2020 Legislative Update | Issue #4 | March 7, 2020
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March Comes in Like a Lion...
Iowa legislators have a busy two weeks ahead as they debate bills that are facing a big deadline on Friday the 13
th
(of March). The House has 120 bills on its regular calendar, and the Senate has 126. To make it through this deadline, these bills must be voted on and then make it through the other chamber's committee process.
While the second “funnel” deadline is a big deal at the Capitol, it’s not the only thing on the minds of legislators. The
Revenue Estimating Conference
(REC) meets on Thursday, March 12th to look at receipts for the current Fiscal Year (2020) and make predictions about the upcoming year. By law, the Legislature has to base its budgets on the lower of two estimates, December 2019 or March 2020.
On Friday of this week, we reach the
deadline for legislative candidates to submit their signatures and paperwork to run in their party primaries
in June. Senator Joni Ernst submitted her signatures last Monday, and several congressional and state legislative candidates have been doing the same over the last few weeks. That deadline will also give us a clear picture as to how many legislative retirements we will see this year.
In the weeks ahead, floor debate will give way to more committee and subcommittee action. DHS Director Kelly Garcia is scheduled to appear twice before the House Government Oversight Committee, once on March 11 to discuss Medicaid managed care and again on March 16 to address the situation at Glenwood. Last week DHS officials released documents showing the previous director (Jerry Foxhoven) and division director (Rick Schults) knew about the human experimentation going on and the studies on sexual arousal being done with out consent. The Government Oversight Committee feels they can discuss what's going on without interrupting the current investigation underway by the US Department of Justice.
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Will Legislators Invest in Iowa?
In the midst of all of this, the Legislature is starting to prioritize and decide which bills survive and which bills get thrown overboard.
It’s safe to say that all budgeting in Iowa will be on hold until a decision is made on raising the state sales tax as proposed by Governor Kim Reynolds’ Invest in Iowa Plan. The plan (
SSB 3116
,
HSB 657
) uses funds raised by a one-cent increase in the state’s sales tax to pay for water quality improvements, investments in outdoor recreation, cuts in income taxes, expansion of the child care and dependent tax credits to more families, and a partial state buy-out of the regional mental health and disability services (MH/DS) system.
The Governor’s bill had its first subcommittee Wednesday afternoon and it was clear from the packed room that the bill has piqued a lot of interest. The Senators said at the outset of the meeting that they were there to listen and would not be taking action at that meeting. They then heard from a long line of advocates weighing in on the bill, most in support. No subcommittee meetings in the House have been announced yet, and when the House Ways & Means Committee Chair was asked, he answered curtly "no."
While MH/DS regions have said the Invest in Iowa plan is a good start, they have continued to work with the Governor’s staff to change it in a way that gets closer to meeting the goal of sustainable and adequate funding. The biggest issues are:
- $2.9 million in new funds is not enough to maintain current service levels.
- $15 million in additional funds over two years is probably not enough to cover the costs of adding 27 new complex needs and children’s services. For instance, the recent statewide estimate for one of those service lines (intensive rehabilitative services homes) is $25-30 million.
- Property taxes are currently the most reliable source of revenue, and counties collect between $47.28 and $25 per capita now. The plan would only allow counties to collect $12.50 per capita and be reliant on legislative actions for the rest. The Iowa State Association of Counties is quick to point out that the Legislature has not been dependable for these appropriations in the past, so relying on them even more in this plan is a lot to ask of local elected officials. Counties are currently trying to come up with a process that would give regions more confidence that funds would be reliable.
Senator Jake Chapman, Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, has made no secret of the fact that he is working on this own tax bill that may become public later this week. Chapman’s bill promises to be much more aggressive on tax cuts than what the Governor has laid out. It will remain to be seen how this bill is received since some legislators seeking reelection this Fall are wary already of the size of the Governor’s bill while others have expressed an interest in going further.
Lots of politics in these bills. Tax increases are not popular with Republicans, and sales taxes are considered by Democrats to be regressive and hurt those with lower incomes. Legislators want to support mental health and disability services regions, but each legislator has their own solution. How does everyone get on the same page in the final 40 days of the legislative session? Good question!
