CHRISTIAN COALITION OF IOWA       

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

 

Norm Pawlewski – Lobbyist

January 9 – January 13, 2006

 

 

The second half of the 81st General Assembly of the Iowa Legislature began on Monday, January 9th.  There were no changes in leadership or committee assignments or any other surprises.  It was a fairly quiet week.  The two events of note were the Governor’s State of the State Address and the Condition of the Judiciary  message delivered by Chief Justice Louis Lavorato.

 

Nothing new in the Governor’s message.  He wants the Legislature to build on last year’s early childhood efforts making sure that every four-year- old child has access to quality pre-schools.  Last session the Legislature budgeted 25 million dollars toward the Governor’s plan which is modeled after a program he saw in France.  He wants 75 million dollars a year for five years to take over all pre-school programs in Iowa.  These programs would be free to all Iowa children from infancy to age four.  Content of the pre-school programming would be dictated by the State.  He also wants to raise teachers’ salaries.  A recent survey shows Iowa ranks 41st in the nation for teachers’ salaries.  He didn’t mention that Iowa ranked 26th when he took office from Governor Branstad. 

 

            A few other things the Governor asked for are:

 

1.      Revisit our ban on nuclear cell transplants (i.e., allow the cloning of embryonic stem cells for the purposes of experimentation).

2.      50 million dollars over the next three years for water quality programs.

3.      50 million dollars into higher education through investments in “human capital and physical infrastructure”.

4.      An unstated amount to help small businesses find ways to pay for health insurance for their employees.

5.      An increase in the cigarette tax and the tax on beer to raise some of the money needed to fund all these new programs.

6.      Tax more – spend more.

 

I think you get the picture.

 

Chief Justice Lavorato, making his last report to the Legislature (he is retiring this year) stated that “judges are accountable to the Constitution and the Law….not political pressure.”  Lavorato said judges must base decisions on “the rule of law, not personal views or the views of politicians or special interest groups” and said that assaults on the courts politicize the courts and “weaken the very institution Americans rely on to uphold the Constitution and protect their rights.”   Do you think Chief Justice Lavorato is retiring because he has started thinking like a conservative or do his statements above not mean what, on the surface, we think they mean?  I think the latter. He asked also for raises for judges, improvements to courthouse security, improved access to courts through new forms and instructions to help people who are representing themselves in family court, reforms of Iowa’s attorney disciplinary system and other improvements to Iowa’s judicial system.

 

Judge Lavorato’s decision to retire in 2006 will give Governor Vilsack the opportunity to appoint another liberal  to be Chief Justice for the next two or three decades.  But if the Governor takes to heart Lavorato’s statements about not politicizing the court, he will appoint a strict constructionist like U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts or soon to be Supreme Court Justice Alito.