2015 Session Highlights

Download a PDF of our 2015 highlights.

This year, Senate Democrats fought to provide greater economic security for Iowa families by standing up for workers and investing in skills training, job creation and the best educational opportunities from preschool through college. While we hoped to accomplish much more, we ultimately chose compromise over gridlock.

• We balanced the state budget in a fiscally responsible way. Iowa is expected to have a budget surplus of more than $300 million when this fiscal year ends on June 30. We also have almost $700 million in our reserve funds, the largest amount in state history.
• We invested in training to help Iowans fill openings for good jobs at local businesses in need of skilled workers.
• We committed to improving Iowa’s infrastructure, economy and job creation through incentives, tax credits, and programs that work with local businesses on technology commercialization, marketing and entrepreneurship.
• We provided funding to keep tuition affordable at our colleges and universities, with the hope of freezing tuition at Iowa State, UNI and the University of Iowa for the third year in a row.
• We’re boosting student achievement in our K-12 schools through investments in early reading initiatives and quality teaching.
• We’re continuing our commitment to Iowa’s quality of life with strong investments in the environment, as well as cultural and recreational opportunities.

Education & worker training

• Committing an additional $156 million to educational opportunities for students at our local schools (SF 510, HF 666).
• Committing $8.5 million for transporting students at nonpublic schools (SF 510).
• Helping K-3 students who are falling behind gain strong reading skills through intensive literacy programs (HF 658).
• Ensuring access to internships for Iowa students studying science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) (HF 658, SF 499).
• Investing in apprenticeship training and job retraining at our community colleges (HF 658).
• Providing $50 million in new funding for a Teacher Leadership effort in which Iowa’s most effective educators work with new teachers and mentor those looking to improve their classroom results (HF 658).
• Keeping tuition affordable with a funding increase of $2.5 million to our community colleges, the first place many Iowans go for higher education, job training and better career opportunities (HF 666).
• Providing an increase to our state universities that should allow them to continue their tuition freeze (HF 658, HF 666)
• Providing need-based financial aid for private college students to ensure all Iowans can get the education that’s right for them (HF 658)
• Increasing the number of skilled workers with an investment of $40.3 million at our community colleges (HF 658). This includes:
  • Accelerated Career Education (ACE) to help community colleges and local businesses establish or expand job-training programs.
  • Skilled Worker Tuition Grants that provide need-based financial aid to Iowans earning certificates for in-demand jobs.
  • Adult basic education to help Iowans earn their high school equivalency.
  • Connecting education and training to create a pathway to work in a high-demand field.
  • Pathway navigators to put more low-skill adult workers on the path to earning postsecondary credentials.
• Ensuring high-quality workforce training by boosting the standards for Career Technical Training Education (CTE) instructors at community colleges (HF 421).
• Getting all Iowa students on track to read at grade level by the end of third grade with the help of volunteers (HF 488).
• Extending Iowa’s pilot project for online schools by three years (SF 510).
• Investing in buildings, technology and equipment that enhance education, research and training at our colleges and universities (HF 650), including:
  • ISU Biosciences Building
  • U of I Pharmacy Building
  • UNI Schindler Ed Center Renovation
  • ISU Student Innovation Center
  • Vet Lab Cancer Equipment
    

   

Jobs & economy

• Boosting job creation and economic growth by improving Iowa’s roads and bridges (SF 257).
• Promoting ethanol and other Iowa-grown motor vehicle fuels by keeping their price down (SF 257).
• Providing incentives for businesses that locate and expand in Iowa when they commit to making a strong contribution to the local economy and creating good jobs for residents (SF 499).
• Funding for innovative programs at our state universities that spur economic growth when they work with communities and businesses on technology commercialization, marketing and entrepreneurship (SF 499).
• Investing in the arts, cultural endeavors and historic preservation, which draw tourists to our communities (SF 499).
• Encouraging investment in start-up businesses by making existing venture capital tax credits more competitive with Iowa’s neighboring states (SF 510).
• Revamping an existing grant program that provides technical and financial assistance to entrepreneurs seeking to create, locate, or expand a business in the state (SF 510).
• Creating a new revolving loan fund to help communities redevelop derelict and nuisance properties (SF 499).
• Protecting workers from unscrupulous employers by providing funding for an additional wage theft investigator at Iowa Workforce Development (SF 499).
• Ensuring job creation and economic growth through efficient permitting for companies that meet Iowa’s emission standards (SF 488).
• Investing in the World Food Prize, Iowa’s worldwide effort to promote a nutritious, sustainable food supply for all people (SF 499, HF 650).
• Expanding high-speed internet in Iowa by providing property tax exemptions and establishing a new grant program (HF 655).
• Funding for tax credits that encourage homeowners, farmers and businesses to install solar systems that create jobs for those who install and repair them (HF 645).
• Supporting larger scale solar systems that provide clean power for utilities across the state (HF 645).

