Branstad touts his legislative backers

Earlier this week Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts announced he’s been endorsed by nine current or former state legislators.  Roberts, who is from Carroll, is currently serving his 10th year in the Iowa House of Representatives.

This afternoon, former Governor Terry Branstad’s 2010 campaign announced Branstad now has the backing of twice as many legislators as Roberts has.  Branstad served 16  years as Iowa governor, from January of 1983 through January of 1999 (the reference below to 1991-1999 is to the legislator’s time of service which coincided with Branstad’s tenure as governor). Read the Branstad news release below.

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Gronstal blasts IASB, says legislators will use subpoenas to get answers

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) says the recent disclosure of questionable spending at the Iowa Association of School Boards is akin to the financial scandal involving a central Iowa job training agency — a scandal which led to the conviction of several agency executives and a former Des Moines city councilman who was on the board that oversaw the agency.

Read some of Gronstal’s comments on the IASB situation.  (That Radio Iowa story was posted at 12:10 p.m.; it will be updated with additional information as soon as possible.)  As of 1 p.m., the story has been updated and includes the tidbit that during a six-minute discussion about the IASB, Gronstal used the word “outraged” or “outrageous” five times.   He also used the word “unbelievable” once.  The questions about the IASB were at the start of the Q&A on Iowa Press.   Here’s the show’s home page.  The video from today’s show may be posted soon.  The video from today’s show is posted online.

UPDATE at 4:47 p.m.:  IASB spokeswoman Megan Forgrave emails a response:  “The Iowa Association of School Boards has been looking into financial matters here, and hired an external financial firm to help do that. We are happy to respond to the Legislative Oversight Committee. IASB has over 60 years of history serving school districts. We have worked to keep dues low, so that a minimal amount of tax dollars are used for operational costs – they are about a third of our revenues. Our business services are competitive with others and many of them in fact help stretch tax dollars. The Safety Group Insurance Program, for example, will pay Senator Gronstal’s Council Bluffs school district a dividend of $33,196 this spring and they paid dues this year of $10,366. We are committed to resolving this issue and moving on.”

IASB exec placed on leave

The Iowa Association of School Boards is under scrutiny. Its leaders are to appear at a Legislative Oversight Committee “hearing” on Monday afternoon.  Tonight the association issued a news release with some late-breaking information about the group’s executive director and since she’s been placed on administrative leave, she may not be appearing at Monday’s hearing.  Read the IASB news release below.

Des Moines, IA (March 11, 2010) – The Iowa Association of School Boards’ Board of Directors took several actions Wednesday and Thursday during a meeting in Des Moines to continue evaluation of the organization’s finances and to address allegations of wrongdoing that have surfaced in whistleblower complaints.

In addition, they voted to hold member dues at their current rate or lower them if possible, in order to help districts deal with the 10 percent across-the-board cut announced last fall; the Board also emphasized that many of IASB’s programs that help stretch tax dollars continue to be strong and secure.

The board:
• Retained Brick Gentry P.C. as outside legal counsel to investigate all whistleblower complaints and other allegations.
• Placed IASB executive director Maxine Kilcrease on administrative leave, until an investigation into all allegations is complete.
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The numbers are in and…

Revenue Estimating Conference members, from left to right, David Underwood, Richard Oshlo and Holly Lyons

The three-member State Revenue Estimating Council met early this afternoon. Their estimate of state tax collections in fiscal year 2010 was reduced by about $900,000.   (Fiscal year 2010 began July 1, 2009 and concludes June 30, 2010.)  Their estimate of state tax collections in fiscal year 2011 increased by over $30 million.  (For you insiders, it’s up $33.1 million from the December, 2009 estimate.)  Here’s a pdf if you like to read lots of numbers.

“I hope we’re wrong, but we wanted to err on the conservative side,” Legislative Services Agency director Holly Lyons said to conclude the meeting.

These estimates are used by lawmakers to build the state budget plan.  UPDATE: Lawmakers and the governor have issued statements.  Read them below, in the order they were received by yours truly.

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Changes in state tax credits

Democrats in the legislature plan to make some changes in state tax credits.  Details here in Radio Iowa story.

There will be no change, however, in what had been among the most controversial proposals:  imposing new restrictions on the state tax credit companies like Rockwell Collins, Pioneer and John Deere claim for “research activities.”  Democrats are proposing changes in what’s known as the “supplemental research activities credit” but those credits are awarded by the Department of Economic Development to research-oriented companies that promise to create new jobs.  Democrats didn’t have the votes to significantly change the research activities credit that is part of the tax code, despite the desire on the part of some Democrats to end the practice of the state cutting checks to some of the companies that claim the research activities credit.  If you’ve not been following this debate closely, companies sometimes have a research activities credit that is worth more than the amount of overall taxes they owe the state.  Therefore, the Iowa Department of Revenue writes a check to the company equal to total taxes owed minus the companies research activities credit.  That last part would look cooler and perhaps be more understandable if I was writing on a chalkboard and wrote:

State tax liability – research activities credit = check for our biz

Democrats do propose a new ”cap” on Department of Economic Development tax credits, lowering that cap from $185 million to $120 million.  Senator Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City), the chairman of the Senate Ways & Means (tax policy) Committee, put it this way in a news conference earlier today:  “I think we felt that everybody needs to share in the pain of this downturn, not just teachers and not just health care providers and prison workers and state employees but that this part of spending, which is kind of over here and out of our site, needs to step up.”

