As predicted, The Taxpayers First Act has been introduced as a House Study Bill and converted to House File 45. HF 45 was filed on January 13 and placed on the Appropriations Calendar.  With a 60-40 majority in the Iowa House of Representatives, Republicans are expected to get most of what they want with the House version of the bill. This is House Speaker Kraig Paulsen's signature piece of legislation and will be the subject of much discussion and debate. HF 45 is one of the bills to watch as it targets several key Democratic initiatives from the Culver administration.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish Approach

How the Republicans propose to handle issues like passenger rail and tobacco programs give an early indication that they are taking a penny wise and pound foolish approach to State governance.  If the legislature decides to cut $10 million already set aside for the Iowa City and Quad Cities to Chicago passenger rail line along I-80, Iowa would forfeit over $81 million in federal infrastructure money to be spent in the state. A similar shortsightedness is evident in the approach to eliminating the JEL (Just Eliminate Lies) program for tobacco use prevention among youth and the substantial changes in the tobacco cessation program, eliminating the Quitline. There is evidence that both of these programs work and the long term impact of their elimination will create a liability for higher health care costs in the State.

Iowa to Deal with Immigration (not)

Without fanfare, on Wednesday Republican gunsmith and railroad conductor Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley introduced HF 27, which is intended to deal with immigration issues. The gist of it is that the Iowa Attorney General will be directed to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with either the US Department of Justice or the US Department of Homeland Security. The MOU would outline cooperation on law enforcement training and sharing of information regarding immigration status between the federal government and the state. According to the draft legislation, the MOU would be negotiated and signed, “but shall not be implemented until money is appropriated for such purpose by the general assembly and the federal government.” We are going to cut preschool education and spend our time on an unfunded mandate to harass people that are contributing to Iowa's tax rolls?  Hopefully this one won't get out of subcommittee.

Impeachment Stalled in Committee

According to Frank Myers on the Lucas Countyan, Governor Branstad's inaugural committee chose to serve loose meat sandwiches at an open house at the Capitol on Friday. Hopefully the mess has been cleaned up, and speaking of messes, Myers also reports “it appears that the effort to impeach Iowa's remaining Supreme Court justices has stalled and won't make it out of committee. That effort, a continuation of the drive to punish justices who agreed unanimously that Iowa's constitution did not preclude same-sex marriage, was launched by three freshman and one veteran House Republicans. But even Branstad, after some hesitation, has declared impeachment a bad idea.” Read the Lucas Countyan here.

In Other News

The General Assembly rolled out a new web site at http://www.legis.iowa.gov/index.aspx although the old site will be maintained for the 2011 legislative session. Jeff Danielson was elected President Pro Tempore of the 84th General Assembly.