Sheets Snapshot
Rep. Larry Sheets (R) (photo by Don Hubbard)
This is the end of “Funnel Week” which is a week full of activity to get the Bills ready for floor action…
With the recent shenanigans in the State House, the Governor has signed the gas tax hike into law.
Talk of raising the minimum wage continues but rarely mentions the unintended consequences. The Employment Policies Institute released a study that says Iowa would lose between 5,229 and 15,687 jobs if the min wage went to $10.10/hour. Last year the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report regarding the jobs penalty with a $9.00 minimum wage. The most likely penalty resulting from a $9.00 minimum wage is loss of about 100,000 jobs nationally. Bottom line is: an increase in minimum wage will definitely mean fewer jobs. I’m for jobs in District 80 and Iowa generally.
The House Economic Growth Committee (that I’m on) passed a bill to expand the market for farm products and increase the state’s economy. The bill incentivizes businesses to produce chemicals from biomass feedstocks – which are usually wasted or fed to animals. Iowa facilities that make food and fuel products from corn, soybeans, etc. can further reduce these to high-end “building block chemicals” used for plastics, pharmaceuticals, paints or textile products. This could mean more jobs in the towns and the farms of Iowa.
The House continues the legislature’s trend of providing significant increases to the state’s K-12 system, bringing the 5 year total increase to over $570 million, a nearly 22% increase. Iowa will spend $10,231 per student, or over $200,000 per classroom of 20, in FY 15. I’ve authored 5 Bills to aid small and rural schools, and negotiated with the Dept. of Education to give schools more time to recover from negative spending authority before closing them. It’s a wait-and-see game if they pass through the legislative and bureaucratic roadblocks.
I temporarily chaired the House Labor Committee, while Chairman Representative Greg Forristall ran a tightly-focused bill addressing how arbitrators judge between union and school board positions:
* Currently, when an arbitrator settles disagreements between teacher unions and the school board, the arbitrator has to choose either one or the other parties’ final offer. The new bill instead gives authorization to choose a compromise point between the two offers.
* An arbitrator will no longer be able to consider increased tax levies as a means to finance compensation increases.
* The bill also requires an arbitrator to compare public and private sector wages for similar work.
The bill passed out of committee and will advance to the House for full consideration.
Upcoming forums:
* March 14 : “Osky Eggs & Issues” @ 8:30am at Smokey Row in Oskaloosa.
* March 21 : Centerville Legislative Coffee @ 10:00a 308 N. 12th St. Please contact me with any questions or concerns at larry.sheets@legis.iowa.gov or 641-895-6153.
