ISAC Legislative Update



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ISAC Update: 5.22.15

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86th Iowa General Assembly, First Session, Week 19

Another week of overtime for the Iowa Legislature saw the House amend and pass their version of Standings to SF 510 on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the House passed HF 614, which further legalizes the use of fireworks in Iowa (see analysis below). The House Appropriations Committee also passed allowable growth for schools at 2% for the 2016-2017 school year. As there still remain differences on funding for the 2015-2016 school year and all of the other appropriations bills, it is uncertain when all members of the Iowa General Assembly will return to the Capitol to take final action to conclude this session.

• Status of Appropriations Bills

• Mental Health and Disability Services Funding

• Fireworks

• Weekly Legislative Forums

New and Noteworthy

• ISAC HIPAA Program

• NACo Presidential Appointments and Steering Committees

• NACo Resolutions Process has Begun

• Free Campaign Financing Seminars

• SLLC/IMLA Supreme Court Review Webinar

Status of the Appropriations Bills

|HF 659 |Administration and |Passed House (4/30) |Amended and Passed |House Refused to Concur | Conference |

| |Regulation (House) | |Senate (5/6) |and |Committee |

| | | | |Senate Insisted (5/11) | |

|SF 494 |Agriculture and Natural|Passed Senate (4/27) |Amended and Passed |Senate Refused to Concur|Conference |

| |Resources | |House (5/5) |and House Insisted (5/6)|Committee |

|SF 499 |Economic Development |Passed Senate (4/29) |Amended and Passed |Senate Refused to Concur|Conference |

| | | |House (5/5) |and House Insisted (5/6)|Committee |

|HF 658 |Education (House) |Passed House (4/30) |Amended and Passed |House Refused to Concur | Conference |

| | | |Senate (5/6) |and Senate Insisted |Committee |

| | | | |(5/11) | |

|SF 505 |Health and Human |Passed Senate (5/6) |Amended and Passed |Senate Refused to Concur|Conference |

| |Services | |House (5/13) |and House Insisted |Committee |

| | | | |(5/13) | |

|SF 496 |Judicial Branch |Passed Senate (4/29) |Amended and Passed |Senate Refused to Concur|Conference |

| | | |House (5/5) |and House Insisted (5/6)|Committee |

|SF 497 |Justice Systems |Passed Senate (4/29) |Amended and Passed |Senate Refused to Concur|Conference |

| | | |House (5/5) |and House Insisted (5/6)|Committee |

|HF 650 |Rebuild Iowa |Passed House (4/29) |Amended and Passed |House Refused to Concur |Conference |

| |Infrastructure Fund | |Senate Committee (5/11)|and Senate Insisted |Committee |

| |(RIIF) | | |(5/12) | |

|SF 510 |Standing Appropriations|Passed Senate (5/14) |Amended and Passed |  |  |

| | | |House (5/20) | | |

|HF 637 |Transportation, |Passed House (4/21) |Passed Senate (5/5) | | To Governor |

| |Infrastructure, and | | | | |

| |Capital | | | | |

Click here to comment on appropriations.

Mental Health and Disability Services Funding

One of ISAC’s top four legislative priorities is to provide sufficient and sustainable funding for the regional mental health and disability services system in Iowa. As the main vehicle for that funding, SF 505 (Health and Human Services Appropriations) is now in conference committee, many differences remain between the House and Senate to ensure that funding. While the Senate version has extended the $47.28 per capita levy for FY16 and FY17, no equalization funding was included. However, the Senate version includes $4 million for regions in FY16 that would not be able to have a 25% carry forward cash balance. The House also extended the $47.28 levy with no equalization for FY16 but provided no additional funding for the regions and no language for FY17. The biggest financial challenge for regions will fall in FY17 because if no action is taken, mental health levies will return to their previous max levies which will cause a disparity in funding in counties within the regions that will result in cuts in services and severely challenge the financial viability of the regions. To meet this challenge, ISAC is asking the legislature to allow the counties the ability to levy what is needed to provide core services and balance between all county levy rates within their region. ISAC continues to encourage members to reach out to the conference committee to convey this message as they deliberate on funding for FY16, FY17, and beyond. The conference committee is listed below:

Senate

Senator Ragan:  amanda.ragan@legis.

Senator Bolkcom:  joe.bolkcom@legis.

Senator Dvorsky:  robert.dvorsky@legis.

Senator Johnson:  david.johnson@legis.

Senator Segebart:  mark.segebart@legis.

