From Rep. Royd Chambers:
On Wednesday, January 19, the House approved House File 45, also known as the Taxpayers First Act. The Taxpayers First Act is the first delivery on campaign promises to reduce spending and the size of government. The bill reduces state spending by nearly $500 million over three fiscal years and sets the stage for eliminating the over $700 million general deficit for fiscal year 2012.
HF 45 creates the Tax Relief Fund to capture any excess revenue that comes in above the official estimates on which the legislature is required to create a budget. I believe this is the people’s money and the state does not have the right to automatically use it for additional spending. That practice is one of the reasons we are in the present difficult budget situation. These monies should be returned to the taxpayer in some form yet to be determined. For fiscal year 2012 alone this would mean over $300 million returned to the taxpayers. This bill sends a clear signal that House Republicans are very serious about efforts to reduce the size of government. We’ll see what happens to it in the Senate.
Another interesting issue that has come up is that of weapons permitting. As you know, last year new requirements were passed into law requiring the 99 counties to standardize the permit process so the state did not have 99 different procedures. Now the question is whether local governments and businesses can create their own policies about where handguns can be carried. While I agree that the law does not prevent local governments and businesses to do so, that was not the intent of the legislation. If it were, it defeats the purpose of standardizing the process for law abiding citizens to carry a firearm. I’m sure there will be legislation to clarify the situation.
This week the House will pass House File 95 which requires all voters to show photo identification in order to vote. I’m sure you will be hearing much more about this. Showing an ID is required to buy tobacco, alcohol and other items. Most state agencies require a photo ID before assisting citizens. Showing an ID to vote makes common sense and ensures better integrity of the voting system. I’ll be supporting the bill.
This week the legislature heard from Governor Branstad and received his proposed budget. The governor appears committed to spending less tax dollars than last year and setting up a much tighter budgeting system that will help Iowa plan further into the future. The era of spending more money than the state takes in is coming to an end. Now it is the responsibility of the Legislature to take the governor’s proposal and turn it into the actual budget. Much work remains.
From Representative Dwayne Alons
The Governor’s Budget
The release of the Governor’s proposal is a starting point for the development of House Republican budget targets. When the FY 2011 budget is adjusted for all general fund expenditures, it spends $6.3 billion. The Governor’s recommendation for FY 2012 is just over $6.1 billion, or a decrease of $185 million compared to adjusted FY 2011.
The Governor promised to cut the budget and create jobs. His budget request does both as most agencies are cut by 6 percent and he proposes to reduce both the corporate income tax and the commercial property taxes. This is the first budget proposal in five years to align ongoing revenues with ongoing spending, and it does it in the first year (FY 2012).
In addition to the supplemental appropriations for indigent defense and mental health in HF 45, the Governor proposes $21 million of supplemental appropriations to backfill health and public safety cuts that were part of Culver’s $84 million in last minute cuts.
The Governor recommends changing the corporate income tax from a graduated system of 6%, 9% and 12% to a flat 6% rate. This reduces corporate income tax revenue by roughly $200 million per year once it is fully implemented. In order to replace the revenue lost by reducing the corporate income tax, the Governor increases the tax on casino profits from the current rate of 22 percent to 36 percent. This generates $200 million per year in new revenue.
The Governor proposes that new corporate property be taxed at 60% of value and existing corporate property be reduced to 60% (from the current 100%) over the next 5 years. He proposes making up one-half of the $500 million reduction in revenue and local governments will have to make up the other half.
House Starts Action on Health Care Freedom Act
On Monday, the House Commerce Committee took the first step in responding to Iowans’ opposition to the federal health care reform bill by passing a bill that would prevent citizens from being required to purchase government-approved health insurance.
The House Commerce Committee on Monday approved House File 111. The bill asserts the state’s rights under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which limits the power of the federal government. The focus of this is the “individual mandate” – a requirement that in 2014 all Americans must have government-approved health care coverage or pay a penalty.
