ISAC Legislative Update - Iowa State Association of Counties



[pic]

ISAC Update: 5.8.15

Connect with ISAC!

[pic] [pic]

86th Iowa General Assembly, First Session, Week 17

Activity this week, past the 110th day of session, saw various appropriations bills bouncing between the chambers and moving to conference committee. Below is a spreadsheet outlining the current status of the appropriations bills. It is expected for members to return next week to place the remaining bills in conference and to begin conference committee work with the goal of trying to reach consensus on the budget and the remaining policy bills by the end of the week.

• Status of Appropriations Bills

• Broadband Expansion

• Cell Tower Siting

• Recorder Fees and Birth Records

• Rural Improvement Zones

• Weekly Legislative Forums

New and Noteworthy

• NACo Presidential Appointments and Steering Committees

• NACo Resolutions Process has Begun

• Free Campaign Financing Seminars

Status of the Appropriations Bills

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

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

|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 |  |

| | | |Senate (5/6) |(5/6) | |

|SF 505 |Health and Human |Passed Senate (5/6) |In House Subcommittee |  |  |

| |Services | | | | |

|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 |  |  |

| |Infrastructure Fund | |Senate Committee (5/6) | | |

| |(RIIF) | | | | |

|  |Standing Appropriations|Not yet introduced |  |  |  |

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

| |Infrastructure, and | | | | |

| |Capital | | | | |

Click here to comment on appropriations.

Broadband Expansion

A subcommittee meeting was held for HF 641, the House version of broadband expansion, in the Senate on Tuesday. While hearing from stakeholders, the legislators had many questions about the technology itself, the incentives in the bill, and the return on investment. The supervisors affiliate and ISAC have now switched our registrations from For to Undecided. The reason for the switch was that it became clear that while the bill set up a grant program, it would not be funded, and thus the only incentive offered by the state was local property tax dollars. While we fully support the goal of expanding broadband to the unserved and underserved areas of our state, we believe the state should also be buying in with more than just local dollars. Subcommittee chair Senator Janet Petersen (D-Polk) said there was more work to be done on the bill and indicated the Senate would be offering amendments. ISAC remains hopeful that a meaningful incentive package with state and local dollars can be created and tied to results.

Click here to comment on broadband expansion.

Cell Tower Siting

HF 566, a bill addressing applications for the installation of and the regulation of cellular towers, passed the House 59-39 with amendments on Wednesday. The bill lays out 14 items that an authority cannot do when considering an application. These restrictions infringe on local control in the decision making process by greatly reducing the information a county could evaluate and limiting the conditions that could be placed on an approval. The bill also addresses timelines for action on an application. As in the Ways and Means Committee, Representative Dave Jacoby (D-Johnson) offered an amendment that would have scaled back the restrictions on what an authority could require as far as information and conditions, but it failed. Despite early indications that supporters would work with stakeholders to reach compromise on the many points of contention between the industry representatives and local jurisdictions that would evaluate applications, this was not done before final passage in the House. ISAC is currently registered in opposition to HF 566, and it now goes to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Click here to comment on cell tower siting.

Recorder Fees and Birth Records

HF 662 passed out of the House on Wednesday. The bill would change a “shall” to a “may” as it relates to county recorders charging a fee when no copy is made or no record is found. It also would require that single parent and adoption birth records that are currently housed with the Department of Public Health be added to the statewide electronic birth certificate system. ISAC is registered For HF 662 which now goes to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Click here to comment on recorder fees and birth records.

Rural Improvement Zones

The Rural Improvement Zone (RIZ) compromise bill was signed by Governor Branstad on Thursday. HF 615 provides additional control for the board of supervisors in evaluating an application for the establishment of a RIZ district and limits the division of revenue going to the RIZ. ISAC is registered in favor of the bill, which was a top priority for the supervisors affiliate.

Click here to comment on RIZ.

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.

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@.

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.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download