Another word for peeved

Maybe it was cathartic.  Members of the Legislative Oversight Commtitee convened late this afternoon to hear testimony from a lawyer and a CPA who’ve been trying to unravel the Iowa Association of School Board’s financial records.  A few legislators on the committee used the event to spout off about the situation. 

The CPA warned legislators the IASB is in danger of losing its tax-exempt status.  The lawyer said an FBI agent had contacted his law firm about the case, although there is no confirmation that a federal investigation is underway.   Read details of today’s event here.  In that story you’ll read about the word Senator Rich Olive used during the meeting.  It means peeved and it rhymes with missed.  Senator Tom Courtney vented a bit, too, going so far as to suggest the Iowa Association of School Boards executive director who’s been placed on paid administrative leave should quit getting her pay.  Courtney referred to her as a “common criminal.”  He also suggested he was waiting for the ghost of Archie Brooks to appear in the room, a reference to the CIETC scandal that sort of played out in the same legislative hearing room, before the same committee a few years ago.

King thumbs “macabre” in Tweet

Congressman Steve King (R-Kiron, Iowa) posted on Twitter on Fat Tuesday, then went silent for a few weeks.  King’s back tweeting this week.  He posted a tweet late last night about the health care debate and he used the word “macabre” as the punctuating word at the end: 

Obamacare: Senate can’t now pass Senate bill, but House must pass Senate bill, Senate must pass fix so House can pass Senate fix- macabre.

Here are the definitions of macabre (which King did spell correctly, by the way): 

1. having death as a subject. 2. dwelling on the gruesome. 3. tending to produce horror in the beholder.

Culver demanding money that’s already on the way?

Read details here.  Governor Chet Culver today (again) called on legislators to provide $347 million more to Iowa’s K-through-12 schools for the academic year that starts in the fall.  On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) had indicated legislators would provide the governor’s requested two percent increase in general state aid to schools, along with the $100 million of additional money the governor wants to forward to schools to fill budget holes.  Gronstal, on “Iowa Press” on IPTV, suggested legislators would give schools a “little bit” more than that $100 million.

Gronstal’s comments on Friday and Culver’s this morning seem to address the growing chorus of complaints from the education “community” over a lack of funding.  Grontal suggested some of the complaints were “pretty unrealistic” when complainers suggested legislators might provide schools less than what Culver called for in January.  Culver today told reporters he was talking about the issue because he wanted to let people know he’s hearing their concerns “loudly and clearly.”

Unanswered questions answered

Last week I posed two questions to Culver administration officials and the answers came in after the stories I’d filed on the topic — several hours in one instance; a day later in the other.

First question, from last Tuesday, after the governor again commented on the “texting while driving” issue:  just how much federal money does the State of Iowa stand to lose if the legislature & governor do not enact a new law banning texting while driving?

Erin Seidler, the governor’s communication director answered that question a few hours later:  The federal sanctions in the highway bill have not passed yet. There is support in Congress, and if a 25% sanction passes, Iowa could lose $75 million.

Second question, posed last Monday morning to Department of Human Services spokesman Roger Munns, seeking comment on an audit which found the department does not have a system to check for errors or fraud in applications from Iowans seeking Medicare coverage.  Here’s last Monday’s Radio Iowa story on the audit.  Below you may read the agency’s response, which came on Tuesday afternoon.

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Branstad touts his legislative backers

Earlier this week Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts announced he’s been endorsed by nine current or former state legislators.  Roberts, who is from Carroll, is currently serving his 10th year in the Iowa House of Representatives.

This afternoon, former Governor Terry Branstad’s 2010 campaign announced Branstad now has the backing of twice as many legislators as Roberts has.  Branstad served 16  years as Iowa governor, from January of 1983 through January of 1999 (the reference below to 1991-1999 is to the legislator’s time of service which coincided with Branstad’s tenure as governor). Read the Branstad news release below.

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Gronstal blasts IASB, says legislators will use subpoenas to get answers

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) says the recent disclosure of questionable spending at the Iowa Association of School Boards is akin to the financial scandal involving a central Iowa job training agency — a scandal which led to the conviction of several agency executives and a former Des Moines city councilman who was on the board that oversaw the agency.

Read some of Gronstal’s comments on the IASB situation.  (That Radio Iowa story was posted at 12:10 p.m.; it will be updated with additional information as soon as possible.)  As of 1 p.m., the story has been updated and includes the tidbit that during a six-minute discussion about the IASB, Gronstal used the word “outraged” or “outrageous” five times.   He also used the word “unbelievable” once.  The questions about the IASB were at the start of the Q&A on Iowa Press.   Here’s the show’s home page.  The video from today’s show may be posted soon.  The video from today’s show is posted online.