• Improving transportation infrastructure that boosts Iowa’s economic growth (HF 650), including:
  • Railroad Revolving Loan & Grant Fund
  • Public Transit Vertical Infrastructure Grants
  • Commercial Aviation Infrastructure Grants
  • General Aviation Infrastructure Grants

Health & health care

• Improving Iowa’s mental health and disability services system by making more emergency psychiatric beds available (SF 401).
• Helping Iowans access mental health and substance abuse treatment services closer to home (SF 440).
• Creating a psychiatric bed tracking system to help healthcare and law enforcement professionals quickly find openings (HF 449)
• Ensuring better access to help Iowans with severe mental illness by streamlining the employment, qualifications and duties of mental health advocates (HF 468).
• Protecting students from unexpected allergic reactions by allowing schools to maintain a supply of epinephrine injectors and train staff to use them (SF 462).
• Enhancing positive medical outcomes and patient satisfaction through voluntary and confidential discussions between physicians and patients when things go wrong (SF 426).
• Permitting privileged communications between peer support counselors and officers so that they can openly discuss traumatic events in their line of work (SF 267).
• Allowing a certified radon tester to disclose the results to a homebuyer if they’ve made a purchase offer and pay for the testing (HF 371).
• Allowing the Department of Inspections & Appeals to consider the out-of-state regulatory history for new nursing facility license applicants (HF 579).
• Funding the State’s Mental Health Institute at Mount Pleasant to maintain acute mental health services and inpatient dual diagnosis substance use disorder services (SF 505).
• Transitioning the Mental Health Institute at Clarinda to a private nursing facility for hard-to-place patients with aggression or other psychological conditions (SF 505, HF 666).
• Creating an oversight committee to review and recommend improvements to the Governor’s plan to privatize Medicaid services (SF 505).
• Ensuring Iowans can navigate privatized Medicaid services and get the help they need in cases where medical or support services are arbitrarily denied (SF 505).
• Reducing health care costs by requiring that copays for physical, occupational and speech therapy be no higher than regular doctor visits (SF 505).
• Expanding the 1st Five program, which supports health providers in detecting risk factors in young children, and coordinating referrals, interventions and follow-up (SF 505).
• Allowing an expedited process for Iowa licensure of doctors, helping to ensure access to critical health services (SF 510).
• Improving health care facilities and infrastructure (HF 650), including:
  • Nursing Homes
  • Vocational Services
  • Brain Injury Rehab
  • Youth Emergency Shelters
  • Broadlawns Mental Health Facilities

Safe communities

• Ensuring victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking and stalking are safe from their abusers through an address confidentiality program (HF 585, HF 659).
• Requiring the Board of Educational Examiners to use information in the Iowa Court Information System in its review of applications for license renewal (SF 131).
• Keeping Iowa families safe on our roads by investing in maintenance and improvements throughout the state (SF 257).
• Preventing accidents in bad winter weather by putting blue and white lights on snowplows to make them more visible to drivers (SF 75).
• Saving lives by expanding Iowa’s “move over, slow down” law to include vehicles displaying blue or white lights (SF 75).
• Protecting drivers and passengers against counterfeit, nonfunctional or unsafe airbags by making it illegal to manufacture, import, install or sell them (HF 287).
• Enhancing consumer protection in the purchase and sale of vehicles through Iowa’s participation in a national system that links states’ title records and vehicle histories (HF 563).
• Helping law enforcement deter and prevent vehicle-related crimes through Iowa’s participation in a national system that links states’ motor vehicle title records and vehicle histories (HF 563).
• Keeping Iowa’s workplaces safe by increasing funding for Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors (SF 499).
• Providing more funding the Iowa Department of Public Safety to solve crimes and maintain safe communities (SF 497).
• Helping victims recover from crimes by allowing money from the Victim Compensation Fund to be used for housing assistance and emergency relocation (SF 497).
• Providing necessary funding to ensure offenders on probation and parole are adequately supervised in their communities (SF 497).
• Allowing the Department of Inspections & Appeals to consider the regulatory history for new nursing facility license applicants (HF 579).
• Protecting children and seniors through funding for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and nursing home inspections (HF 659).
• Combating human trafficking through public awareness efforts, special training for law enforcement officers and making the crime a forcible felony (SF 510).
• Requiring cellphone services to provide the location of cellphones to law enforcement or 911 operators without a warrant in an emergency that involves risk of death or serious physical harm (HF 447).
• Helping Iowans get emergency notifications and messages by requiring coordination between E911 service providers and Homeland Security & Emergency Management (SF 264).
• Enhancing public safety communications systems (E911) so that law enforcement and first responders throughout the state can communicate and take action in emergencies (HF 651).
• Improving communications and facilities that enhance public safety (HF 650), including:
  • Mass Notification & Emergency Messaging System
  • Fire Training Mobile Units & Equipment