House File 111 provides that Iowans have the right to choose private health care systems or private health care plans. The bill also states that no law can interfere with an Iowan’s right to pay for lawful medical services and that no law can impose a fee, tax, or penalty upon an Iowan for declining or failing to participate in any particular health care system or plan.
The language of House File 111 is based on state law in Virginia. That state challenged the federal law last spring. In December, a federal judge ruled that the individual mandate requirement violated the Tenth Amendment’s limitation on federal power. Central to the case was the Virginia law asserting the state’s power over health insurance law. House File 111 passed out of the Commerce Committee on a bipartisan vote of 17-6. It will be eligible for debate on the House Floor next week.
Requiring Voter IDs Protects Iowa Elections
Iowa will soon be one step closer to secure elections. House File 95 requires photo IDs for all voters—including election-day registrants and in-person absentee voters. Specifically, all voters are required to show a photo ID that was either issued by the United States Government or the state of Iowa.
Typical U.S. Government IDs include passports, military IDs, tribal identification, and federal employee cards. Proper identification issued by the state of Iowa would include driver’s licenses, non-operator’s licenses, or state employee badges. Any of these pieces of identification require an expiration date that is not expired at that time after the most recent general election.
In order to aid voters in obtaining proper identification for voting purposes, certified copies of birth certificates will be available at no charge at all county recorder’s offices as well as at the Iowa Department of Public Health. The requester must execute an affidavit saying they are requesting the copy of their birth certificate for voting purposes. The voter will then be able to go to the Department of Transportation and get a free photo identification card for voting purposes.
The purpose of House File 95 is to protect the integrity of Iowa elections. Asking voters to provide proof of identity will ensure that only votes properly cast are counted. The bill provides for situations in which a provisional ballot would be proper. House File 95 is modeled after Indiana’s photo ID law. That law was challenged and eventually upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 2008 in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board.
From Senator Randy Feenstra
Gov. Branstad gave his first budget address this week. The budget and program presentation offered a bold vision to Iowans that will make our government more efficient, offers hope to our job creators, and focuses on educational excellence. Key points in his address included:
- Funding more of our property tax credits to provide Iowa taxpayers with nearly $160 million in property tax relief.
- Iowa’s corporate income tax rate on small businesses is the highest in the nation at 12 percent. Gov. Branstad will cut Iowa’s income tax rate on businesses in half, to 6 percent.
- Small businesses in Iowa pay a property tax rate that is as high as it is in mid-town Manhattan. The governor’s plan reduces commercial property taxes by 40% over the next 5 years. New investments will be immediately taxed at 60% of its valuation. Existing commercial property will be rolled back by 8% a year over 5 years.
- While school systems across the country are reeling from massive budget cuts, this budget holds school spending at the current levels, with no decreases, and puts an end to underfunding the state’s commitment to schools.
- Gov. Branstad today renewed his commitment to ensure every Iowa child has access to quality preschool, proposing investments $43 million in assistance to those families in greatest need.
- Gov. Branstad’s over-all budget shows a $700 million dollar reduction in spending. It cuts or reduces many programs. However, it protects the tax payers rather than interest groups. Painful choices will need to be made to create the above initiatives. This budget is simply a starting point. The next step is to see which parts of this budget can be passed by a split party legislature.
Final Thought
The Senate Democrats voted to change the age old rules of the Senate. The Democrat leadership heard that the Republicans had found a loop hole in the Senate rules which would allow a vote to come up on the definition of marriage. The Democrats moved to change these century old rules to close this loop hole. This was truly amazing and unheard of, to see a majority party go this far to keep a vote from coming to the floor of the Senate. This is clear obstruction to democracy!
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/01/25/reaction-roundup-heritage-responds-to-the-state-of-the-union-2/
Several experts from Heritage respond to President Obama’s speech last night with brief articles on issues such as energy, electric cars, the health care debate, peace, families, education and more. Excert from the comments of Brian Riedl, on Obama’s budget proposals are included here -
President’s Budget Proposals Don’t Match the Rhetoric
“President Obama asserted that “a critical step in winning the future is to make sure we aren’t buried under a mountain of debt.” Yet he failed to offer any proposals that would significantly rein in escalating spending and deficits.
