By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa House has approved a bill to prevent the statewide $133 million increase in residential property taxes that legislators say was the unintended consequence of a 2021 law.

The fix cleared the Senate February 1st and it passed the House yesterday. Representative John Forbes of Urbandale is among the Democrats who say it’s unfair to city and county officials who’ve already built slightly bigger budget plans.

“When you look at the cities budgeting for about 50% for public safety, that’s probably where most of the cuts are going to come from,” Forbes said. “In my city alone, we’re looking at close to a million dollar budget cut.”

The bill gives cities and counties until April 30, an extra 30 days, to complete their spending plans for the budgeting year that begins July 1. Republican Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton said that gives cities and counties plenty of time to redo budgets based on the new information about how much property taxes will be paid.

“There will not be one dime cut from public safety due to this piece of legislation and if someone does choose to do that, that’s a local decision, that’s a poor decision and it’s one that I don’t think is actually going to happen,” Kaufmann said. “…This is not a cut. This is not a receipt of tax dollars into a checking account that we’re then going to be taking it.”

The glitch that’s being fixed was caused when lawmakers decided apartment buildings, nursing homes and mobile home parks would no longer be taxed like commercial property, but as residential property, starting this fall.

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

A Senate subcommittee has approved legislation that would change a legal standard for lawsuits involving employees who challenge workplace drug and alcohol testing at their worksite.

J.D. Davis, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, said under current law, it’s up to businesses to prove they are innocent if a worker sues over drug testing protocols, “so what this does is flip it back to the way we normally do jurisprudence, that if you’re going to make an allegation, you have to prove your allegation.”

Nick Laning, a lobbyist for the Iowa Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, suggested that will make it very difficult for employees to challenge drug testing policies or the validity of results.

“How is a low level employee able to make that argument against an employer?” Laning asked. “How do that make that argument when a lot of the evidence sits with the employer to start because they’re the one that did the drug test.”

Peter Hird, a lobbyist for the Iowa Federation of Labor, said it’s a big change. “It’s going to be really hard for an employee to even get to that point,” Hird said. “They’re going to have to hire an attorney, do some fact findings and discovery, where an employer actually has a lot of that information to begin with.”

Another part of the bill would let notices about drug testing be sent to employees electronically. Lisa Davis Cook, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Justice – the group that represents trial lawyers, said some employees might miss important notices about drug tests.

“We see this happening in such a way that you’re checking all the boxes on a new employee form and you’re checking, ‘Yeah, I’ll get electronic notices,’ not realizing something as important as a drug test could be sent to you electronically,” Davis Cook said.

Republican Senator Adrian Dickey of Packwood, who owns a trucking company, said his employees are over-the-road drivers who may not be home to get their mail for a couple of weeks.

“They’ve asked if I could just call them up and tell them or email them or whatever it may be, so I’ve heard that request for years,” Dickey said. “And for that issue alone, I’m happy to sign off on this.”

The bill also would let businesses designate which employees are in safety-sensitive positions, so they’re subject to drug testing. The proposal is a response to a 2021 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that Casey’s could not require random drug testing for all warehouse employees by classifying all of their jobs as safety sensitive.

By Pat Powers (Radio Iowa)

While it’s unseasonably warm across much of Iowa this  afternoon, forecasters say high temperatures will be back down in the 20s by Thursday with the chance for more snow, which is excellent news for the state’s thousands of snowmobiling enthusiasts.

Jim Willey of Manchester is spokesman for the Iowa State Snowmobile Association. “We have had some challenging years the last few years,” Willey says. “It’s one of the largest outdoor activities worldwide, but in Iowa, we’re very dependent on getting the right weather. It drives about $30 billion of economic activity in North America, and a big segment of that happens in Iowa when we have snow, and it’s disappointing when we don’t.”

There are about 60 snowmobiling clubs across Iowa which groom more than 8,800 miles of trails statewide. “The trail program is the largest recreational trail system in Iowa,” Willey says. “It’s all completely funded by the registration and trail passes that Iowa snowmobilers buy for their machines. It’s totally a self-funded program. There’s no tax dollars that go into it whatsoever and it’s all paid for by the people that use it.”

There have been multiple advances in technology in recent years, improving the helmets and communications, the snowsuits, boots and gloves, and the snowmobiles themselves. “The type of equipment that’s available today makes it very comfortable to be out in even sub-zero weather riding your snowmobile,” Willey says. “The equipment that snowmobiles have today make them safer and more stable and more enjoyable for everybody to ride.”