Governor Lt. Governor First Lady

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Governor Culver Signed Several Bills Today

(Des Moines) Today, Governor Chet Culver signed several bills into law:

House File 648:

  • Allows a city or county to designate an enterprise zone on the property of the place of business that has imposed a permanent layoff of at least 1,000 workers or 4 percent or more of the county’s workforce.
  • This zone may include up to an additional 3 mile area adjacent to the property. <.
  • The closing business or business creating the layoff shall not be eligible to receive incentives or assistance under the Enterprise Zone chapter of Iowa Code, section 15E.194.

Senate File 580:

  • The one-time tax amnesty program allows people to pay late taxes with limited penalties and no criminal charges. The last time the state had a tax amnesty program was in 1986. That program brought in more than $35 million. The proposed program covers many taxes, including income and sales and allows people to pay back taxes without a penalty.

Senate Joint Resolution 4:

  • This bill enacts a temporary law allowing the consumption of wine in the state capitol for the World Food Prize. A form of this legislation is passed every session.

Senate Joint Resolution 5:

  • This bill enacts a temporary law allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages on the state capitol complex grounds in conjunction with the Hy-Vee BG World Cup Triathlon. The triathlon is expected to draw 30,000 people and ends at the State Capitol.

Senate Joint Resolution 6:

  • Senate Joint Resolution 6 allows for permanent acknowledgement of elementary and secondary schools and individual citizens of this state for their contributions of foliage and items to be permanently located on the west capitol terrace and other capitol grounds.

Senate File 346:

  • This bill provides a uniform application for health insurance to be used by small employers in Iowa, standardizing for the first time the information that needs to be provided before a policy can be written. It makes it possible for businesses to submit multiple applications to insurers without filling out additional forms. This is a benefit to small business in Iowa.

Senate File 360:

  • This is a technical bill that cleans up the Code section with regard to duties of the Division of Banking and oversight of records and rulemaking authority. It broadens slightly the power of the Division to deny an application for an individual registration based on a background check, criminal record or other information.

Senate File 499:

  • This bill makes changes to the Department of Natural Resources regulation of underground storage tanks. It adds a requirement for periodic compliance inspections and the creation of an inspections program that will include fees to pay for costs associated with the program. Those who fail inspections will be required to work with a groundwater professional to develop a corrective action design report on how they will improve conditions to meet regulations. It requires owners and operators of underground storage tanks to take part in a training program and be certified. It also mandates that each owner keep a certificate of this training on file with the county recorder. Groundwater professionals must also be certified and the requirements for this certification are laid our in the bill. The bill also allows for the department to assess fines for those who fail to obtain certification in either category. This bill will help to further define the qualifications necessary for those working with underground storage tanks and improve the quality of systems to inspect, improve and maintain these tanks. This will improve the safety of groundwater and drinking water.

Senate File 503:

  • Senate File 503 increases the age for certain children receiving child care if the child’s safety and well being are at risk. The bill also revises child welfare and juvenile justice provisions.

Senate File 510:

  • This bill provides new regulations governing amusement devices in the State of Iowa. It proscribes the types of machines that may be used in Class “C” liquor license holding establishments and requires registration. It sets penalties for cash prizes. The purpose of the bill is to clarify the intent of current law and provide for alternative penalties to revocation and forfeiture for minor violations.

Senate File 557:

  • This bill revises and redrafts the Iowa Credit Union Act to allow for additional regulation of credit unions that more closely tracks that of banks, and provides for a new organization of the Credit Union Division and new regulations to govern the industry. It implements taxes, fees and surcharges on credit unions.

Senate File 563: Judicial Budget

  • SF 563 appropriates $127,425,037 to the Judicial Branch.

Senate File 559:

  • This bill makes corrective changes to law regarding cemeteries and funeral services. In the section related to those who sell funeral merchandise and services it adds “preneed sellers” to those under the regulations. “Preneed sellers” offer services to those looking to plan their own funeral arrangements and pay for them in advance. The bill also requires such sellers to make regular reports to the insurance commissioner, which is required of other sellers. It requires they obtain a “preneed sellers license” and allows the insurance commissioner to conduct investigations and audits on them as necessary. A criminal background check is required for the license, which will be renewed every four years. It shortens the amount of time that a seller has to pay back funds if the arrangement is cancelled, but allows the seller to petition the insurance commissioner for a longer period of time where needed. The goal of this bill is to provide greater insight into the change funeral industry. More people are making their own arrangements through “preneed sellers” and in the past only funeral homes themselves had been subject to such oversight and regulations. Often these arrangements are made through trust funds and these measures will provide greater consumer protection for those.

Senate File 592:

  • This is the update bill for changes made to the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement.
  • This bill was approved by the Streamlined Sales Tax Advisory Council.
  • The Department of Revenue drafted this bill and all the changes are minor and there is no fiscal impact to this bill.
  • This bill updates existing tax and related laws.