The President’s proposed freeze of non-security discretionary spending would essentially lock in the 25 percent expansion these programs have received since 2007. Yet paring back deficits requires actually reducing runaway spending, starting with the House Republican plan to cut this spending back to 2008 or even 2006levels.
Furthermore, only 12 percent of the federal budget would be affected by the President’s freeze proposal. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid costs are truly driving long-term deficits upward. Yet the President ignored nearly all entitlement reforms proposed by his own commission, and even stated opposition to any change in future Social Security benefits. Additionally, the President again defended his budget-busting trillion-dollar health care program.
Finally, President Obama sought to rehabilitate the reputation of runaway spending by renaming it “investment.” While investment indeed drives economic growth, politicians have proven to be poor investors. Federal K-12 education spending has grown 219 percent faster than inflation over the past decade, yet student test scores have stagnated. Thirty years of federal energy spending has failed to significantly improve the alternative energy market. And massive increases in federal transportation spending have been diverted into earmarks, bike paths, and museums, or allocated to budget-busting transit programs that governors do not want. If President Obama truly wants to encourage investment, he should focus on reducing the budget deficit – which is crowding out private investment – and should reduce barriers to productive private sector investments.”
-Brian Riedl
Read more at http://blog.heritage.org/2011/01/25/reaction-roundup-heritage-responds-to-the-state-of-the-union-2/
As both chambers settle in and committees get underway, I find the new dynamic of political power very interesting this session.
The Senate is controlled by the Democrats and the House is controlled by the Republicans. This becomes very significant as key bills come up for debate. This past week the House passed a spending reduction bill. This is a $500 million dollar de-appropriation bill that limits many things including pre-school funding and smoker prevention money.
However, it has been noted by the Senate Democrats that this bill will never come up in the Senate, so it will die. This is intriguing as it seems we will have three different State budgets. One from the Senate Democrats, another from the House Republicans and a final one from Governor Branstad. Yet, before we adjourn we must put all three of these budgets into one. That is going to be an immense task! Every group will have to make concessions and compromise.
Democracy will kill many bills this session that are supported by only one party. For a bill to pass both chambers, it will require both the parties (Democrat and Republican) to support the bill. This leaves very few bills that will ever get passed. Dead bills will include:
- Job creation through new policy creation
- State Government retirement reform
- Education reform
- De–regulation
- Property Tax Reform
Both political parties are so galvanized that neither side wants to give in to compromise. It is very disappointing. I feel we are all beating our heads against the wall. Instead, we should remove our party banners and sit down together and see what policy is best for the state.
Since this will not occur, we (each legislator) will continue this act of futility. Each legislator will go home, have forums, and exclaim to their constituents that the other side is blocking everything. Media will drive a further wedge between both parties, and the constituents of Iowa will be the ones who continue to get hurt. I love democracy, but hate the bitter and ugly contempt that party politics promotes.
The House worked quickly to fulfill campaign promises of limiting the reach of government, working for more personal responsibility, and standing up for the taxpayers of Iowa. The “Taxpayers First Act” is a key first step in fulfilling voters’ expectations by curbing out-of-control expenditures by more than $500 million over the next three years. Let me give you some highlights of this proposal.
We provide long-range planning to anticipate problems sooner. HF 45 creates the Tax Relief Fund (TRF) to capture the one-time money from the ending balance and return it to the taxpayers. This one-time money should not be used for additional spending – should be returned to the taxpayer who created the positive ending balance by paying increased taxes due to the state not fulfilling commitments. For FY 2012 alone this would mean over $300 million returned to the pockets of taxpayers.
