Tag Archive | "Iowa"

IA GOP push for cuts in pork projects, but not all follow suit

March 27, 2012

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By Lynn Campbell  |  IowaPolitics.com

DES MOINES — Iowa House Republicans are taking a stand against pork-barrel projects, despite some of their own members joining Senate Democrats in wanting to carve out state money for a project back home.

State Rep. Dan Huseman, R-Aurelia, on Tuesday told IowaPolitics.com that he has had the tough job this year of turning down fellow House Republicans who have made requests for earmarks.

“I can think of six of them right at the top of my head that I’ve told, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’” Huseman said.

Among them is state Rep. Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna, who has advocated for spending $5 million for reconstruction of the Lake Delhi dam, which flooded and failed in July 2010.

The Iowa House is scheduled Wednesday to debate Senate File 2316, the $190.2 million Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund that uses state gambling tax receipts to pay for construction, repair and maintenance of state building projects.

Republicans, who hold a 60-40 majority in the Iowa House, have stripped $7.3 million in earmarks from the Senate’s version of the bill, approved March 19 on a 26-24 vote.

“At a time when government at all levels … is looking for efficiencies, we must resist any attempts to handout earmarks to any special projects,” said state Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls. “Cedar Valley voters have continuously told me to rein in government spending and protect their tax dollars.”

Watch them fall.

The Iowa Great Lakes area, for example, would not get $200,000 originally promised by the Iowa Senate for an electric fish barrier to prevent Japanese carp from swimming around two dams and creating a hazard for people boating or fishing.

The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority would not get $2 million to develop rapid-transit bus service.

Lake Delhi wouldn’t get its $5 million for dam reconstruction, and the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum in the Grout Museum District in Waterloo would not get $150,000 for an interactive oral history collection and exhibit about the deployment of Iowa National Guard and reserve units to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Once you start doing carve-outs or earmarks, or whatever you want to call them, some call them ‘pork,’ where does it stop?” Huseman asked. “We need to be pretty careful with those dollars that we do have and make sure we’re taking care of things that we need to take care of … instead of spending that money on new earmarks.”

Huseman is co-chairman of the Legislature’s infrastructure appropriations subcommittee. He said some lawmakers used to call him “porky,” a not-so-subtle reference to a tradition of carving out pork projects in the infrastructure budget.

The teasing has abated, he said.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, rejected criticism of the earmarks included in the Senate version of this year’s infrastructure budget bill. He asserted that House Republicans likely included their own pork in the bill. GOP lawmakers say that’s not the case.

“One person’s pork is somebody else’s valuable resource to their community,” Dvorsky said. “If you consider regents university buildings pork, then sure, there’s lots of it in there. I really don’t like the way that the press has portrayed all that. A lot of them are really useful infrastructure they need for the state.”

The issue of spending $150,000 for the Grout Museum District is expected to re-surface Wednesday. State Sen. Bob Kressig, D-Cedar Falls, has offered an amendment to re-insert the money into the bill.

But House Republicans plan to resist the move.

Rogers said even though the project is in his home district in northeast Iowa, voters sent him to the Legislature to be fiscally responsible. He said if the Iowa House starts accepting earmarks,100 state representatives will want something for their own districts.

“Grout Museum is something that I really believe in. It’s a great museum,” Rogers said. “But a lot of people that voted for me talked about our government getting too big, and earmarks being one of those problems.”

Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, vigorously defended giving money to the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum, which, he said, is an important part of recording the state’s history.

“Pork tends to be something specific for your district, but this is something for the whole state,” he said.

Dotzler said he thinks the same about the Lake Delhi dam reconstruction, even though it’s not in his area.

“That’s so important to their local economy, but I’m not from there, so I could say, ‘Well, wow, that was some pork for them,’” Dotzler said. “But in reality, that’s important to that district and that area and that community and the people that live there …I think what’s good for one community is good for all of Iowa.”

The 2012 legislative session is tentatively scheduled to end April 17, the 100th calendar day of session when lawmakers’ per diem, or daily expense allowance of $100.50 a day for lawmakers from Polk County and $134 a day for all other lawmakers, runs out.

