SF 411 – Disaster case management
SSB 1277 – Education Budget FY16 and FY17
SSB 1279 – Ag & Natural Resources Budget FY16 & FY 17
COMMITTEE ACTION:
SF 411 establishes a disaster case management fund and program. The Executive Council is authorized to expend funds from the emergency fund for case management services following a gubernatorial or presidential disaster declaration. The Department of Human Services will implement an ongoing contract with a local agency with offices across the state that will be activated in emergencies. The Executive Council may also authorize funds for case management training. The bill incudes limits on administrative and training costs. The Senate Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment clarifying that an additional $100,000 must be available for use for contract staff support, case management training and continuing training. [4/22: 19-0 (Chapman, Zumbach excused)]
SSB 1277 is the Senate Education Budget, which appropriates a total of $1.026 billion and 12,048 FTE positions for FY16 to the Department for the Blind, College Student Aid Commission, Department of Education and Board of Regents. This is an increase of $39.8 million over FY15, and a decrease of 250 FTEs. The bill contains “other funding” from the Skilled Worker & Job Creation Fund, which appropriates a total of $40.3 million for FY16. Most of the Senate Education Budget funding is committed to established initiatives, to maintaining a tuition freeze at state universities, and to making community college tuition and worker training programs more affordable. All FY17 appropriations are made at 50 percent of FY16 levels. Specific appropriations include:
- Higher Education Institutions
- Nonprofit Tuition Grant Program – An increase of $2 million, estimated to be $5,000 per student.
- For-profit Tuition Grant Program – An increase of $100,000 or 5 percent over last year.
- Teach Iowa Scholar Program – $1.3 million, status quo funding from last year.
- Community Colleges General Aid – An increase of $8 million for general operations.
- University of Iowa (UI) – A general increase of $4 million (1.75 percent).
- Iowa State University (ISU) – A general increase of $5.2 million (3 percent).
- University of Northern Iowa (UNI) – A general increase of $7 million (7.8 percent).
- Iowa School for the Deaf and Sight Saving Schools – A general increase of $359,000 (2.7 percent).
- Department of Education
- Teacher Leadership Grants: $49 million. This is the second year of funding to expand teacher roles and to have the best teacher practices be modeled for all teachers. First year funding has rolled into the school aid formula.
- Early Literacy: $9.5 million, which is an increase of $1.5 million to implement intensive literacy programs for grades K-3.
- Early Literacy Warning Assessments: $2 million. Funding for assessment was included in the FY15 appropriation for the Department of Education Administration. The Early Warning System provides reading assessments for Pre-K through grade 6. This year, we made this appropriation its own line item.
- Iowa Reading Research Center: $1 million, status quo funding.
- $1 million for Principal/Administrator mentoring.
- $1 million for AEAs to support schools in developing teacher and administrators in new leadership.
- $1.5 million for Iowa Learning Online – to provide high-quality online classes to all Iowa students (Standing).
- High Need Schools: This is a new appropriation of $10 million for the High Need Schools program to provide supplemental assistance for identified schools with students whose first language is not English, who have special needs and are of low-income backgrounds.
- Iowa Academic Standards: This is a new appropriation of $1.5 million for the Iowa Academic Standards Program.
- Voc-Rehabilitation – Status Quo
- Policy language includes:
- Allow Shared Visions to use QPPS as well as NAEYC for qualifications
- LSA ECI (Early Childhood Iowa) clean-up Code language
- Request for an interim to discuss per pupil inequities and transportation cost inequities between districts.
- Gap tuition assistance program
- Filling school board vacancies
- Talented and Gifted FTE at DE
- ELL eligibility increase – extended years part of this bill, fiscal impact in FY21
- ELL for Preschool (FY17 impact)
- Dropout/At-Risk Prevention Flexibility
- Preschool administration costs
- All Iowa Opportunity Scholarship program time period payments
- Iowa Tuition Grant cap – raise cap by $500 per ITG award [4/22: 15-6 (party-line; Chapman, Zumbach excused)]
SSB 1279 is a status quo Agriculture & Natural Resources Budget for FY16. The budget appropriates $43,111,995 from the general fund and $42 million from the Environment First Fund. The bill also appropriates more than $41 million from the Fish & Wildlife Trust Fund for conservation programming at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. For FY17, the bill provides 50 percent funding according to FY16 levels. Highlights include:
- $4.4 million for the Water Quality Initiative to help fund projects and practices to reduce nutrients in Iowa’s waterways. Additional money for the WQI has been proposed to be included in the RIFF/Infrastructure budget.
- $12.85 million in funding for various soil conservation and water quality programs from the Environment First Fund.
- $288,000 for the Midwest Wine and Grape Institute, which helps Iowa vineyards and wineries improve the quality of their product.
- $500,000 for forestry health management programs by the Department of Natural Resources. This will enable the department to work with more communities as we face the infestation of emerald ash borer.
- $4 million for the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University.
- $1,325,000 for the Nutrient Research Center, which provides support to research activities at state universities that develop new strategies and methods for reducing nutrient levels in our waterways.
- $16 million for REAP with no changes to the statutory allocation formula.
- $1.23 million for a three-year data collection pilot project to improve tracking of nutrients to water from nonpoint sources within watersheds. Data collected will measure the impact of different agricultural practices on nutrient levels in a watershed. The project is meant to develop a model system for analyzing the impact of agricultural practices on nutrient levels.
- Extends the sunset of the Blufflands Protection Program & Revolving Loan fund. This program was created in 1996 to fund private partners that preserve blufflands in eastern and western Iowa. The program was set to sunset after June 30, but the bill extends it to June 30, 2025. This program also was extended in 2005.
- The Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment that incorporates two suggestions from Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship (IDALS) that will:
- Allow up to 10 percent of Water Quality Initiative funding to be used for administration of the program. This would open up more funding for technical and planning support within watersheds. There has been a loss of employees around the state who can assist farmers and landowners in designing and implementing soil conservation practices. This would allow some Water Quality Initiative funding to provide that support.
- Fix language regarding the allocation of money to soil districts around the state to allow counties more flexibility in how they spend the money they are allocated. The amendment clarifies that counties may use as much as $15,000 of their allocation for management practices, rather than being limited to 30 percent of their allocation. [4/22: 15-4 (party-line with Kapucian, Rozenboom voting “yes”; Chapman, Zumbach excused)]