Look for Library Specific News in the Yellow Box below

Nearing the finish? Maybe. Maybe not.

We have reached the end of the 13th week of the 2023 Regular Session of the Iowa General Assembly. Monday, April 10th will mark the 92nd day of the 110-day scheduled session. Less than 20 days remain until legislative per diems run out on Friday, April 28th. After that, legislators lose their clerks for the session and the pressure intensifies to finish for the year. Still though, the Legislature typically exceeds the deadline by a few weeks. 

Second Funnel

The second legislative funnel deadline came and went on Friday, March 31st. This means the only policy bills remaining for consideration are those that have been passed by committee in both chambers. The policy committees will not meet again until next year, with the exception of some Senate policy committees meeting ONLY to consider the Governor’s appointments. Three committees – Appropriations, Ways & Means, and Oversight – will continue to meet as needed through the conclusion of session.

A lot of bills died this year in the first and second funnels, but remember that in addition to them being alive again next year, the language can still be resurrected in the form of amendments added to other remaining bills. If you were following a policy proposal that died in the funnel, stay vigilant, because it’s possible to see it pop up again in the next few weeks.  

Publication Note

At this time, it is appropriate for us to note that this publication, which typically comes out every two weeks during session, will NOT be published two weeks from now IF it looks like the Legislature could adjourn in the near future. If that is the case, we will instead wait and publish AFTER they adjourn for the year. In the mean time though, keep an eye out for timely alerts requesting you to take action.

The FY 2024 Budget

The ONE thing the Legislature MUST get done before they adjourn is passing a Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget.  The House ($8.58B) and Senate ($8.49B) are roughly $90 million apart, with the House willing to spend a little more. Both chambers’ overall numbers would spend less than 90% of incoming revenue (they CAN’T legally spend more than 99%). 

The Senate’s overall budget number - $8.49 billion - is in line with the Governor’s proposed budget. However, many argue the Governor’s support of some initiatives during the session demonstrate her budget numbers are actually higher now than the numbers she proposed earlier. Due to timing during the session every year, the Governor has to submit a budget to the Legislature in December before seeing the scope of what initiatives the Legislature might put forward for consideration during the session.

The Iowa budget typically consists of 10 or 11 separate Appropriations bills that are generated by the legislators on the Appropriations Committees as well as the seven appropriations subcommittees. The full Appropriations Committee chairs will usually divvy up the larger ($8.58/8.49B) budget number into smaller allocations (or “targets”) that fit into each of the budget bills. 

Currently, we have Senate bills without numbers, and House numbers without bills. This week, the Senate ran 7 shell appropriations bills out of committee that included no dollar figures or employee numbers, with the goal of having legislative vehicles ready for Senate consideration as soon as the budget is agreed to. Conversely, the House does not yet have any bills ready, but they did release their smaller budget targets to enable their budget bills to start taking shape. You can see the House targets in the table below:

In the days and weeks ahead, we will start to see the House put together and pass budget bills while the Senate will be assembling floor amendments to install the line items into their budget bills. How long this all will take relies entirely on how quickly the House and Senate can come to agreement. 

What Else is Left?

Typically, we ride into the final part of the Legislative session knowing the House and Senate each still have 3 or 4 initiatives they need to get done. This year, while a lot of important policy remains in play, there really isn’t any single big issue that we know they need to complete, especially since it’s the first year of the two-year General Assembly which enables them to push issues to the sideline and take them up next year where they left off.

The one issue that seems to be standing out as one they may try to address is property tax reform/limitations. Part of this is as a result of constituents receiving their every-other-year housing value assessments in recent weeks that reflect home value increases caused by Iowa’s hot real estate market over the last few years. A lot of legislators are getting pressure back in their districts to take action before the new tax bills start to be put together this Fall. 

In previous issues, we have discussed the existing property tax bills out there for consideration – SF 356 and HF 1. The Iowa League of Cities put together a great analysis tool HERE for communities wondering how SF 356 might affect their bottom line. If legislators are serious about trying to find common ground on property tax reform, we anticipate the House and Senate may soon introduce a new bill that has some similar components to those included in SF 356 and HF 1. 