The infrastructure budget is one of several that is expected to be heading to a conference committee to resolve differences between the chambers, as state lawmakers finish their work for the year.

See LSA analysis on Senate version of SF 2316:
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/NOBA/84_SF2316_SF.pdf

Listen to Huseman interview:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Dan_Huseman_on_pork.mp3

Listen to Rogers interview:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Walt_Rogers_on_Infrastructure.mp3

Listen to Dvorsky interview:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Dvorsky_on_pork__per_diem.mp3

Listen to Dotzler interview:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Bill_Dotzler_on_pork__Grout.mp3

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Compromise struck on bill targeting IA small-city fraud

March 26, 2012

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By Lynn Campbell  |  IowaPolitics.com

DES MOINES — In the decade that Denise Miller worked for him as city clerk, Dexter Mayor Jerry Stiles said he “never suspected a thing.”

But a state audit shows that in the 600-resident city west of the Des Moines metro area, $131,392 of improper and unsupported spending of taxpayer dollars happened under Miller’s watch.

Stiles was mayor at the time, from January 2000 until Miller died in July 2010.

“You see it happen about every other week, somebody doing something along that line,” Stiles told IowaPolitics.com. “Greed, I guess. I guess they thought they could get away with it.”

Cases of fraud in Iowa cities with populations of fewer than 700 has exploded by 357 percent — from seven cases in 2000-05, to 32 cases in 2006-11, according to the state auditor’s office.

The Iowa House Government Oversight Committee on Monday voted unanimously for a compromise version of House Study Bill 663, which aims to clamp down on such misspending of taxpayer dollars in Iowa’s smallest cities through increased audits and oversight. The Senate half of the committee is expected to follow suit.

“Fraud obviously affects everybody. If you’re in a small town, there’s a lot of knowledge about the individuals that are there, there’s a lot of trust,” said Chief Deputy State Auditor Warren Jenkins. “This is really just a way to help establish and maintain the trust and keep people’s faith in government.”

Under the legislation, 570 of Iowa’s smallest cities that aren’t now required to be audited would begin paying a sliding-scale fee of up to $1,200 a year into a state pool, depending on the size of the city’s budget. In return, the cities’ finances would be subject to a surprise exam by a local accounting firm about once every five years.

State Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, a lawyer, said the legislation aims to prevent fraud before it occurs. He said the kind of fraud and embezzlement that’s been happening across Iowa has been devastating to small-city budgets.

“The idea is if a city and the city employees know that there’s going to be a periodic examination by an outside entity, whether it’s the state auditor or whether it’s a CPA firm, that they will be less inclined to try to embezzle funds,” said Baltimore, the bill’s floor manager.

Under the compromise reached between state and city officials:

  • Small cities paying into the new pool of funds will be assured that they’ll at least get an exam once every eight years.
  • Collection of money won’t start for another year, until the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2013, to give small cities a chance to budget the money for the new exams.
  • The state auditor’s office will collect a maximum of $375,000, and any extra money will be used to train city officials on proper financial management.

Some city officials were initially concerned about what they’d be getting for the money they’ll be required to pay to the state. But Jessica Harder, a lawyer and a lobbyist with the Iowa League of Cities, which represents the state’s 947 cities, said cities are much happier with the amended bill.

“The only way to actually prevent a fraud is from doing things on the front end, making sure you have the proper internal controls in place,” Harder said. “You can catch things on the back end with an audit. But we’d prefer to really focus on that training part, too, and make sure that people understand how to stop it from happening.”

Miller’s case didn’t have the juicy details that some other cases did. Previous state audits had records showing that city clerks in small-town Iowa have used taxpayer money to buy whiskey and beer, laptop computers, gas grills, pumpkin pies, cat litter and even self-improvement books.

Instead, Miller’s case involved $70,662 in checks improperly issued to her, $45,364 of penalties and interest related to payroll taxes, $6,970 of interest for an unauthorized loan that Miller established in the city’s name, and eight checks totaling $4,368 paid to Miller’s husband, Mike Miller, according to the state audit.

