Government Relations

Legislative Update

May 5, 2006

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In this issue:

STATE UPDATE

Taxpayer Protection Amendment Dead

Efforts to use the constitution to establish revenue and spending policy are over for this session. Regent President Walsh gave strong testimony for the second time before the Senate committee on the Taxpayer Protection Amendment (SJR 63/AJR 77) on Monday, May 1. The Senate took action May 4 to defeat SJR 63 a constitutional amendment to limit the growth of state and local revenues to the consumer price index plus population growth by a vote of 21-11. All Democrats and Republican Senators Brown, Cowles, Ellis, Harsdorf, Kapanke, Lasee, Olsen, and Roessler voted against the bill. The Assembly defeated a similar bill last week and then passed its own version (50-48) limiting state revenues only to 90 percent of the growth in personal income. The Senate referred the Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR 77) back to committee after defeating a key amendment.

Legislative Action: Sales Tax, Law Revision, Sexual Assault, Veterans Tuition, College re-enrollment for Persons called to Active Duty

Final action was taken to pass several other bills in the last hours of the Spring session and they are now awaiting the Governor’s signature. These include:

No action was taken on AB 1084, an income tax credit for sales tax paid for the right to purchase season admission to athletic events sponsored by an institution of higher education.

Colleges and Universities Committee

Rep. Kreibich invited testimony this week from Exec. Sr. Vice President Don Mash and General Counsel Pat Brady to update the legislature on implementation of the UW System Appointments, Payroll, and Benefits System (APBS), progress on improving disciplinary processes, the status of the SEG fee audit and the UW-Waukesha, UW-Milwaukee merger study. The committee also took testimony on the bill (AB 1147) to allow the UW System to dismiss, or not to hire an unpardoned felon for any reason. No action was taken on the bill. Legislators are at a loss as to how $26 million could have been spent on a new IT system without anything to show for it. They asked for further information about what if anything can be salvaged of the earlier work and the benefits that are expected to accrue to the taxpayer from the new system. Rep. Jeskewitz, co-chair of the legislature’s Joint Audit Committee, and member of the Colleges and Universities Committee, reminded members that an audit of the university APBS project, and a number of other troubled state IT projects, is underway. Exec. VP Mash reported that the university is reassessing its options and is working with DOA to determine if a parallel implementation of a People-Soft/Oracle product would be an option. Rep. Kreibich indicated that there would be further updates requested on this and back-up position hiring policies.

The legislature is now out of session until January unless a special session is called, except to take up Gubernatorial vetoes at the end of the month. The Legislative Council and standing committees will still hold informational hearings in the interim.

Iowa Democratic Candidate for Governor Proposes Increased funding for Higher Education

Chet Culver, one of four Iowa democrats seeking the party’s nomination for governor has proposed a $65.5 million plan that would increase state support for higher education. See news story with details of his plan at: http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060502/NEWS09/605020381/1056

FEDERAL UPDATE

No Federal Update this week.

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