If you have thoughts about property tax reform – pro, con, suggestions, etc. – NOW is the time to be weighing in with your legislators (Link).

Iowa Supreme Court Case Complicates Shutdown

In a typical legislative session, there are policy provisions that fail to gain approval through both chambers, but remain as a priority for legislators to get done. In some of those cases, legislators have traditionally added policy provisions into the final appropriations bills. They always try to limit this practice, but it invariably ends up needing to happen when time is running out and few other bills remain on which they can be attached. 

Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court handed down a ruling regarding a utility provision that was added to the FY 2021 Standing Appropriations bill. The court found that the Legislature had, in this case, violated the single subject rule in the Iowa Constitution since the provision in question had not been properly debated and did not have a clear connection to the bill to which it was being attached.

What does this mean for the current Legislature? We anticipate legislators being much more careful about attaching policy provisions to spending bills, especially this year. It’s worth noting too that policy provisions in spending bills do carry a certain amount of risk if legislators weren’t careful to include the Governor in discussions since spending bills are subject to line-item veto.

Library News

This session has certainly been one of the most challenging ones for the library community. Many issues have been making headlines that affect the work of ILA members, including restrictions on books, redesigning state government, lowering standards for teacher librarian education and the positions they serve in, etc. 

Still though, a LOT of bills have died this session that included some pretty extreme proposals. As we get down to the final stretch, we wanted to run down the pieces that are still alive, and let you know where they are in the process. Since the House and Senate are amending bills and returning them to the other chamber, bystanders of the process are probably getting the sense that new things are passing every couple of days when, in reality, the legislation has not been changing much in the last few weeks.

Book bans/removals – Online school library collections

The latest language that passed the House this week (in SF 496) is similar to the House's age appropriateness language that passed in their free standing bill (HF 597). The Senate basically let the House's bill die, then took up the Governor's education bill (which HAD a statewide book list), and replaced ALL of the language with their amendment that included the House's age appropriateness language.

Both the Senate amendment and now the House amendment to SF496 also include a requirement that inventories of school library collections be put online. The House's actions on SF 496, the most recent action on these issues, were encompassed in amendment S-3117 (Link) where they struck the Senate's entire bill and replaced it with the text included in that amendment. Feel free to review that amendment; it is 38 pages long, but you'll find the age appropriateness language on pages 10-13, and information about book removals and online collections on page 22. 

Note that, while ILA would rather see no action taken on this front, the current proposals on the table are less egregious than many earlier proposals. Advocates for banning books in Iowa are still pushing legislators to make this language MORE severe than its current form, so we are hoping this language isn’t amended further.

Teacher Librarian Requirements and Positions

Another issue still out there is the bill (SF 391) that removes the teacher librarian master's degree language and allows anyone who served as a public librarian to be able to be hired as a teacher librarian. That bill has bounced back to the Iowa Senate, due to an amendment that has nothing to do with the provisions we are tracking. This bill will likely become law; it's just a matter of time.

Iowa Commission on Libraries/State Librarian

The Governor’s Reorganization bill (SF 514) was signed into law this week. The bill makes hundreds of changes to state government in Iowa, most notably consolidating several departments and reducing the number of department heads from 37 to 16. On the library front, the bill moves the State Library and the Iowa Commission on Libraries out of the Department of Education and over to the Department of Administrative Services. The bill also removes the authority of dozens of free-standing commissions to hire and remove their director; this change includes the Iowa Commission on Libraries with respect to the State Librarian position. 

Library Levy

Finally, in the Property Tax story above, you’ll notice mention of SF 356. We have covered this bill in previous reports a few times now, including the link to the Iowa League of Cities’ analysis tool. This bill would consolidate city and county levies into a single levy, which would by default eliminate the library levy used by many communities.  Take a look at how the numbers would change in your community and weigh in with your thoughts. While many cities would see reduced revenues under SF 356, some would see a different scenario. It’s important to look for yourself and then advocate!

Advocacy

Remember that NOW is the time to be weighing in on the issues you want to see taken up yet this session (or the issues you want to see permanently put on hold!). Be contacting your legislators and the Governor’s Office to make sure your voice is heard AND reach out to family and friends and grow your advocacy network!