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Senate
Democrats Legislative Report
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Legislature will keep
commitments
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Governor vows
to continue progress for working Iowans
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Chief Justice
keeps focus on Iowa children
This week, I greeted
friends from both sides of the aisle as legislators returned to the
Statehouse ready to continue the work we started last year.
That means keeping the
bipartisan commitments we made in 2007 to parents, teachers, students,
entrepreneurs, and others. Working
together, we made those commitments because supporting and defending Iowa’s middle class
required us to make them.
Too often in the past
dozen years, the Legislature has failed to keep its promises. And when you
fail to keep your promises, people wonder if you will ever do what you say
you will do.
Some wonder if the
Legislature has enough money to keep our word. What are the facts? According
to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, the State of Iowa’s savings
accounts are full at $592 million. That’s a growth of more than $400 million
in the last four years. If the
Legislature can’t keep its word when we have a record amount of money in the
state’s rainy day accounts, when will we?
We are going to keep
our promises on education, health care and jobs, and
we’re going to continue last year’s efforts by putting together another
fiscally responsible budget and fully funding the state’s savings accounts.
The Legislature will
also take up some new issues this session.
Iowans are energized for change as never before and have presented us
with some great ideas. For example,
recommendations from a statewide health care commission offer us a bold,
comprehensive roadmap for improving our health care system; the Generation
Iowa Commission is giving voice to young Iowans who are eager to help move
our state forward; and a study committee has outlined the need for bipartisan
action to repair and maintain our roads and bridges.
We’re still in the
first days of the 2008 session, but I believe it will ultimately be
remembered as one in which we kept our commitments and stood up for middle
class families in a fiscally responsible way.
On January 15, I had
the privilege of attending Governor Culver’s Condition of the State
address. He outlined a bold agenda to
improve the quality of life for all Iowans by building on last year’s
successes.
During 2007, the
Legislature worked closely with the Governor to craft a sound budget,
including creating the Iowa Power Fund to enhance the state’s bioeconomy,
increasing investment in high-quality preschool, and taking steps that will
bring teacher pay up to the national average.
The Governor vowed this
week to continue progress on these important commitments in a fiscally
responsible way. He also made additional proposals for improving health
care, jobs and the environment in Iowa.
Governor Culver
proposed ideas for reducing the cost of health insurance, such as expanding
options for pooling so that associations and small businesses can qualify for
lower group rates; allowing families to maintain health care coverage on
children up to age 25; and implementing a wellness initiative to reduce the
state’s health care costs.
On the environment, the
Governor called for investing more in our natural resources, creating a new
initiative to address livestock odor, and requiring 25 percent of
Iowa-produced energy to come from renewable sources by 2025.
The Governor also
recommended investing more to grow our economy and make sure Iowa maintains a
highly skilled workforce ready to fill on the jobs of tomorrow.
I share many of
Governor Culver’s priorities and will work with my Democratic and Republican
colleagues to thoroughly review his proposals. I’ll work to keep the commitments we made
last year, while approving a fiscally responsible budget that is good for Iowa’s middle-class
families.
Marsha Ternus, the
first female chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, presented the State of
the Judiciary to the Legislature on January 16. Chief Justice Ternus focused on improving
the juvenile justice system, expanding drug courts, and making the court
system more user-friendly for everyone.
Last year, the
Legislature expanded mental health treatment for children and increased staff
for our state’s juvenile courts. The
new staffers have helped the courts to improve oversight of child welfare
cases, making life a little better for children in difficult circumstances.
In addition, more judges have been assigned to juvenile cases, and the Court
Appointed Special Advocates program (CASA) now operates in all 99 Iowa counties.
In spite of this
progress, Ternus said that “work on behalf of children in juvenile court has
just begun.” She hopes to build on
recent success by providing more personalized attention for young offenders. The goal is increase the chances they will
develop into productive adults, rather than spending much of their lives in Iowa’s correctional
system.
By expanding the use of
drug courts, Ternus seeks to give non-violent offenders a second chance at
avoiding prison. Drug courts have
already proven successful at reducing recidivism and improving the lives of
offenders and their families.
In order to provide
equal justice for all Iowans, Ternus outlined four areas for improvement in
the court system:
- Attracting more high-caliber, skilled staff;
- Continuing the move to a paperless system to
increase productivity;
- Increasing the use of forms to make it easier for
those who cannot afford an attorney to represent themselves in certain
types of cases;
- Expanding the use of foreign-language interpreters
to meet the needs of our state’s increasingly diverse population.
The Judicial Branch, in
collaboration with the Legislature and the Governor, is becoming more
efficient and helping vulnerable kids and non-violent offenders improve their
lives. These efforts are making our
state a safer place and improving the quality of life for all Iowans.
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