Copies of audit have been filed with state and county criminal investigators. Because of Miller’s death, officials with the auditor’s office say the city of Dexter will likely never recover the money that was misspent.

Stiles said he didn’t know how much money was missing from the city of Dexter until the audit was released Friday. He said he doesn’t blame himself for what happened, but agrees with lawmakers’ solution.

“More oversight is what was needed,” he said.

The audit of Dexter called for the city to improve its internal controls, including having all spending be approved by the city council before payment.

Several city clerks in small-town Iowa have told IowaPolitics.com that they embrace the legislation and want to do what’s right. They said clerks committing fraud are making the rest of them in Iowa’s 947 cities look bad.

“The vast majority do a very diligent job, a very excellent job,” Jenkins said. “This is to help the reputation of those who do do a good job and not let the few bad apples spoil the reputation of all.”

As for Stiles, he has been out of office for three months now. Write-in candidate to Jerry Smith defeated him in the November city election, 70 to 56, according to the Dallas County auditor’s office.

See HSB 663:
http://tinyurl.com/7rs2ykt

See data on fraud in Iowa’s cities, fiscal years 2006-2011:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Fraud_city_data____06_to_11.pdf

See details of the audits of Iowa’s cities:
http://auditor.iowa.gov/specials/index.html

See the audit of Dexter:
http://auditor.iowa.gov/specials/1022-0233-BE00.pdf

See previous IowaPolitics.com coverage of this issue:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=262756
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=263491

Governors, News, State Budgets, State Government, State House, Top State News 0 Comments

New IA tax-relief fund could open door to possible misuse

March 23, 2012

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By Lynn Campbell  |  IowaPolitics.com

DES MOINES — Uncertainty surrounding a newly created $60 million tax-relief fund and few safeguards on how the state taxpayer dollars will be used opens up the potential for misuse, state lawmakers say.

House Ways and Means Chairman Tom Sands, R-Wapello, told IowaPolitics.com on Friday that among 100 Iowa House members, 50 Iowa Senate members and the governor, there are probably 151 different ideas on how to use the $60 million that will go into the Taxpayers Trust Fund this year.