Senate File 593:

  • This is a non-controversial bill relating to the assessment of civil and criminal court fees and penalties. The bill provides that eh clerk of the district court shall collect a fee for a probation revocation proceeding equal to the fee for filing and docketing a complaint, information, or citation in the underlying case from which the revocation arises. The bill also increases the fee for filing and indexing a transcript in a probate proceeding from $5 to $50. If the court revokes the probation of a defendant who receives a deferred judgment and imposes a fine, the court shall reduce the amount of the fine by an amount equal to the amount of the civil penalty previously assessed against the defendant.

House File 396:

  • This bill expands the scope of services that Iowa Community Empowerment’s local boards are authorized to help provide. When Empowerment was created, its scope included assisting low-income parents with tuition for preschool for 5-year-olds not enrolled in kindergarten. Each year it is granted funds to be distributed for that purpose; this year it was to be $5.5 million. Since the new preschool program will help provide most of this and has a separate funding stream, Empowerment boards were looking for other ways they could use that funding to help low-income parents. This bill expands the use of those funds to include “other support services” in addition to preschool and opens it up to include 3- and 4-year-olds as well. This will allow Empowerment to help parents with early childhood programs, child care, health care and other services needed to raise their children. Since we are moving preschool under the Department of Education and funding it through them, it makes sense to change the focus of Empowerment to these other important areas.

House File 556:

  • This bill establishes an Iowa Propane Education and Research Council and creates a few other measures relative to propane use. The council is intended to develop programs that will enhance consumer safety and education in propane use as well as programs for low-income energy assistance. The council is to prepare a budget plan for these programs to submit to the fire marshal for review and recommendations. The council is to be funded through a fee of one-tenth of one cent on each gallon of odorized propane sold. The members of this council will be appointed by the Governor through recommendations from the propane industry. These members must be appointed within 30 days of this bill’s enactment. Members will serve no more than two consecutive three-year terms and vacancies must be filled through appointments by December 15th of each year. Representatives must include interstate and intrastate retail propane marketers and large and small retail propane marketers, including agricultural cooperatives and must represent diverse geographic regions of the state. Ex-officio members include a professional fire fighter designated by the Iowa association of professional fire chiefs, a volunteer fire fighter designated by the Iowa firemen's association, an experienced plumber involved in plumbing training programs designated by the Iowa state building and construction trades council, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning professional designated by the Iowa state building and construction trades council, a community college instructor with experience in conducting fire safety programs designated by the Iowa association of community college presidents, a representative of a property and casualty insurance company with experience in insuring sellers of propane gas designated by the Iowa insurance institute. This council can be terminated on its on recommendation or through the petition of propane representing more than 35% of the volume of propane sold in the state.

House File 904:

  • HF 904 is the repeal of the Loan Agency Tax.
  • There are two parts to this bill. The first just deals with a withholding tax issue for the W-4 form. It allows for pension exclusion to be included on the form.
  • There is no fiscal impact to this change and the Department of Revenue provided the language once they became aware of the situation.
  • The Loan Agency Tax law in section 430A was repealed because it was ruled unconstitutional by a district court judge. The department and the AG’s Office agreed that the law was unconstitutional and could not be enforced.
  • There have no monies collected from this tax since 2003 and the court case was finally settled with a refund to the plaintiff.

House File 923:

  • This is the Department of Revenue Policy/Technical Bill.
  • There were a number of changes and amendments to our original version.
  • Division II of the bill deals with cigarette law changes that the department has been attempting to have passed for a number of years. These changes should help with the enforcement of the cigarette and tobacco laws.

House File 924:

  • This is a non-controversial bill relating to qualifications for licensure as a real estate broker or salesperson upon conviction of specified offenses. The bill provides that an applicant for a real estate broker's or salesperson's license who has been convicted of an indictable offense shall not be considered for licensure until specified time periods have elapsed following completion of a sentence. The bill provides that after the time periods have elapsed, the commission shall consider an application and may deny it based on the conviction. If denied, an applicant may request a hearing. With regard to existing licensees, the bill modifies the code to require that a licensee notify the commission of a conviction of any of the above specified offenses within 10 days of the conviction. The bill provides that notification of a conviction for an offense which is classified as a felony will result in the immediate suspension of a license pending the outcome of a revocation hearing.

House File 907:

  • An Act relating to and making appropriations from the Healthy Iowans Tobacco Trust and the Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund and providing an effective date. House File 907 is approved on this date, with the exceptions noted below, which I hereby disapprove.
  • The Governor invoked his line-item veto authority yesterday on House File 907 on the following sections:
    • “I am unable to approve item designated as Section 1, Subsection 2a (4) in its entirety. This designated language continues general language on substance abuse treatment expenditures. These directives are already in place and, therefore, this language is not needed.”
    • “I am unable to approve item designated as Section 1, Subsection 2b, paragraphs (1) through (6) in their entirety. This designated language continues general language on substance abuse treatment expenditures. These directives are in place and, therefore, this annual report language is not needed.”