Governor Signs Smoke Free Act
TIME-21 Road Proposal Passes House and Senate
Education Budget Passes House
More Iowans Eligible for State Disaster Aid

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Governor Signs Smoke Free Act
Governor Chet Culver signed the Smoke Free Air Act this week, stating “my goal is to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation, which is why I am proud to sign the Smoke Free Air Act.” House File 2212 takes effect on July 1, 2008.

The law applies to profit or nonprofit workplaces and public places. Places not covered may voluntarily be declared a nonsmoking place. A public place is defined as an enclosed area, where the public is invited or permitted, including restaurants, bars, re-tail stores, public buildings, schools, daycare providers, and health care providers.

TIME-21 Road Proposal Passes House and Senate
The House and Senate approved funding proposals to address the recommendations of the TIME-21 interim commit-tee on how to cover the shortfall in road and bridge repair and construction funding. TIME-21 was the short name of a study done by the Iowa Department of Transportation. Officially, it is the Transportation Investment Moves the Economy in the Twenty-first century report.

In 2007, the Legislature created a TIME-21 fund but did not allocate any funding for the fund. Instead, the interim committee was established to recommend ways to provide the additional $200 million needed annually. To address this shortfall, the House and Senate decided to raise additional road money through registration fee adjustments for cars and multipurpose vehicles, truck registrations, special truck registrations, trailer registrations, and title fees. This should bring in about $138 million per year by 2012.

The new fees in the bill will not go into effect until January 1, 2009. In addition, Senate File 2420 in-cludes extensive grand-fathering of any new or increased fee. Gener-ally, owners will not have to pay more than what they paid in a previous year, and many of the increases will only affect Iowan's when they purchase a new vehicle or trailer.

Education Budget Passes House
The education budget bill passed the House this week on a party-line vote. House File 2679 appropriates a total of $1.14 billion for many education re-lated purposes. Education funding goes to several departments including the Department for the Blind, College Aid Commission, the Department of Education, and the Board of Re-gents and its institutions.
Many of Iowans’ priori-ties for education are included in this budget:
• Keeping the best and brightest teachers in the state of Iowa by paying them competitive wages.
• Increasing money for work study programs to help students pay for college.
• Keeping tuition at community colleges and regent universities to the rate of inflation so parents can afford to send their children to college.
• Providing opportunities for before and after school programs or remedial assistance for K-12 students.
• Requiring rigor and relevance in Iowa’s schools to provide Iowa students competitive advantages in the global economy and workforce
The bill will now move to the Senate for consideration.