“Whenever you try to put something in any type of ‘lockbox,’ you have to remember, there’s 151 keys,” Sands said. “So there’s always potential for abuse, but that certainly isn’t our intent for this. And I think by labeling it ‘Taxpayers Trust Fund,’ that is it to be used for the taxpayer, not be spent on their behalf, but returned to them in one way or the other.”
Money will be deposited in the new Taxpayers Trust Fund for the first time this fall, after the books close on fiscal 2012, which ends June 30. The fund, created last year by lawmakers, captures money from unexpected revenue growth after the state’s cash reserves and economic emergency funds, also known as “rainy-day funds,” are full. 
Previous estimates showed the tax-relief fund would receive $46.2 million this year.
But the three-member Revenue Estimating Conference, which makes the state’s official revenue estimates, on Friday increased state revenue projections by $50.9 million in fiscal 2012 and $29 million in fiscal 2013. The uptick came because of a strengthening economy that has translated into more money for the state, from sources including the personal income tax, sales tax and corporate income tax.
That means the Taxpayers Trust Fund will get the full $60 million allowed under state law. State government also will have an extra $37.1 million to roll into next year’s budget. The state has a budget of about $6 billion and does not have a deficit. The excess money traditionally would have been considered a surplus at the end of the fiscal year, and would have been available for spending the next year.
“By law, the increase in revenue projected today will not be used to increase spending,” House Appropriations Chairman Scott Raecker, R-Urbandale, said Friday. “In fact, this projected increase should be returned to the taxpayers of Iowa in the form of tax relief.”
But no one yet knows how the money will be used.
So far, no one at the Capitol is talking about cutting a check to Iowa taxpayers, as the federal government has done. Talk instead has included using the money for everything from income-tax relief, to commercial property-tax relief, to an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit, to education or mental-health reform.
“Whatever that money ends up getting used for, it has to be for the taxpayers. Period,” Sands said. “My No. 1 priority is it’s got to go back to the taxpayers of Iowa, because it’s their overpayment that put the excess money in.”
Some Capitol analysts interpret the law as meaning that the tax-relief fund cannot be spent on education. But the 2011 state law provides few safeguards on how “tax relief” should be defined. Iowa Code Section 8.57E only says, “Moneys in the taxpayers trust fund shall only be used pursuant to appropriations made by the general assembly for tax relief.”
Dave Roederer, director of the Iowa Department of Management, said the purpose of the fund is loosely defined. For example, funding for education is a combination of state taxpayer dollars and local property-tax dollars. The more the state chips in, the less property owners have to pay.
The same is true for services to Iowans who are mentally ill or developmentally disabled. If the state pays a greater share $1.3 billion mental health system, that could translate into $125.8 million in property-tax relief for county taxpayers.
“It’s never really been defined, I guess, all that clearly as to how that would all work through,” Roederer said. “Tax relief is school aid. I mean, that’s the biggest tax-relief thing. So that’s tax relief.”
Asked whether the loose definition of the fund sets it up for potential misuse, Roederer said: “It’s not going to be that big of an issue. It’s such a small part of the overall budget.”
The $60 million that will flow into the Taxpayers Trust Fund represents about 1 percent of the state’s $6 billion budget.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, on Friday told IowaPolitics.com that the money should be used to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit, a state income tax break for working families earning $45,000 a year or less.
“All the special interest groups have lobbyists. There’s a long line of them waiting for their tax cuts,” Bolkcom said. “The people that are going to get the Earned Income Tax cut, they don’t have a lobbyist. They’re out working two or three jobs to put food on the table. If we’re going to use this Taxpayers Trust Fund to give tax relief, it ought to start with the people working the hardest to make ends meet.”
Gov. Terry Branstad twice vetoed bills last year that would have increased the Earned Income Tax Credit from 7 percent of the federal credit, to 10 percent.
In February, the Iowa Senate unanimously approved Senate File 2161, which would increase the tax credit incrementally to 20 percent by 2014. The proposal would cost $54 million when fully implemented. Bolkcom has said increasing the tax credit will help more than 250,000 working adults and their 266,000 children.
State law does not require that the money in the tax-relief fund be used right away. That means that if there is no agreement among the Iowa House, Senate and governor on the use of the money, it will remain in the trust fund until there is agreement.
But Republicans point out that if the fund had not been created last year, the money would have rolled into next year’s budget and could have been used for spending, rather than tax relief.
“There isn’t really a danger leaving it there because as long as it’s for the taxpayers, it could accumulate to something bigger next year, as well,” Sands said.
If revenue growth continues to be strong, the fund could be filled with another $60 million next year, after the books close on fiscal 2013. But there’s no guarantee that will happen. That leads some taxpayer advocates to be concerned.
“We would hate to see that money get used for an ongoing program,” said Nicole Crain, president of the Iowa Taxpayers Association, a business-sponsored tax policy organization. ”There is no guarantee the fund will be replenished in future years, leaving taxpayers to pick up the increased cost of any new program.”
Read more about the Taxpayers Trust Fund:
http://tinyurl.com/7mk37ql

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Many lack IA mental-health services; reforms debated

March 22, 2012

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By Lynn Campbell  |  IowaPolitics.com

DES MOINES — Lawmakers are struggling with how to transform Iowa’s 99-county system for providing mental health services into a more uniform, statewide network.

In the meantime, the underfunded system leaves thousands waiting for services.

“Those are the people probably suffering the most right now,” said Margaret Stout, who for 25 years was executive director of Iowa’s chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness, a nonprofit that provides mental health education, advocacy and support.

An example of that suffering came about a year ago.

Jeffrey Alan Krier, 53, of rural Sigourney, in April 2011 fatally shot Keokuk County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Stein. Krier, who battled bipolar disorder for three decades, was then shot and killed by members of the Iowa State Patrol Tactical Unit after a three-hour standoff.

“I’m deeply concerned about situations such as the one that occurred in Sigourney,” Stout said. “There was a gentleman that needed to access care very quickly, and that certainly didn’t happen. Reading the outcome of that, there were serious holes within the treatment system.”

