Apr 05, 2019

This Week at the Statehouse – Week 12

All the budget bills now have bill numbers (except the final standings and miscellaneous budget bill), as follows:

HF 759 - ADMINISTRATION & REGULATION (starting in House)

SF 609 - AGRICULTURE & NATURAL RESOURCES (starting in Senate)

SF 608 - ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (starting in Senate)

HF 758 - EDUCATION (starting in House)

HF 766 - HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (starting in House)

SSB 1254 - JUDICIAL BRANCH (starting in Senate)

SSB 1255 - JUSTICE SYSTEMS (starting in Senate)

HF 765- INFRASTRUCTURE (starting in House)

SF 600 - TRANSPORTATION (starting in Senate)

?? STANDINGS AND MISCELLANEOUS (starting in Senate)

The education budget bill (HF 758) passed the House on Thursday, April 4, by a party-line vote. The bill now goes the Senate. The bill appropriates the following as it relates to UNI:

  • $15.9 million to the Board of Regents to distribute to the three universities for general aid operating budgets. This is $2.1 million below the Board and the Governor’s recommendation of $18 million ($4 million for UNI and $7 million each to ISU and UI). The money is to support new strategic initiatives, meet needs caused by enrollment increases, meet the demand for new courses and services, to fund new but unavoidable or mandated cost increases, and to support any other initiatives important to the core functions of the universities.
  • $1 million increase for the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, which is housed at UNI.
  • Status quo funding of $175,256 for UNI’s recycling and reuse center.
  • Status quo funding of $125,302 for UNI’s real estate education program.

The House infrastructure budget subcommittee and the House Appropriation Committee passed the infrastructure budget bill this week. The bill does not contain the $38 million UNI has requested to modernize the Industrial Technology Center building. We will continue to advocate this summer and fall in the hopes that the Legislature funds our ITC infrastructure request during the 2020 legislative session.

SF 159 is on its way to the Governor for her signature. The bill requires the Iowa Department of Education (DE) to develop rules that set the passing score for the end of program assessment test with the teacher preparation program (the PRAXIS test here at UNI). The bill also establishes a one-year nonrenewable initial teacher license for a teacher candidate who hasn't passed the end of program assessment. The state board shall adopt rules to provide that the director of DE shall waive the assessment requirements for not more than one year for a person who has completed the course requirements for an approved practitioner preparation program but attained an assessment score below the minimum passing scores set by the department for successful completion of the program.

Today is the Legislature’s second funnel date, when Senate bills and joint resolutions must be reported out of House committees and House bills and joint resolutions must be reported out of Senate committees. This deadline does not apply to appropriations, taxes and government oversight legislation.

Some of the policy bills we are monitoring that remain eligible this legislative session:

HF 392 – exempts contracts for professional services from competitive bidding requirements; the conflicts-of-interests statutes in the Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board chapter would still apply

HF 477/SF 228 – Bioscience-based economic development

HF 684/SF 342 – Medical Amnesty (immunity in alcohol cases)

HF 748/SF 366 – Sports wagering/fantasy sports betting bill

SF 188 – Allows nonprojectile stun guns on campuses

SF 274 – Free speech on campus (signed into law; effective March 27, 2019)

SF 316 – Special Education Study

SF 319 – Peace officers allowed to provide the driving portion of driver’s education

SF 341 – Service animals and service animals in training

SF 394 – Online courses at K-12 schools

SF 447 – Residential rental caps for housing

The bills allowing persons with carry permits to keep their weapons out of sight in their locked vehicle at workplace have died.