Veterans & service members

• Ensuring confidentiality of communications between military members who are victims of sexual assault and their military counselor (HF 496).
• Giving family a chance to grieve by requiring protestors to stay at least 1,000 feet away from a military funeral service, procession, burial or memorial service (HF 558).
• Providing a stable source of revenue for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund by transferring $2.5 million in lottery revenues each year to the trust fund (SF 323).
• Ensuring consumer protections for veterans by requiring private providers of veterans’ benefit services to disclose that the same services are offered for free through veteran service organizations and the county commission of veteran affairs (HF 414).
• Offering flexibility in using college aid by providing a total of 120 undergraduate credit hours through the National Guard Educational Assistance Program, instead of administering aid by term (SF 130).
• Expanding college credit for military education, training and experience to include National Guard members and Reservists, saving them time and money in completing their degrees (HF 205).
• Ensuring a full property tax exemption through the Disabled Veterans Property Tax Credit to veterans who have a permanent disability that make it impossible to work (HF 166).
• Adding “service-disabled veteran” to the definition of targeted small businesses, which are eligible for low-interest loans and grants, as well as consideration when that state seeks bids for goods and services (SF 499).
• Improving our military and veterans facilities (HF 650).

Quality of life

• Ensuring a successful transition to adulthood by allowing young people that age out of the juvenile court system to continue receiving services (SF 412).
• Giving young people get a clean start as adults by expanding confidentiality of juvenile court records to informal court processes (SF 292).
• Clearing the public record of those who have criminal charges dismissed or are found not guilty (SF 385).
• Helping Iowans with disabilities maintain their health, independence and quality of life through tax-free savings trusts into which money can be deposited to pay for disability-related expenses (SF 505).
• Maintaining a clean environment by better regulating livestock truck wash facilities, which produce large amounts of waste (HF 583).
• Increasing recreational opportunities through an apprentice hunter program that gives potential hunters the chance to see if it is an activity they enjoy (SF 392).
• Ensuring good Iowa air quality through sustainable funding that allows for efficient permitting for companies that meet Iowa’s emission standards (SF 488).
• Ensuring adult wards of the court are able to visit and interact with loved ones (SF 306).
• Protecting consumers by setting standards for portable electronics insurance and those who sell it (SF 487).
• Expanding medical services in our communities by allowing retired dentists and dental hygienists to volunteer their services (HF 202).
• Ensuring the success of kids by allowing court appointed special advocates to attend decision-making meetings upon the request of the family or child (HF 372).
• Expanding high-speed internet in Iowa by providing property tax exemptions and establishing a new grant program (HF 655).
• Expanding eligibility to childcare assistance to more low-income families who are working or bettering their job prospects (SF 505).
• Funding for tax credits to encourage the production of clean renewable (HF 645).
• Ensuring safe and affordable housing for Iowans through the State Housing Trust Fund (HF 650).
• Improving our environment, recreation and cultural opportunities and facilities (HF 650), including:
  • Environment First Fund
  • Water Quality
  • Lake Restoration
  • Water Trails & Low Head Dams
  • Recreational Trails
  • County & State Fairs
  • State Parks
  • Rural YMCAs
  • Regional Sports Authorities
  • Iowa Great Places
  • Community Attraction & Tourism