House

Representative Heaton:  dave.heaton@legis.

Representative Miller:  linda.miller@legis.

Representative Fry:  joel.fry@legis.

Representative Heddens:  lisa.heddens@legis.

Representative Forbes:  john.forbes@legis.

Click here to comment on Mental Health and Disability Services funding.

Fireworks

HF 614, a bill legalizing the sale, purchase, and possession of fireworks in the state, passed the House 53-43 on Wednesday. The bill provides for a certain degree of local control in that a board of supervisors can prohibit the use of display fireworks by resolution if the use of the fireworks is deemed to be a threat to public safety. ISAC is registered Undecided on HF 614, which was sent to the Senate and attached to the similar SF 508.

Click here to comment on Fireworks.

Weekly Legislative Forums

Below are links to the legislative forums held throughout the state. We encourage you to attend these forums in order to interact with your local legislators and educate them on the issues that counties are facing. Please print out and share ISAC’s legislative priorities handout with your legislators. After you have attended any of the forums, please take the time to submit a comment to ISAC that lets us know the feedback you received from your legislator using the online legislative comment form. This assists the government relations team in their work on the Hill. We also encourage you to visit the Capitol during the session to meet with your legislators. The government relations team enjoys seeing county officials at the Capitol throughout the week and working with them to further ISAC’s 2015 Legislative Priorities.









***Please note that some of these forums are out-of-date.

ISAC HIPAA Program

Year two of the ISAC HIPAA Program will begin July 1, 2015 to assist with HIPAA questions and to provide HIPAA information. ISAC has again partnered with Alissa Smith, partner with the Dorsey & Whitney Law Firm for this program. For more information about the program please click here.  This link also contains service contracts for counties and mental health and disability services (MH/DS) regions. Be sure to get your service contract signed and returned to ISAC by July 1. If you have any questions, contact Kristi Harshbarger at kharshbarger@.

NACo Presidential Appointments and Steering Committees

If you wish to be considered for a presidential appointment to policy steering committee leadership, RAC and LUCC leadership and members, and at-large appointments to the NACo Board of Directors, you MUST complete the application online before June 12, 2015. Click here for more information and please direct any questions to Jamie Richards at 202.942.4258 or jrichards@.

Steering committee membership is NOT part of this application process. ISAC is responsible for nominating general policy steering committee members. Click here to complete the policy steering committee membership form and return it to bpeterson@ prior to June 5, 2015.

NACo Resolutions Process has Begun

NACo is inviting members to submit policy resolutions and platform changes to be considered at the NACo Annual Conference and Exposition being held July 10-13 in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), NC. The NACo resolutions process provides members with the ability to participate in national policy decisions affecting county governments by proposing changes to NACo's platform or policy resolutions that, if approved, will be added to the platform for one year. Resolutions and platform changes submitted through this process will be considered during the Annual Conference by NACo's ten policy steering committees, its Board of Directors and its membership. Click here for more information including detailed instructions for submittal. All resolutions and platform changes must be submitted electronically (preferably as a Word document) to resolutions@ by June 10, 2015.

Go Back to School with the Ethics Board

The Ethics Board is pleased to announce it is hosting campaign finance seminars around the state in the month of July. Training will be targeted toward county central committee officers in the mornings and city and school board candidates in the afternoons. The purpose of the seminars is to help individuals understand Iowa’s campaign finances laws as well as the Ethics Board’s web reporting system for campaign disclosure reports. The seminars are free and anyone may attend. Click here for a full list of the locations, dates and times. To register, please call Sharon Wright at 515.281.4082 or sharon.wright@.

SLLC/IMLA Supreme Court Review Webinar

The State & Local Legal Center (SLLC) and the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) will hold a Supreme Court review webinar at 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm on Wednesday, July 22. Click here to reserve your seat. For state and local government, this Supreme Court term runs the gamut from same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, from Medicaid to the Fair Housing Act, from the First Amendment to the Eighth Amendment. Discuss the significant cases affecting state and local government with John Bursch, Warner Norcross & Judd, Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Co-chair, who argued the same-sex marriage case on behalf of Michigan, Joe Palmore, Morrison & Foerster, Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Co-chair, and Tony Mauro, Supreme Court Correspondent, The National Law Journal/ Legal Times/ ALM. Free Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is available.

Contact Information:

Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC)

5500 Westown Parkway, Suite 190, West Des Moines, IA 50266 

Phone: 515.244.7181 Fax: 515.244.6397



This ISAC Update is being sent to all ISAC members.

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