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Deeper Look at Budgets
Legislators think the revenue estimates will show Iowa's economy is strong. If that’s the case, we may be out of the budget-cutting years. But don't get too excited; the state has plenty of obligations that will quickly use up new funds. Legislators just passed a school funding bill that increases per student aid by 2.3% (about $85.6 million in new money for schools). The state’s overall K-12 education budget is now $3.4 billion, which is almost half of the state’s $8 billion budget. Medicaid also gobbles up a big chunk of new money; the Governor asked for an additional $270 million this year.
Combined, education and Medicaid increases this year total more than $350 million, which could take up a big portion of new dollars available. Rep. Joel Fry (R-Osceola), who co-chairs the Health and Human Services Budget Subcommittee, has a running total of the requests he has received to date. As of last week, that list was nearly $600 million for the health and human services budget alone, including increases for direct care worker wages, health care workforce initiatives, waiver waiting lists, and more. The doubling of the psychological internship program (to $100,000) is a part of that half a billion dollars in requests. Serving on the HHS budget subcommittee is not an easy task for sure, and the decisions they will have to make will be tough.
There are four things IPA is asking for in this budget:
- Allow the use of telehealth and allow greater flexibility in the psychological internship program to improve access in underserved communities and to underserved populations.
- Double the internship program's appropriation to $100,000.
- Allow Medicaid reimbursement for pre-doctoral interns (under supervision).
- Increase psychologist reimbursement and remove prior authorization for testing.
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This Week's Updates
There are several bills that we're tracking (for good or bad). Here's a quick status update as we move closer to the second legislative deadline.
- DHS Director Kelly Garcia was confirmed by the Iowa Senate unanimously. Democrats called her "refreshing" and "open and informative." Republicans said she is "a great asset."
- Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton) did not mince words when passing a bill (HF2503) that bans the use of the so-called panic defense: “Defendants in Iowa and many other states have attempted to mitigate a murder by claiming they were enraged or shocked by a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. What an unspeakably asinine defense.” Rep. Liz Bennett (D-Cedar Rapids) teamed up with Kaufmann to amend the bill to ban the use for any violent crime, and held a moment of silence to remember Kedarie Johnson, the 16-year old gender-fluid youth who was murdered in Burlington.
- The telehealth payment parity bill (HF2192) made it onto Monday's debate list. It requires insurers pay equally for services delivered via telehealth and in person, and is a priority of Rep. Fry. If the bill doesn't survive the funnel, it's likely you will see it included the budget bill.
- The Governor's professional licensing reform bills (HF 2470 and SF2393) are both in their respective chambers' Ways & Means Committee, which means the bill is "funnel-proof" and there is no rush to move them before the March 20 funnel deadline. Senators will have an amendment, but we have not yet seen it. We believe it will include language that does not allow portability of a license that does not exist in the state (i.e. master's level psychologist) and may include language requiring "substantially equivalent" minimum education requirements. Several health professions (including IPA) have asked for an amendment to pull all health professions out and have the bills only focus on the trades as a first step.
- The Senate passed their public assistance income verification bill (SF2272) on party lines; requiring regular income verification for Medicaid, food assistance, and other forms of public assistance. It's in the House Human Resources Committee, but is unlikely to be taken up.
- After a long and contentious debate, the Senate passed on party-line vote the Medicaid work requirement bill (SF 2366). It does not allow the state to waive work requirements for people receiving food assistance (SNAP) and was changed to require 20-hour weekly work/volunteer requirements only apply to Iowa Health and Wellness Plan members (aka "expansion population"). Those exempt from the IHWP requirements include the medically exempt, pregnant, caretakers of a child under the age of six or a dependent child of any age with a disability, full-time students, home-schooling parents, caregivers to elderly adults or adults with disabilities, those in drug and alcohol treatment programs, and those complying with unemployment compensation work requirements.The bill faces an uncertain future in the House Human Resources Committee, which has killed other similar bills over the past two years.
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Bill Tracker Reminder
There are lots of other bills that you might be interested in depending on your area of practice. The IPA Bill Tracker is updated daily with changes of status. All bills that died in the funnel have been moved to the "Inactive" list; all live bills are in the default "Active" list. You can see them at:
www.ialobby.com/billtracker/ipa/
.
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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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