The bill puts in motion the process of creating a two-year budget by requiring the Revenue Estimating Conference to set a revenue estimate for FY 2013. House Republicans have indicated that we will deliver a two-year budget after our budget reforms are signed into law – including a limit on transfer authority and a process that does not abdicate the legislative authority to appropriate funds. House Republicans will use the two-year budget to fund the long-term tax reductions made possible by the TRF and fund minimal growth in essential areas such as public safety, Medicaid and education.
Eliminates funding for:
-
- Heated sidewalks
- Des Moines trolley for lobbyists
- Dubuque train depot to nowhere
- Amtrak expansion
- Taxpayer-funded lobbyists
- Rebuild Iowa office
- Energy Independence office
- State-paid cell phones for state employees
- Requires state employees to pay $100/month for health insurance (currently many pay no premium)
- Prohibits public services for adult illegal aliens
- Eliminates free preschool for all and replaces it with a program to support low income families
- Prohibits Iowa Department of Natural Resources making new land purchases
- Sells the Iowa Communications Network
- Stops funding for regent universities’ paid leave/sabbaticals of professors
- Ends corporate grant programs by eliminating the Iowa Values Fund and the Iowa Power Fund.
The bill was approved on a 60-40 vote on Wednesday evening and sent to the Senate.
Again, HF 45 should be viewed as an initial first step toward aligning spending with your incoming tax revenue. Please keep me informed about what you think and any ideas you may have regarding smarter, more efficient approaches for our future. I may be reached at dwayne.alons@legis.state.ia.us
House Joint Resolution 6
The Judiciary Committee will pick up the pace next week. HJR 6, the Constitutional Marriage Amendment, is now assigned to a subcommittee that I chair. This is the start of the process to move the language defining marriage between “one man and one woman” to the ballot for the people’s vote in the future. The actual language for the resolution is “Marriage between one man and one woman shall be the only legal union valid or recognized in this state.” The real issue to be addressed with the Amendment is to honor Article III of our Constitution that states “All political power is inherent in the people” to allow the people to decide on the definition of marriage instead of seven appointed Supreme Court judges. I believe we must follow through on the strong signal given by the non-retention vote on three justices – the people of the state believe their opinion went too far to implement new law not approved by the legislature nor were the people allowed to make a decision on the time honored status of traditional marriage.
Nine More Filed Bills
House File 1: Rolling Sunset of all State Programs
House File 1 creates a process to sunset and review 20 percent of the budget per year, for five years. This is a version of zero-based budgeting that allows for a lengthy review of each program and department once every five years. This will allow legislators to identify unnecessary programs and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.
House File 2: Health Care Freedom Act
House File 2 the health care freedom act. Under the bill, Iowans have the right to choose private health care systems or private health care plans. Additionally, any mandate to purchase is eliminated with no penalty, tax, fee, or fine for declining or failing to participate in any particular health care system or plan.
House File 3: Right to Work
House File 3 requires state departments to include the phrase “Iowa is a Right to Work state” in their marketing materials. After four years of constant attack on our Right to Work law, Republicans plan to move quickly to not only plan to protect our Right to Work law but also remind employers that Iowa is in fact a Right to Work state.
House File 4: 20% Across the Board Income Tax Cut
House File 4 is a 20% across the board state income tax cut. The top rate, which is all income exceeding $45,000, is reduced from 8.98% to 7.18%
House File 5: Late Term Abortions
House File 5 is a proposal to prohibit abortions of an unborn child that has reached the post fertilization age of 20 weeks. A physician who performed one of these abortions would be charged with a class C felony and a medical facility that allowed the prohibited abortion to be performed could lose its state licensure and eligibility for state funding. The bill does include an exception to the ban when a medical emergency exists. This is defined as being necessary to prevent the death of the mother or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.
The bill is closely modeled on a new Nebraska law which prohibits these abortions. The bill includes language clearly stating that the provision does not create a right to abortion, nor does it establish that life begins at 20 weeks after fertilization. Instead, the bill recognizes that life begins at conception.
