Government : In the Statehouse: House, Senate finding agreement

Dear Friends and Neighbors, Happy Spring to you all! Another eventful week at the Capitol and we are making progress! In fact, it appears we may adjourn for the year on time or very close to it. Finishing on time means we are getting paid up to that point. In my twelve years that's only happened once and the longest we worked beyond was over 60 days, so it will be a welcome change. That also means we are finding agreement between the House and Senate which is also a welcome change. On Wednesday, the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) came in with cautious optimism and estimated what we would have for the July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017 year. That cemented our budget number to $7,351 billion, because if the REC has a March estimate that is lower than December, we have to use that lower number. There will be some adjusting because the initial budgets by Senate Democrats were at $7,412 billion and House Republicans were at $7,320 billion, but it looks promising to be short work from here on. We also had some spirited debate on one of the bills I was assigned to floor manage, SF1. SF1 is an Iowa worker preference bill that unfortunately turned partisan. It was a bill to allow Iowa workers to compete against Iowa Prison Industries (IPI). Iowa Prison Industries has a great mission to develop good work habits and marketable skills in the prisoners and the .30 an hour helps them provide for dependents and make restitution to their victims. The state agencies are forced to purchase from them and they can also sell to counties, schools, cities, any non-profit (parochial schools, churches or fraternal organizations) and non-profit health care facilities that serve Medicaid or Medicare patients and all of the above's employees. They do everything from road signs to printing services of business cards/stationery/mousepads to office furniture to engraving trophies to call center services to cleaning supplies to data entry to picture frames to fire rings and Braille services. Prison Industries sells almost $30 million dollars worth of goods and services. However, one much needed marketable skill the inmates are not being taught is how to price competitively. Because the law requires state departments to purchase from them, the departments don't get bids for a lowest responsible bidder. They order. Iowa workers want to be able to at least bid on that $30 million dollars worth of work. It's a laudable goal to give prison inmates the skills to be productive citizens when they get out, but attaining marketable skills and providing for their families are also goals of the Iowa worker who isn't in prison. And sometimes the quality isn't there. According to sources at the Department of the Blind, they are required to use IPI and not just every once in awhile, but frequently the Braille is incorrect. Why are they not allowed to find a reliable service or even receive bids? A company in NW Iowa sells fire rings to 49 states, not Iowa. The DNR requested a waiver from IPI to be able to purchase from this company and was turned down. We have an office furniture company in Iowa who makes filing cabinets and with the same or better quality are cheaper by over $500 a cabinet. Can you imagine all the filing cabinets we purchase at a non-competitive price? SF1 is an Iowa worker bill allowing them to throw their name in the hat to be able to work and provide for their families. I hope the Senate passes it. I need your help for a senior nutrition committee I serve on for Heritage Agency on Aging. Even if you are not a senior yet, would you send me some feedback on what you would like to see in your senior dining sites? What food would you like? What activities? What would make you want to go? Why you wouldn't want to go How can we improve? Thanks in advance for your help! Reminder of the last legislative forum for this session: Vinton City Hall on April 2nd at 1:30. Senator Kapucian and I will both be there. If you have any questions or concerns, I'm here for you. My phone is 515-281-6879 and my email is dawn.pettengill@legis.iowa.gov. Your friend, Dawn Pettengill State Representative Iowa House District 75 “proudly serving Benton and Northern Iowa Counties”