Good government

• Balancing the state budget in a fiscally responsible way. Iowa is expected to have a budget surplus of more than $300 million when this fiscal year ends on June 30. We also have almost $700 million in our reserve funds, the largest amount in state history.
• Allowing school districts to use their physical plant and equipment levies (PPEL) to repair school buses and other transportation equipment (HF 646).
• Saving money through Iowa’s participation in State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, which track, monitor and identify educational institutions where there are student complaints and rectify the issues (SF 501).
• Simplifying the process for teens to get a permit to work in Iowa, while protecting our kids from hazardous working conditions and long hours (HF 397).
• Generating more locally produced energy by allowing yard waste disposal in landfills with a methane collection system (HF 266).
• Providing quicker resolution to tax appeals by streamlining the process and reducing the backlog (HF 626).
• Updating the Iowa Internal Revenue Code to ensure Iowans qualify for a variety of state-level tax deductions and credits that are also available at the federal level (SF 126).
• Improving the collection of child support payments from other states and countries (SF 500).
• Adding transparency and accountability to pay and benefits for county elected officials (SF 167).
• Taking political influence out of the judicial process by requiring administrative law judges to be merit employees (SF 499).
• Maintaining open, transparent government with support for Iowa’s Public Information Board and Office (HF 659).
• Investing in technology that improves public access to government information (HF 650), including:
  • Searchable Online Budget & Tax Database
  • Electronic Grants Management System

Missed Opportunities

Good things approved in the Iowa Senate—many in a strong bipartisan way—but not taken up by the Republican-controlled House.

• Giving a pay increase to 181,000 working Iowans by raising the state’s minimum wage (SF 269).
• Deterring wage theft by making it clear that employers must pay their workers (SF 270).
• Protecting workers from unfair fees if they get paid by payroll debit cards and ensuring they have other options (SF 460).
• Giving Iowa businesses seeking to sell products and services to the state the chance to match competing out-of-state bids (SF 1).
• Ensuring Iowans can get to and from their jobs via public transit by establishing an Iowa Employment Rides Initiative (SF 234).
• Cracking down on distracted driving by banning texting while driving (SF 391).
• Keeping all students safe with adequate training for schools to investigate harassment and bullying, and to impose discipline (SF 345)
• Prohibiting the use of GPS to track a person without legitimate purpose or authorization (SF 416).
• Improving detection of breast cancer by notifying women in their mammogram results if they have dense breast tissue, may be at greater risk of developing breast cancer and should consult with a physician about additional screening options (SF 205).
• Forbidding felons from receiving life insurance proceeds if they commit a violent crime against an insured person within the six months prior to the death of that person (SF 178).
• Providing immunity from prosecution for possessing, sharing or using controlled substances or drug paraphernalia to assist those suffering from an opioid overdose (SF 410).
• Protecting minors from Conversion Therapy, in which licensed mental health providers attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation (SF 334).
• Reducing skin cancer by prohibiting minors from using commercial tanning facilities (SF 232).
• Reducing costly hospital readmissions by designating a caregiver that hospitals must communicate with and inform of aftercare needs (SF 465).
• Improving the core curriculum and 21st century learning skills by including fine arts and music (SF 431).
• Providing additional funding and time for students learning English to get up to speed in our schools (SF 472).
• Studying the best way to provide nursing home care for those who are sexually or physically violent (SF 386).
• Creating a disaster case management program that can be quickly implemented so that Iowans can access the support services they need to recover (SF 492).
• Requiring that a risk assessment be included in a pre-sentence investigation to ensure appropriate sentencing (SF 309).
• Allowing victims of sexual abuse to get a civil protective order to keep their abuser away from their home, school and work (SF 336).
• Including dating violence in the definition of criminal domestic abuse, which requires mandatory periods of confinement and batterer’s education upon conviction (SF 300).
• Cracking down on stalking (SF 395).
• Ensuring justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse by extending the statute of limitations (SF 447).
• Allowing Iowans to register to vote online (SF 331).
• Establishing procedures for a worker to be put on the do-not-hire list and requiring vacant positions in state agencies to be posted (SF 332).
• Helping Iowans participate in our Democratic process by requiring employers to give unpaid time off to those who wish to take part in our presidential precinct caucuses (SF 437).
• Ensuring Iowans with disabilities get the help they need to fill their gas tanks by providing a $500 tax credit to install a call button for assistance (SF 509).
• Giving adoptive parents time to bond with their new child by requiring businesses with maternity leave programs to give adoptive parents the same time off as birth parents (SF 375).