The View From Here

The third week of session again had a lot of subcommittee meetings all day long.  As a reminder to my readers, subcommittee is where all legislation gets its first airing.  A legislator may have an idea for a bill, but mostly the bills are requests from industry or private citizens to fix a problem.  I am impressed with the information that comes forward during these subcommittees.

One committee I chaired this week dealt with removing the exemption that casinos have from the ban on smoking in public places.  The law currently bans smoking in all public places except for the State Fair and casino gaming floors.  The employees at casinos testified how they shouldn’t have to risk their health in order to keep their jobs.  Casinos complained that banning smoking would chase away customers.  Other states that have banned smoking have not seen a drop in business after a short time of adjustment.  Unfortunately, both of the other members of the subcommittee sided with the casinos and SF 2051 failed to pass.

I was also on the subcommittee for HF 1003, which deals with foster care and the possibility of placement of children with relatives.  The process of locating relatives that could take custody of a child has been slowed by lack of personnel to work on this.  This bill would require Health and Human Services to have an employee dedicated to quickly finding relatives of kids in foster care.  By determining the permanent home of these kids early, the trauma of relocation after months with foster care parents is reduced.  This bill was passed and will move on to full committee.

I was also on the subcommittee for SSB 3026, which would allow another time when a bond issue may come before the people for a vote.  Currently, a bond can only be brought before the people at the general election in November of each year.  This bill would add the first Tuesday after the first Monday in even numbered years. This is the day of the primaries, when each party narrows its candidates down to one to run in the General Election.  Schools and municipalities complained that under the current system, all bonds across the state are certified on the same day and contractors get overwhelmed by the volume at one time, resulting in fewer competitive bids for small projects.  We recommended passage.

Eminent domain for liquid carbon dioxide pipelines is still the largest issue in the Senate.  The House sent us House File 2104, which was a simple ban of the use of eminent domain for carbon oxide pipelines.  Senator Klimesh chaired the committee and re-wrote the bill which expands the size of the corridor for voluntary easements in order to reduce the use of eminent domain.  Eminent domain could still be used if the company diligently exhausts all alternatives to achieve voluntary easements.

I cannot support any bill that takes private property for a project that is not for public use.    

I will be in a forum at Waldorf College in Forest City on Feb. 13th at 9:00 A.M.

On Friday, Feb. 20 I will be at the Briggs Woods Conference Center outside of Webster City at 11:30.

 

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." Dwight D. Eisenhower