Iowa’s adult mental health system provided services to 52,059 people last fiscal year, according to the Iowa State Association of Counties, which represents officials in the state’s 99 counties.

Underfunding leaves thousands more without much needed services. The system has an anticipated $51.4 million shortfall in fiscal 2013, according to the state’s Legislative Services Agency.

When lawmakers began tackling the issue last year, they focused on eliminating the list of Iowans waiting for mental health services. They provided a one-time appropriation of $20 million.

But the money wasn’t enough. Eleven Iowa counties still have waiting lists, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services. Those lists include about 4,000 people, said Teresa Bomhoff, vice president of NAMI Greater Des Moines.

“The longer an illness goes on, the more trouble a person can get into,” said Stout, who said she once suffered from a bout of depression. “I know that good treatment works. It’s just that access to good treatment has not happened for everybody.”

Federal stimulus money exacerbated the problem. Counties used $40 million of this money for mental health services, but that money is gone.

State money to address shortfalls in the system is expected to be in the human services budget, which the Legislature has yet to address.

House plan would have state pay for county’s share 

Meanwhile, a plan advanced Thursday by House Republicans aims to create statewide equity in the $1.3 billion mental health system, and provide $125.8 million in property tax relief. This would happen by leaving the entire bill up to the state and federal government.

A House version of Senate File 2315 would, on July 1, 2013, end a county mental health levy — which ranges from 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in Plymouth County, to $97 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in Audubon County — and replace it with money from the state’s general fund over five years. The bill would amount to $145.8 million after inflation.

“We don’t truly believe that property taxes are the best way to pay for this,” said state Rep. Renee Schulte, R-Cedar Rapids, the bill’s House floor manager. “Your general fund — consisting of income taxes, sales taxes and all that — is just a more fair and equitable way to levy funds for this particular service.”

But Bomhoff said having the state buyout the county’s share in the mental health delivery system “makes people really, really nervous, based on past performance.”

State lawmakers shorted Iowa counties about $7 million for mental health services last year — $81 million instead of $88 million — leaving county taxpayers to pay higher property-tax levies.

“Counties have dealt with the Legislature making promises that they haven’t fulfilled in the past,” said Linda Hinton, government relations manager for the Iowa State Association of Counties.

Hatch: House plan has ‘no support’ in Senate 

Even as Schulte, via a 19-6 vote, moved that plan through a House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, state Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, said the plan has “absolutely no support” in the Democratic-led Senate.

“We are gaining nowhere in funding mental health. We’re just replacing state dollars for county dollars,” Hatch said of the House plan. “Mental health has always been underfunded. So why would we continue to underfund it … while we are trying to redesign the system?”

Hatch said in addition to the $125.8 million paid by counties, an additional $150 million will be needed to pay for mental health services in the next five years. He said the state should focus its resources on that growth, rather than replacing county dollars with state dollars.

State Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, said if the state doesn’t live up to its promise to fund the mental-health service system, it would still lead to an increase in property taxes at the local level.

Schulte said no one wants property taxes to grow.

“The state will be much more motivated to prioritize this funding, knowing that it’s going to be a property tax increase if they don’t,” she said.

Stout said the success of mental-health reform will be judged on whether the money is there for needed services.

“Any changes that may come forward may be a step in the right direction, but if the money isn’t there, we’re still in the same boat,” Stout said. “The system really would not have changed unless the dollar follows. That’s the main concern.”

See SF 2315:
http://tinyurl.com/846srr6

Listen to interview with Schulte:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Renee_Schulte_IV.mp3

Listen to interview with Hatch:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Jack_Hatch.mp3

Listen to exchange between Schulte and Heaton:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/Renee_Schulte__Dave_Heaton.mp3

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Gov., Legislature exempt from new IA Public Info Board

March 21, 2012

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By Lynn Campbell  |  IowaPolitics.com

DES MOINES — State lawmakers are exempt from Iowa’s open-meetings and public-records law, which is intended to promote transparency and guarantee that residents have access to their government.

