all over your local news. Many reports were loaded with one-sided information or misinformation, so it's sometimes difficult to track down a decent summary of the legislation. Basically, the bill contained the following main sections:

Disclaimer: This is the simplest way we can explain this complex bill in an attempt to not show a bias for or against it, while still respecting that many people on both sides of the aisle are very raw about the issue. As such, apologizes to anyone who read this bill much differently. The truth is that the effects of HF 291 will take a few years to be fully evident.

Scope: For non-public safety public employees, the bill would make wages the only subject that would be mandatory in negotiations. Other issues could be added at the consent of both labor and management, but some issues are no longer allowed to be negotiated. (The most contentious of these was health care. Health care is still required to be provided, but the specifics can no longer be negotiated).
Arbitration: This is one of the biggest changes made in the entire bill. Under previous law, in cases where a negotiation proceeded to arbitration, the arbiter was limited to choosing one of the last two proposals put forward. Republicans pushing the bill argued that unions were always on the winning side of arbitrations because of this and other provisions. To counter that, they gave the arbiter much more flexibility, and made several other changes to tip this the other way, including cost-of-living caps on how much wages can rise.
Recertification: Requires 50% of the employees in the bargaining group to vote to "certify" the group before a new contract negotiation. Previously, unions did not have to have certification votes unless the membership wanted to do so.
Withholding: Prohibits the employer from having to withhold union dues. Unions would need to conduct automatic deductions on their own now.
State Contract: Disallows a lame-duck Governor in Iowa from approving a labor contract without the newly elected Governor having input.
Other: The bill contains a number of other provisions.

With collective bargaining finished, what is next on the horizon?

Legislators are surely starting to have discussions internally about the FY 2018 and 2019 budget, but we do not expect to see the first pieces of that until March. In the weeks ahead, they will focus on finishing up legislation to pull state funds from Planned Parenthood and legislation to standardize the minimum wage across the State (often called "preemption"). We also know they are looking into fireworks legalization, fantasy sport gambling, medical marijuana expansion, voter ID, medical malpractice reform, worker comp and a number of different approaches to addressing water quality.

THANK YOU to all those that attended PDI's Grow Iowa Day at the Capitol on Wednesday, February 8, 2017!! Despite scheduling challenges and some snowfall, many great conversations took place between PDI members and their legislators.

If you weren't able to attend, please take a moment to weigh in with your legislators. Just introduce yourself, tell them you are a member of PDI, and offer to give them feedback on any economic development legislation that comes up this session. Be a resource for them!

Not sure who you legislators are? Just go HERE and type in your home address.

Other Issues

Preemption

Another contentious issue that will be debated in the near future is the issue commonly referred to as "preemption," that is the State cracking down on local governments' ability to have control over issues such as minimum wage. The bill in question right now is House File 295 (Click HERE).

In our conversations with PDI members about this issue in the Fall, it became pretty clear that members support a mechanism that prevents the creation of 300+ different minimum wage zones in Iowa. As such, PDI is supporting this legislation. However, we have been very clear with legislators that members differ widely on whether the state minimum wage itself should change or stay the same. We also recognize that some areas of the State, under this legislation, will need to lower their minimum wage, and this is not ideal.

Either way, we expect this issue to become heated in the weeks ahead as opponents of the legislation accuse supporters of wanting to keep low wages. To whatever extent you can stay positive and let legislators know that consistency across the State helps attract and grow businesses, that would be helpful. Legislators MAY decide to attach a minimum wage increase to the bill, but it looks doubtful at the moment.

IEDA Workforce Housing Expansion Bill

PDI is supporting legislation that IEDA Director Durham announced at the PDI Fall Conference to add a rural component to the Workforce Housing Tax Credit program. The Workforce House Tax Credit Expansion Bill ( HSB 65 & SSB 1035) has a one pager available HERE.

Subcommittees were held on both bills, at which PDI lobbyists made legislators aware of our support. We also asked the legislators to consider moving the Workforce House Tax Credit program (and ideally the Brownfields program) out from under the tax credit cap that exists for IEDA programs. So far, legislators have not been willing to make this addition. However, that is not too surprising given the current climate toward tax credits.

TIF Chronicle

Still no TIF bills. Any bill making changes to TIF though would be exempt from the funnel deadlines due to the fact that it would be a Ways & Means Committee bill. Keep your fingers crossed!

Tax Credit Discussion

We expect to hear news in the next few weeks about the Legislature addressing tax credits. We have no idea if this will be a study or what may be proposed. The Legislature already has a mechanism in place where all tax credits are reviewed every five years (on a rotating schedule). We anticipate any action will probably look well beyond just the Research Activities Tax Credit and IEDA job creation programs.

Bills Being Tracked for PDI

This is a list of the bills being tracked for PDI and their status at the time of publication. The online bill list is updated constantly, so if you wish to see the updated bill list, just go to http://www.ialobby.com/billtracker/bills.cfm?ClientID=5&NoHeader=0

Bill#

Title

Status

HF1

Executive Branch Program/Project Review