UPDATE at 4:47 p.m.:  IASB spokeswoman Megan Forgrave emails a response:  “The Iowa Association of School Boards has been looking into financial matters here, and hired an external financial firm to help do that. We are happy to respond to the Legislative Oversight Committee. IASB has over 60 years of history serving school districts. We have worked to keep dues low, so that a minimal amount of tax dollars are used for operational costs – they are about a third of our revenues. Our business services are competitive with others and many of them in fact help stretch tax dollars. The Safety Group Insurance Program, for example, will pay Senator Gronstal’s Council Bluffs school district a dividend of $33,196 this spring and they paid dues this year of $10,366. We are committed to resolving this issue and moving on.”

IASB exec placed on leave

The Iowa Association of School Boards is under scrutiny. Its leaders are to appear at a Legislative Oversight Committee “hearing” on Monday afternoon.  Tonight the association issued a news release with some late-breaking information about the group’s executive director and since she’s been placed on administrative leave, she may not be appearing at Monday’s hearing.  Read the IASB news release below.

Des Moines, IA (March 11, 2010) – The Iowa Association of School Boards’ Board of Directors took several actions Wednesday and Thursday during a meeting in Des Moines to continue evaluation of the organization’s finances and to address allegations of wrongdoing that have surfaced in whistleblower complaints.

In addition, they voted to hold member dues at their current rate or lower them if possible, in order to help districts deal with the 10 percent across-the-board cut announced last fall; the Board also emphasized that many of IASB’s programs that help stretch tax dollars continue to be strong and secure.

The board:
• Retained Brick Gentry P.C. as outside legal counsel to investigate all whistleblower complaints and other allegations.
• Placed IASB executive director Maxine Kilcrease on administrative leave, until an investigation into all allegations is complete.
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The numbers are in and…

Revenue Estimating Conference members, from left to right, David Underwood, Richard Oshlo and Holly Lyons

The three-member State Revenue Estimating Council met early this afternoon. Their estimate of state tax collections in fiscal year 2010 was reduced by about $900,000.   (Fiscal year 2010 began July 1, 2009 and concludes June 30, 2010.)  Their estimate of state tax collections in fiscal year 2011 increased by over $30 million.  (For you insiders, it’s up $33.1 million from the December, 2009 estimate.)  Here’s a pdf if you like to read lots of numbers.

“I hope we’re wrong, but we wanted to err on the conservative side,” Legislative Services Agency director Holly Lyons said to conclude the meeting.

These estimates are used by lawmakers to build the state budget plan.  UPDATE: Lawmakers and the governor have issued statements.  Read them below, in the order they were received by yours truly.

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Changes in state tax credits

Democrats in the legislature plan to make some changes in state tax credits.  Details here in Radio Iowa story.

There will be no change, however, in what had been among the most controversial proposals:  imposing new restrictions on the state tax credit companies like Rockwell Collins, Pioneer and John Deere claim for “research activities.”  Democrats are proposing changes in what’s known as the “supplemental research activities credit” but those credits are awarded by the Department of Economic Development to research-oriented companies that promise to create new jobs.  Democrats didn’t have the votes to significantly change the research activities credit that is part of the tax code, despite the desire on the part of some Democrats to end the practice of the state cutting checks to some of the companies that claim the research activities credit.  If you’ve not been following this debate closely, companies sometimes have a research activities credit that is worth more than the amount of overall taxes they owe the state.  Therefore, the Iowa Department of Revenue writes a check to the company equal to total taxes owed minus the companies research activities credit.  That last part would look cooler and perhaps be more understandable if I was writing on a chalkboard and wrote:

State tax liability – research activities credit = check for our biz

Democrats do propose a new ”cap” on Department of Economic Development tax credits, lowering that cap from $185 million to $120 million.  Senator Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City), the chairman of the Senate Ways & Means (tax policy) Committee, put it this way in a news conference earlier today:  “I think we felt that everybody needs to share in the pain of this downturn, not just teachers and not just health care providers and prison workers and state employees but that this part of spending, which is kind of over here and out of our site, needs to step up.”

Iowa Public Information Board

The Iowa Senate has passsed HF777, a bill that creates an Iowa Public Information Board to help Iowans pursue complaints about access to public records or government meetings, without having to hire an attorney.  Senate Majority Leader  Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs says legislators have tried to “find a way to create a body to help ordinary citizens gain access public records.”

The bill passed on a 35 to 13 vote.  Senator Matt McCoy (D-Des Moines) sat at his desk in the senate, but did not vote for or againt the legislation.  A few moments ago, he described that as a sort of “protest.” 

“I am so torn because my local government officials tell me it is almost impossible to live under the law and not break the law innocently,” McCoy said.  McCoy also suggested the legislature hasn’t done enough to ensure its own operations are conducted in public and not behind closed doors.  He cited the increased frequency of what are called “caucuses.”  Caucuses are meetings in which members of one political party stop the action of a public meeting (or public debate) and go into a private meeting.

The next stop for HF777 is the Iowa House which must consider changes senators made in the legislation.