Iowa Library Association
Legislative Update | Issue #1 | January 15, 2022
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The Second Regular Session of the 89th Iowa General Assembly convened on Monday, January 10th, 2022. This session is scheduled for 100 days with per diems expiring on Tuesday, April 19th. However, the Iowa Legislature rarely finishes early or on time; final adjournment (“sine die”) typically comes a week or two after that date.
Funnels
Beyond the April 19th 100th day of session when per diems expire, a couple of other notable dates to keep in mind this year are February 18th and March 18th, the first and second funnel deadlines, respectively. The funnels are procedural measures the Legislature uses to winnow down the number of active bills by killing for the year legislation that is not showing forward progress. Tax bills and spending bills are exempt from this deadline.
If you are a visitor to the building, these are good weeks to avoid since they tend to be hectic. Additionally, the latter half of the week before each funnel week also tends to be very busy.
Leadership Opening Comments
The first day of session is always largely ceremonial with the legislators taking care of procedural business for the opening of the session and with the leaders in each chamber giving speeches outlining their priorities for the session. Those speeches are all online if you’re interested in listening to them.
House leadership speeches can be viewed at this link. After following the link, you can watch Speaker Pat Grassley’s opening comments by advancing the video to 10:11:10. Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst’s opening comments start at 10:19:50. House Majority Leader Matt Windshitl’s opening comments start at 10:27:15.
Senate leadership speeches can be viewed at this link. After following the link, you can watch Senate President Jake Chapman’s opening comments by advancing the video to 10:15:01. Democratic Leader Zach Wahls’ opening comments start at 10:20:48. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver’s opening comments start at 10:29:02.
REC set for March 10
A key indicator that legislators are intent on getting going this year became clear early last week when they set the March meeting of the Revenue Estimating Conference for March 10th. This March meeting is critical to the budget process, but the date of the meeting is usually not set until February. The Legislature is required to use the smaller of the revenue estimates between the December and March meetings in putting together their budget for the next fiscal year.
Condition of the State
The Governor presented her budget and priorities to the Legislature and the citizens of Iowa on Tuesday, January 11th in a primetime address. (You can read her speech HERE.) The main topics she hit in her speech were instituting a flat 4% state individual income tax, eliminating taxes on retirement income, allowing school choice, changing Iowa’s unemployment system, creating teacher and health care apprenticeship programs, capping some noneconomic damages in lawsuits, supporting ethanol and biodiesel, continuing to improve Iowa’s childcare system, and proposing retention bonuses for teachers and public safety and corrections officers.
Governor’s Budget
As is the custom, the Governor released her Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget along with her priorities. Her budget serves as the first shot across the bow in the budget process. Legislators will keep her proposal in mind as well as the December and upcoming March REC numbers as they craft their budget bills later in session that will enact the FY 2023 budget. You can view one of the Governor’s comprehensive budget proposal documents HERE.
The Governor’s budget proposes to spend $8.2017 billion out of the projected $9.2106 billion in revenues, or 89% of incoming revenue. The Governor’s overall expenditures would increase by only $83.2 million over FY2022, but the budget does include an increase for K-12 school funding of 2.5 percent (or $154.1 million).
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Tax Bill Coming
According to the Governor’s budget, the State has a $1.175 billion ending fund balance, reserve funds topping $800 million, and a balance in the Taxpayer Relief Fund that exceeds $1 billion. These three figures demonstrate the need for tax reductions.
During this week’s introductory meeting of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, Chairman Dan Dawson spoke about his intentions with regard to tax relief. He has been working for several months on a tax bill and he intends to bring it forward for the committee’s consideration. He would like to have that proposal considered by the Senate Ways & Means Committee prior to consideration of any other legislation by the committee. His proposal will be focused at ensuring that Iowa’s tax system is set up for the ever-evolving digital economy and he intends his bill to constitutionally fund IWILL (Link). We expect to see language on this proposal in the near future.
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The Library Community NEEDS YOU this session
Some of the rhetoric that has been bouncing around over the last several months has been a clear indicator that the library community needs to work together and be vocal about the issues you represent, especially with respect to intellectual freedom.
On November 30, the ILA, the Iowa Association of School Librarians (IASL) and the Intellectual Freedom Committee of ILA put out a joint statement for members to address the rising number of book challenges. You can find that statement HERE.
With all the controversy swirling around these issues, it is more important than ever that ILA members stick together, compare notes, and be the vocal, level-headed and articulate voices on these matters than can hopefully bring some calm to otherwise very heated issues. Remember that there are many resources available within your membership and on the ILA website, and that there are more friends of yours on these issues than you think, even within the Legislature.
To add another layer to already challenging session, Governor Reynolds proposes in her 2022 priorities to eliminate the master's degree requirement for teacher librarians (see pages 37 and 39 of the budget proposal document HERE). IASL and ILA worked together two years ago to defeat this proposal when the Board of Educational Examiners proposed it, so it's disheartening to see it proposed again. We will have to work again to see that this doesn't become law. Be looking for more information on this in the weeks ahead.
That's a good place to circle back to the beginning of this article, which is to say that ILA needs you to be a vocal advocate this session. If you all chip in, we can be successful in defending the library community this session. WE NEED YOU!
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How to tune in
Full House and Senate debate has been available to watch live for a few years now by just following the link to either the House or Senate’s live feed. Last year, due to COVID, committee and subcommittee meetings were brought online too. At the moment, it appears that they will again be carried live online, enabling the general public to tune in and watch from their homes and offices.
Generally, the best way to keep up to speed is to check the Senate Meeting Schedule and House Meeting Schedule on the main page of the Legislature (HERE). There will often be a link next to the committee and subcommittee entries on those lists that will take you to the live feed.
House committees have largely returned to their pre-COVID committee rooms. Senate committee meetings, however, are all being held now in Room 116 so some creative scheduling is needing to be employed. This promises to become a lot more difficult as the funnel approaches and committees are trying to cram in more meetings.
Redistricting
This 2022 legislative session is the 10th and final year using the Senate and House district maps that were first put in place for the 2012 election and the 2013 legislative session using data from 2011 census. Throughout this session, legislators will represent the areas to which they were elected, but they’ll also be keeping an eye forward toward the new maps that were just passed during the Special Session in November 2021 (which will be reflected in the November 2022 election for the 2023 legislative session).
To find out more about the new maps, you can follow THIS LINK. To download the new statewide map, go HERE. More in-depth city insets for those of you in urban areas can be accessed HERE. If you just want to plug in your address and find your new House and Senate district numbers, you can go HERE.
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The bill list is short after only one week of session. Check back at the Bill Tracker link above throughout the week to see more bills added as they are introduced.
Broadband & Technology
Prohibits the state or political subdivisions from entering into contracts with, or providing tax incentives or other benefits to, certain companies that censor online content.
Civil Rights
Prohibits gender identify instruction for grades 1-6.
Prohibits someone of a different biological sex from using a school bathroom designated for the other biological sex.
Local Government
Defines protecting information from cyber-attacks as an essential county/corporate purpose.
Other
Places requirements for local government lobbying and contracts.
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Your Bill Tracker
Click above to see status of important bills, or create your own report with our custom download.
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Town Halls & Public Forums
Find a local event with your state or federal elected officials here. Three weeks are shown at a time on this website.
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Your Legislative Team:
Your Advocacy Toolkit:
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