Government : From the Statehouse: Committee and budget work in 2nd week

Even though we officially had a short week, unofficially I worked all weekend and am still at it and still loving it.

My committees are Administrative Rules Review, Commerce, Government Oversight, State Government and Transportation. Here’s what we did.:

· Administrative Rules -- Because I chair the committee, I did some training for my new members. Administrative Rules come out every two weeks and we meet all year, once a month. Our first meeting of this General Assembly is February 6th.

· Commerce -- We heard from the Insurance Commissioner on the work the Insurance Division did last year and a report on the state’s takeover of CoOpportunity Health. Basically they had underpriced their products and because of being underpriced, had a higher than expected demand. And the federal dollars promised to shore it up did not materialize, which caused a cash flow problem where they would not have enough money to pay claims. Over 80,000 people have selected other plans, with about 25,000 members up against the upcoming deadline to find a different health plan.

· Government Oversight – We are reading lots of documents about the prison and hearing testimony.

· State Government – I was assigned a couple of bills that will get worked this week.

· Transportation – Director Trombino came to give us the status of the DOT. We talked briefly about the funding problem and he will be asked back. I received a bill to work in that committee also.

But probably the biggest thing that happened was in the Education Committee. The House Education Committee passed bills out giving a 1.25% raise for school year FY2016 and a 2.45% raise for FY2017. The 1.25% is a $34 million dollar increase in state spending. We also are allocating $50 million to the teacher leadership program which is voluntary. Benton Community, Center Point – Urbana, Iowa Valley and Vinton – Shellsburg are all participating and we will send another $300 per pupil under this program.

What does all this mean? In order to begin their budgeting, the school districts need to know how much of a RAISE they are going to get per child for the July 2015 to June 2016 (FY2016) year and the July 2016 to June 2017 (FY2017) school year. Right now the lowest STATE aid per student is $6,366 and they can count on this amount for those budgeting years, but they need to know how much that number will be raised. In addition to the $6,366, they may receive more for a child if they have a special need. The school district also taxes the property tax payers and the state average for each child is over $10,000 (State’s $6,366 + Property taxes) In other words, a classroom of 20 children, receives over $200,000 to support it

We will debate these bills probably tomorrow, so the school boards know how to proceed with their work for kids.

You may recall from last week’s newsletter, we will have another $200 million to spend above last year. The amounts promised with the above Education bills take $84 million of that $200 for Kindergarten through Senior years. This does not count the extra we have told the Community Colleges we will send for expanding the much needed skilled worker programs and to the universities to freeze tuition for the 3rd year in a row. We know education is the best thing we can do to help people be successful and that’s why almost 60% of our total budget goes to support it! We are exactly like your budgets at home though. If you add more spending to one place, you have to take it from somewhere else. It’s a balancing act whether it is your household budget or your state’s budget.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What school district are you in? Would you prefer your school to start the week of August 3rd, August 10th, August 17th, August 24th, August 31st or the day after Labor Day? Thank you for the responses on the questions of the week. It helps to have your feedback.

We haven’t gotten our legislative coffees scheduled yet, because Miss Victoria went home with wisdom tooth problems. Poor girl is coming back to a mess! You will know as soon as they are set up. Have a great week and if you have any concerns or input, please send an email to dawn.pettengill@gmail.com or call 515-281-6879.