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News from Des Moines

Week 10 of the session was the “Second Funnel,” where all policy bills in the House have to be passed on the floor and sent over to the Senate, and vice versa in the Senate.

Notable Bills

• Senate File 2289 – 28E Agreements with Tribal Entities – Iowa code section 28E allows public agencies across all levels to enter into contractual agreements for purposes such as mutual fire protection, police protection, and other cooperative arrangements. This bill adds federally recognized Indian tribes (which includes the Meskwaki Nation) to that list of public agencies that can enter into these agreements. 28E agreements currently exist between the Meskwaki Nation and public agencies in Tama county, but there was some question as to their legality, hence the need for this bill. This bill passed the House 98-0 and now goes to the Governor for signature.

• Senate File 2311 – Omnibus Energy Bill – This bill is a large, complex bill that deals with numerous aspects of how our gas and electric utilities are regulated. Of note in this bill was a provision that dealt with how “Energy Efficiency” programs are funded. Most people don’t realize that a hidden tax is imposed on our electric and gas bills to fund these energy efficiency programs which has included appliance rebates, free low energy light bulbs, weatherization programs, and many other programs over the years. This fund has spurred the growth of a small industry dedicated to creating and executing these efficiency programs. The administration of these programs within the utilities themselves and the businesses that work off this fund consume roughly 20 percent of the fund, so only about 80 percent of the tax comes back to the consumer in terms of goods and services. The original legislation passed decades ago capped this tax at 2 percent of the total bill, but over time that cap was raised to the point that it currently is about 5 percent of your total bill, or roughly $162 million per year. Also, many years ago the practice of including this tax as a line item on the bill was outlawed by the legislature as a result of complaints from consumers that objected to it. On Thursday the Commerce Committee amended this bill so that the 2 percent cap is reinstated, reducing the ratepayer burden by roughly $100 million, and so that the tax can reappear on your bill so that our consumers will know exactly what they are paying for these programs.

The Revenue Estimating Conference met last Friday to release the March Revenue estimate for the remainder of the Fiscal Year 2018 and for Fiscal Years 2019. For Fiscal Year 2018, the revised estimate was $300,000 above the previous estimate, a small improvement. For Fiscal Year 2019, the estimate was $58.8 million above the previous estimate. However, Iowa law requires us to use the lower of the December and March estimates when calculating our budget.

Tuesday of this week was Homeschool day, the Capitol was filled with young families learning about state government and this beautiful building.

I also had the pleasure of meeting with members of our local Rural Electric Co-Ops on Wednesday as they lobbied for provisions in the energy bill.

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State Rep. Dean Fisher can be reached at 641-750-3594 or via email at dean.fisher@legis.iowa.gov

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