The process of crafting the next state budget began, procedurally speaking, Monday at the Iowa Capitol.
Not all lawmakers were on board with the process.
Majority-party Republicans on the Iowa Senate’s budget committee Monday advanced four bills that were, effectively, mere placeholders with no actual budget numbers in them. The bills eventually will establish state general fund spending for the budget year that begins July 1.
To start the process, Republicans advanced through the first two steps of the legislative process — subcommittee and committee approval — empty budget bills for the state’s administrative services division, natural resources and agriculture, economic development, and education. The budget numbers will be amended into the bills later, possibly while being debated on the floor of the Iowa Senate, after Republicans in the Senate and House agree to spending figures.
Democrats criticized Republicans for moving budget bills that had no spending figures and no agency employment numbers in them, especially through the only stage of the legislative process — the subcommittee — that the public is able to testify on a bill.
“You appear to be experts at three-card monte. People don’t know what the numbers are, they don’t know where the employees in the state of Iowa are going to be. We don’t have any of that information,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo. “It’s kind of like a shell game.”
Senate Republicans said their overall budget number of just less than $8.5 billion aligns with Gov. Kim Reynolds’ budget proposal, and that they wanted to start advancing bills to get the budget process started and send a signal to their counterparts in the House.
Majority-party Republicans in the House have proposed an overall budget of just shy of $8.6 billion, and late last week announced spending proposals for each of the eight budget bills that state lawmakers will craft.
Drug paraphernalia regulation
Iowa would impose a tax on glass and metal pipes designed primarily to smoke illegal drugs, and retailers would need a permit to sell them under a bill that advanced in the House.
Senate File 345 would put a 40 percent tax on devices “made in whole or in part of glass or metal” intended to smoke tobacco, hemp or other controlled substances. It would not affect vapor products. Retailers would need a $1,500 permit, renewed annually, to sell the devices.
The bill is targeted at pipes intended for illegal substances, like marijuana or crack cocaine, which often are labeled as tobacco devices and sold at retail shops and some convenience stores.
According to an analysis by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, the new tax would bring in around $3 million annually starting in 2025. The money would go to a fund supporting specialty courts that offer an alternative judicial process for people with substance use and mental health issues.
The bill passed the Senate last month, 47-2, and unanimously passed out of a three-member House subcommittee Monday.
AG challenges Biden energy rule-making
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined signed onto a letter with 21 other Republican-led states opposing new regulations from the federal Department of Energy that would put energy efficiency regulations on a range of consumer cookware, including gas and electric stoves.
The department released a proposed rule in January to update efficiency regulations for consumer cookware. Republicans criticized President Joe Biden when, earlier in January, a commissioner for a federal agency suggested a ban of gas stoves was being considered. But the Biden administration later said it had no plans to ban the appliances.
The new regulations would affect more than half of gas stoves currently on the market, a release from Bird’s office said. The release criticized the estimates the administration used in coming up with the standards, which Bird’s office said led to a “skewed analysis that downplays its substantial cost to both states and consumers.”
“This is yet another power grab from the Biden Administration to advance their radical climate change agenda,” Bird said in the release. “And this time, it’s hitting us at home.”
Vietnam trade mission Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig recently completed a trade mission to Vietnam and the Philippines, his office announced.
Source: thegazette.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages-SinArtCreative
Categories: Iowa, Government & Policy