2022 Iowa Legislative Session - Week 6 Summary

The first funnel week has come and gone, with a total of 118 subcommittees held in just four days: 41 in the Senate and 77 in the House. The focus will now shift to floor debate as only a handful of bills have reached the full chamber for consideration.  The next major funnel requires a bill be voted out of the first Chamber and move through subcommittee and committee in the next chamber by March 18.   

Governor Reynolds signed the first bill of the 2022 legislative session into law on Thursday. After the House passed the Supplemental State Aid package (House File 2316) on February 10th by a 57-39 vote, the Senate passed the measure last Monday with a 31-17 vote. Public K-12 schools will see a 2.5 percent increase for the next fiscal year which represents approximately $172 million in new funding.

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans released their SFY 2023 budget target: $8.202 billion. Nearly $160 million, or 57%, of the increased budget is for K-12 education and $71.2 million is for mental health and disability services. Under this spending proposal, the projected ending balance is $914 million, with $900 in reserves, and $2 billion in the Taxpayer Relief Fund for the Senate’s ambitious tax proposal. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver (R-Ankeny) said that the budget “sets the stage for the implementation of generational tax relief.” 

House Republicans released their FY 2023 budget target of nearly $8.274 billion Friday. This is an overall increase of $148.9 million in comparison to the current spending level of $8.1249 billion. “Once again, we are delivering on the promises we have made to Iowans,” said House Speaker Pat Grassley (R-New Hartford). “This plan follows the same responsible budgeting principles Iowans have come to expect from House Republicans, while returning the overcollection of Iowans’ money back to the taxpayer.”

The House was the first chamber to pass their tax proposal. On Wednesday, the House passed its tax reform package with bipartisan support. This proposal (HF2317) would gradually phase in a 4% flat income tax rate over four years and would provide $1.7 billion in tax relief once fully implemented. The measure would also exempt retirement income from income taxes, but it does not include any corporate tax rate changes. The proposal now turns to the Senate where Sen. Whitver indicated the two legislative chambers are getting closer on a final package and may agree on about 75% of what should be included.

In election-related news, bills addressing Iowa voting matters cleared State Government Committees in both chambers this week. House Study Bill 719 and Senate Study Bill 3143 would establish uniform recount procedures, add an identification requirement for absentee ballots, and ban private donations aimed to help run local elections. 

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks ultimately defeated Rita Hart by six votes in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District in 2020 after a series of recounts. Initial precinct recounts were requested, but raised confusion as some counties conducted recounts via voting machines and other counties by hand. To address this inconsistency, this legislation would require challenging candidates to choose whether they want a machine recount only or a machine recount plus a subsequent hand recount. Further under this legislation, a challenging candidate could no longer request precincts recounts. Any recount request would require a full county recount. “If you want to request a recount in several precincts, you’ve got to request it in the whole county,” Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton). “You can’t have Republicans and Democrats cherry-picking where they think they can pick up extra votes.”

Further, the legislation would require early voters to sign and write their voter ID number or driver’s license number on the outside of the affidavit envelope. Rep. Mary Wolfe (D-Clinton), who served on the HSB 719 subcommittee, stressed the importance of having instructions clearly explained and prominently noted. “In order to avoid people completely, inadvertently not seeing that,” she said, “not realizing what it is, sending their absentee ballot back in and having their ballot not count.”

Additionally, the bills would prohibit the Iowa Secretary of State or any of Iowa’s 99 county auditors from accepting any private money for the purposes of conducting elections and allow Iowa political parties to post precinct caucus information on the party’s website instead of current practice of newspaper notice.

In The Know

In the aftermath of redistricting, the November 8, 2022 election promises to result in a huge turnover at the Iowa Legislature.  Every day there are announcements and rumors of who is running and who isn’t. In fact, two House Democrats announced their retirements from the Iowa House this week. Reps. Chris Hall (Sioux City) and Kirsten Running-Marquardt (Cedar Rapids) are prominent members of the House Democratic caucus who have served since 2011 and 2009 respectively. Hall said he looks forward to the next chapter of his life and he hopes to keep near public services in the coming years. Hall served as the Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee from 2015-2021 and currently serves on the Appropriations, Commerce, Information Technology, and Natural Resources Committees. Running-Marquardt announced her plans to run for the District 1 seat of the Linn County Board of Supervisors. District 1 democratic incumbent Stacey Walker announced on October 20th that he would not seek re-election. Running-Marquardt currently serves as the Ranking Member of the Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee as well as the Appropriations, Economic Growth, Labor, and Transportation Committees.

Overall, at least 28 of 100 House members have announced either a run for higher office or that they wouldn’t seek re-election in the November 2022 elections. We expect those numbers to increase.  In the Senate, 11 of the 50 members so far have announced they wouldn’t be seeking reelection.  

Those numbers may increase as Iowa candidates have until March 18th to submit Nominating Petition papers with the Secretary of State. A candidate running for the House must have 50 signatures and a candidate running for the Senate must have 100 signatures of persons who reside in the District. Due to changes in district boundaries some legislators may choose to move to a different district. A House and Senate candidate can do so, but must reside within the district a minimum of 60 days before the general election.  

In other election-related news, the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB) voted unanimously Thursday to allow candidates to accept cryptocurrency as in-kind contributions. The IECDB’s advisory opinion outline’s reporting requirements. The Federal Election Commission first approved political cryptocurrency contributions eight years ago and now allows federal candidates to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to help finance their campaigns. 

BrownWinick Government Relations:

To view additional summaries from the 2022 Iowa Legislative session or to learn more about BrownWinick’s Government Relations Team, visit our Lobbying and Public Policy team page.