House File 6: Searchable Budget Database
- Directs the Dept. of Management to create/maintain a searchable budget database website by January 1, 2013
- Use of website is free to the public. Cost to create/maintain website to be determined in a forthcoming fiscal note.
- Site would allow the public to search the names and locations of recipients of state funds including:
- Amount of funds
- Agency providing the funds
- Program or activity
- Description or purpose
- Expected/past outcomes of funding actions/expenditures
- Any applicable state audits
- Other relevant information
- The website is to be updated within 30 days of the close of each fiscal year
- By January 1, 2014, data should be entered for previous years
- Also requires the Dept. of Management (in consultation with the Dept. of Revenue) to create/maintain a searchable database with all tax rates for each taxing entity
House File 7: Castle Doctrine
House File 7 is the justifiable use of reasonable force or “castle doctrine.”
House File 8: Photo IDs as a Requisite to Voting
- Requires that all voters show proof of identity before voting
- Must include a photo of the registered voter
- Must have an expiration date and not have expired by the election day
- Must have been issued by the federal government or the State of Iowa
- Includes an avenue to cast a provisional ballot if voter cannot or refuses to show compliant identification
- Requires that election day registrants and in-person absentee voters show the same proof of identification that registered voters show
- Removes the provision that allowed another registered voter to sign an oath affirming another registrant’s identity/residency
House File 9: Property Tax Reform
Increases the state portion of the school aid formula, thus reducing property taxes for Iowa taxpayers.
Requires counties or cities whose property tax or other revenue capacity is reduced to cut spending for non-essential services first.
Limits property tax increases in all categories by limiting the increase to the class that has the lowest increase.
Caps at 4 percent the allowable property tax increase in any given year.
(Capitol Comments newsletter of Iowa House 4th District Representative Dwayne Alons)
Greetings from the Statehouse. The 84th General Assembly began this week. With the House now controlled by Republicans, power in the Senate closely divided and a new Governor we essentially have hit the “reset” button in state government. It is good to be back here and in the majority. Thanks for all your kindness and support. For the next two years, I will be serving as Chairman of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee. In addition, I will be a member of the Appropriations and Education policy committees, as well as the Transportation and Infrastructure budget subcommittee.
You will find that House Republicans will move aggressively to restore a budgetary process more in line with Iowa common sense. The voters spoke loudly in November. They want smaller, more efficient government. All expenditures currently in the budget process will be reviewed. Those that cannot be justified will need to be eliminated. Reality is that the budget for the next fiscal year has at least a $700 million dollar deficit. We see the negative effects of overspending by the federal government. We should not allow our state to go down the same path.
I told constituents before the session that it wouldn’t take long for House Republicans to be accused of throwing puppies in the river. Well, the first week isn’t even over and it’s already happening. Count on exaggerations from the left to continue as the bureaucracies of state government, and politicians who love big government, try to justify their existence.
Let me choose one example this week: preschool. The mantra from the left is that Republicans want to destroy preschool and take away opportunities for children. FALSE. Reality is that over the past three years the other party created a preschool system that has ballooned out of control and is costing taxpayers far more than it should. Reality is that preschool quality standards will stay in place, but we are going to find a much more efficient way to deliver the service.
We will all survive the rancor at the statehouse and in the end there will be smaller, more efficient government. You sent me back here to make difficult decisions. The people spoke. Reset.
Newletter of Royd Chambers of Sheldon, he represents House District 5, which consists of O’Brien, Osceola, the rural parts of Clay, and 4 townships in Sioux County.
Track what is going on at the legislature by going to http://www.legis.state.ia.us/
The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind….
#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.
#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.
#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.
#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.
#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.
#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.
#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.
#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.
#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.
#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford’s new “global” manufacturing strategy.
#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.
#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.
#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.
#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.
#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.
#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.
#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.
So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?
How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?
How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?
How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?
The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.
If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you. If anyone can explain how a deindustrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so below in the comments section.
America is in deep, deep trouble folks. It is time to wake up.