Now, lawmakers would also be exempt from the authority of a new state board intended to add teeth to the state’s open-meetings law.

“We’re telling other people to have open meetings, but we don’t have to do this ourselves,” said state Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville.
Iowa’s law requiring government entities to have open meetings, and to make their records available to the public, applies to the state’s executive branch and local governments. The Legislature is exempt because it is a separate and co-equal branch of government, said Scott Sundstrom, an attorney who’s a lobbyist for the Iowa Newspaper Association, a group of more than 300 daily and weekly newspapers.
“There is a constitutional provision that the Legislature is to promulgate its own rules for how it conducts itself. And the Iowa Supreme Court said based on that, the Legislature isn’t subject to these laws,” Sundstrom said. “We know that because in practice, every time there’s a caucus, that violates the open meetings laws. But that law doesn’t apply to the Legislature.”
State lawmakers go into “caucus,” or closed-door meetings with fellow members of the same political party, multiple times each day.
They meet to explain bills, discuss their position on those bills and decide how they will vote. They do this with their full caucus — such as all 60 House Republicans or all 40 House Democrats — and also with their smaller group of members in an individual committee.
Few have complained about the practice, which results in lobbyists and journalists standing in the Statehouse hallways after they’ve been asked to leave a committee room. If anyone did, Sundstrom said they would likely take that complaint to the House or Senate Ethics Committee, which is made up of members of the Legislature.
“I think we probably rely more on the press at the state level, because let’s say we were going to go into session and shut all the doors, I’m pretty sure the press would object, whereas city council people, city council, local supervisors, may not have a member of press in there,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Tom Sands, R-Wapello.
Senate File 430 would create a new seven-member Iowa Public Information Board and an executive director who would address people’s questions and problems about access to government records and meetings, and seek enforcement of the state’s open-records and public-meetings laws.
After six years of stagnation, the bill moved quickly Wednesday through the House Appropriations Committee, 20-5, and the House Ways and Means Committee, 22-2. It now goes to the House floor. The Iowa Senate also approved the bill, 49-0, last year.
Two-thirds of Iowans favor creating a state board to handle residents’ complaints about violations of open meetings and access to government documents, according to a poll of 803 adult Iowans commissioned by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a coalition of journalists, librarians, lawyers, educators and other Iowa that support transparency in government.
The September poll by West Des Moines pollster Selzer & Co. had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Under Senate File 430, the Legislature isn’t the only one that would be exempt from complaints to the Iowa Public Information Board, and the board’s ability to require individuals to go before the board.
Gov. Terry Branstad would be exempt, as well.
“The reason for that is the governor is the chief executive. He’s the highest-ranking official in the executive branch,” said Sundstrom, who also represents the Iowa Broadcasters Association, a 200-member educational organization that serves Iowa radio and television stations. “To have an inferior state agency tell the governor how to conduct himself doesn’t work.”
Sundstrom said the governor would still be subject to the state’s open meetings and public records laws, as he is now. But people who have complaints about the governor’s office would need to file a lawsuit, instead of turn to the new board.
“Without this exemption, this would create a tool that could effectively be used by anyone to disrupt and paralyze the functioning of the governor’s office,” said Branstad’s spokesman, Tim Albrecht.
Also Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to remove from the bill a provision that would have allowed the new board to charge Iowans a fee of up to $50 for filing a complaint.
“An Iowan shouldn’t have to put any money forward to get towards a government entity with a complaint that they have regarding open meetings, open records,” said state Rep. Peter Cownie, R-West Des Moines.
Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, defended the fee, saying the intent is to prevent frivolous claims.
“I think it’s a modest way … for a very small staff and board to be able to manage its workload,” Isenhart said.
Debate continues over where to house the new board.
Rep. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, questioned how this can be an independent agency if it’s under the executive branch. Some lawmakers, like state Rep. Jerry Kearns, D-Keokuk, prefer that it be housed by the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, an agency that handles ethics complaints and receives campaign finance reports.
See SF 430:
See an Iowa Politics.com five-part series on open records:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=246448

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