LONG SESSION FOR LEGISLATURE IS PRODUCTIVE

Legislators Needed To Make Lots Of Compromises To Get Its Many Bills
Through In 2005

It was a successful legislative session for fast highway drivers and
auto-racing fans, for tobacco smokers and deer hunters.

But the 2005 session was a bummer for drug dealers and child molesters who
now face stiffer laws against their vices.

When the state Legislature completed its work late Friday, legislators
touted their efforts to give more poor people access to health care and to
improve insurance coverage and state assistance for the mentally ill.

Highlights

Action from the 2005 Iowa Legislature:

Their work will touch the daily lives of Iowans in many ways. Drivers will
be allowed to go faster on interstate highways but pay higher fines for
speeding. Boaters will pay increased fees in exchange for more spending to
improve waterways. Allergy sufferers will have to sign their names at the
pharmacy to get certain cold medicines as lawmakers work to curtail access
to a key meth ingredient.

Parents and children will see the state spend more money on education,
including more than $20 million on programs to provide young children with
preschool and day care, but not as much as some had hoped.

Republicans say the state spent too much - the $4.9 billion budget is about
a 7.5 percent increase over this year - but not so much that Iowa will be
in financial trouble next year.

It was a historic session, the longest in a quarter-century. A Democratic
governor, a Republican-controlled House and a Senate divided evenly between
political parties left little room for anything but compromise.

"Any governor in my shoes would be pleased with the work of this
Legislature," Gov. Tom Vilsack said.

Republicans agreed. "To quote the Jedi Master Yoda, 'Do or do not, there is
no try.' . . . This was a legislative session that was about doing and
accomplishing, not just trying," said House Speaker Christopher Rants, a
Republican from Sioux City.

Not everyone agreed.

"I'm not happy," said University of Iowa student Matt Hauge, who fears his
tuition will see a larger increase because the state universities didn't
get as much money as they had sought.

Board of Regents President Michael Gartner said it's too early to say
whether a threatened tuition increase will occur.

In some regards, the ideas that generated the biggest buzz never came to
fruition.

In the end, there was no cigarette tax increase. Vilsack had proposed the
tax to pay for health care. The Senate approved a smaller version, doubling
the tax per pack to 72 cents, but the House prevailed in its argument a tax
increase was unnecessary.

There will be no ban on spinner hubcabs, and no elimination of state income
taxes for people under the age of 30 - an idea that garnered national
attention.

The defeat of the cigarette tax increase pleased Tom Miracle of Clinton. "I
figure I pay enough in taxes," he said. "I don't think I should have to pay
more."

Michael Weber, a smoker from Shenandoah, figured he'd make more trips to
Missouri or the Internet to buy cigarettes if the tax went up. He's happy
it didn't, but he still withheld high marks for the Legislature, saying the
state's budget grew too much.

"They need to rein in spending," he said. "They lose a lot of credibility
with me."

Here's what did happen:

Vroom - The speed limit on rural stretches of the state's interstate
highways will increase from 65 to 70 miles per hour. Be forewarned: With
the higher speeds come increased fines for going over the limit.

Vroom, vroom - Newton speedway investors won a $12.5 million sales tax
break for their proposed track. Legislators also approved allowing $28
million in bonds to be issued for a resort and golf course at Honey Creek
Resort State Park near Lake Rathbun that supporters say will help give a
struggling southern Iowa an economic boost.

Meth and molesters - Lawmakers clamped down on methamphetamine makers and
child molesters this session.

Iowans now must to go to a pharmacy to purchase all but the lowest-dose
medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, a common decongestant which is also
meth's main ingredient.

Legislators reacted to the slaying of a 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl and
the arrest of a convicted sex offender accused of killing her by ramping up
the prison time for sex offenders and requiring electronic monitoring of
child molesters out of prison on probation or parole.

Economic development - Lawmakers re-created the Iowa Values Fund after the
courts struck it down last year. The new program has $50 million over 10
years for business incentives, grants and programs aimed at spurring
economic development and creating new high-paying jobs, plus about $20
million in tax credits for job creation.

Education - Schools, community colleges and state universities will all see
more money. In the 2006-07 school year, K-12 schools in Iowa's 367
districts will be allowed to spend an additional $197 per pupil - a 4
percent increase. The change means state aid to schools will increase by
$99.5 million and property taxes will climb $27.7 million. State
universities will see an additional $29 million, and community colleges get
$9.8 million more than this year.

Early childhood - Vilsack had sought $39 million for early-childhood
education. In the end, the Legislature agreed to a little more than $20
million.

Telephones - Early in the session, lawmakers agreed to deregulate rates for
the state's largest telephone companies. In exchange, they must provide
high-speed Internet to more customers.

Health care - A pilot program was created to keep Medicaid solvent and put
an additional 30,000 people into the state-federal program that provides
health care for the poor. Supporters say it could lead to savings because
people will begin receiving regular medical care instead of more costly
emergency room care. This must still receive likely federal approval.

Mental illness - Insurance companies that provide health care coverage to
some large companies would be required to provide comparable coverage for
mental illness as for physical aliments.

Deer - Legislation awaiting the governor's signature aims to reduce the
state's deer herd by 25 percent. The legislation increases the number of
free hunting licenses for landowners and requires nonresident hunters to
purchase an additional antlerless deer license when purchasing any-sex licenses.