Iowa Public Information Board

The Iowa Senate has passsed HF777, a bill that creates an Iowa Public Information Board to help Iowans pursue complaints about access to public records or government meetings, without having to hire an attorney.  Senate Majority Leader  Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs says legislators have tried to “find a way to create a body to help ordinary citizens gain access public records.”

The bill passed on a 35 to 13 vote.  Senator Matt McCoy (D-Des Moines) sat at his desk in the senate, but did not vote for or againt the legislation.  A few moments ago, he described that as a sort of “protest.” 

“I am so torn because my local government officials tell me it is almost impossible to live under the law and not break the law innocently,” McCoy said.  McCoy also suggested the legislature hasn’t done enough to ensure its own operations are conducted in public and not behind closed doors.  He cited the increased frequency of what are called “caucuses.”  Caucuses are meetings in which members of one political party stop the action of a public meeting (or public debate) and go into a private meeting.

The next stop for HF777 is the Iowa House which must consider changes senators made in the legislation.

Tempers flare in gun debate

UPDATE at 5:30 p.m.:  Debate is over.  Read the Radio Iowa story. Below is a mid-afternoon blog post about the debate.

At this hour the Iowa House is in the midst of a debate about guns.  Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, is a former Marine and he is also a trained gunsmith.  He works in the family business in Missouri Valley, the Double Barrell Shooters Supply.

Windschitl has offered a new plan as an alternative to a bill that would take guns away from people who’ve been convicted of dometic violence.  Instead, Windschitl proposes a state tax credit for domestic abuse victims who buy a new gun.  And he also wants to create a new state fund that would provide self-defense training to domestic abuse victims, including the technique of shooting “to wound” rather than shooting to kill.  That new state fund would be financed by a new $500  fine assessed to those who are convicted of domestic assault.

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Former Mason City rep endorses Roberts

Bill Schickel, a former state representative from Mason City who is manning The Bean Walker website, announced this evening that he is resigning as secretary of the Republican Party of Iowa in order to formally endorse Rod Roberts, one of three Republicans seeking the GOP’s 2010 gubernatorial nomination.  This means eight former or current House members have endorsed Roberts in the past two weeks.  The time frame is significant as former House Speaker Chris Rants — a long-time leader of House Republicans — had been running for governor himself until February 18 when he dropped out of the race.  The eight current or former House members were likely unwilling or reluctant to publicly endorse Roberts with Rants in the race.

Read the news release about Schickel’s endorsement after the jump:

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Santorum addresses attack on his pro-life record

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was the keynote speaker at an Iowa Christian Alliance event this evening and much of his 32-minute speech was spent talking about his pro-life record as a member of the U.S. House and then the U.S. Senate.  As Santorum told the crowd, he felt compelled to talk about it because of some “robocalls” which were made into Iowa preceding his visit, accusing him of being a “pro-life fraud.”

AUDIO: Santorum’s speech

“It wasn’t what I was planning on talking about, but I have to do a little aside because I understand that there have been some robocalls being made to people, talking about my pro-life convictions,” Santorum said about two minutes into his speech.

At the 16 minute mark of the speech, Santorum was addressing the specific criticism of his decision to endorse Senator Arlen Specter’s reelection bid in 2004.  “That was against the advice of my wife.  You would think after 20 years I would know better, but I was wrong in retrospect.  Now, the odd thing is I actually did it was for the pro-life cause…The reason I did was because he gave us a promise as chairman of the judiciary committee….to support two Supreme Court picks that the president was going to have after 2004 — Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.  Good intentions, not always a good result.”

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Iowa Christian Alliance event features Santorum, three GOP candidates for governor

The Iowa Christian Alliance is hosting an event this evening at a church in Windsor Heights and what follows is a live blog of the festivities.  Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is the keynote speaker.  Ralph Reed, formerly of the Christian Coalition, is the emcee.  Neither were able to fly into the Des Moines Airport due to fog.  Both landed at airports nearby and are driving as I type to get here.  Santorum’s flight to Des Moines was cancelled, so he flew into Cedar Rapids, hopped in a car and is due to arrive at about 6:15.  Reed was forced to fly to Minneapolis and drive the four-plus hours to Des Moines.  His arrival is pegged at 6:45 p.m.

A few moments ago a “young man” sidled up to the press table where four reporters and three laptops are positioned and left a neon yellow flier which hits Santorum for being “opposed to Right to Work.”  The flier suggests Santorum has something “in common” with five “big labor chronies” who are also pictured on the flier — the five would be President Barack Obama, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, Governor Chet Culver and Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy.  There’s a “paid for by the National Right to Work Committee” line on the back of the flier in fine print, below these words in large, bold print: “On July 10, 1996, Rick Santorum joined liberal politicians like Ted Kennedy and Tom Harkin in voting against S. 1788 (National Right to Work Act) on the floor of the U.S. Senate.  Please ask Senator Santorum to pledge to support Right to Work and to never support forced unionism again.”

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