January 17, 2008

2008 Legislative Outlook: Anti-Business Issues are Back

Combined Corporate Income Tax Reporting Back

House Labor Committee Meets: Chair Reassigns Bills

ABI Legislative Reception “Awesome”

STAFF:

Mike Ralston
President
515/235-0562

John R. Gilliland
Senior Vice President, 
Government Relations
515/235-0566

Nicole Molt
Director, 
Government Relations
515/235-0567

Jackie Paul
Administrative Assistant
515/235-0561

ABI ADVISORY COUNCIL

Resources & Links

Iowa Prosperity Project 
for
-Issue Alerts
-Write Your Legislator
-Legislator Voting Records
-Register to Vote

ABI Member Benefit -

For questions regarding the Iowa Prosperity Project (IP2) or your own FREE Prosperity Project Website send an email to:

IP2@iowaabi.org

Upcoming ABI Events - Mark Your Calendar!  For a full calendar of ABI events or to register click here.

March:

Tuesday, March 11^th

 “ABI Day on the Hill”

9 - 4:30:  ABI Policy Committee Meetings & Capitol Visits

For a full schedule of the days events click here.

Copyright © 2008 Association of Business and Industry. All rights reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by U.S. and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission.

To be removed click here

2008 Legislative Outlook: 

Anti-Business Issues are Back

The 2008 legislature is back in town for a 100 day session.  The first week is usually consumed with ceremony when the governor and party leaders take the opportunity to discuss goals for the upcoming session. 

On Tuesday, Governor Chet Culver delivered his annual Condition of the State address along his with his proposed budget for fiscal year 2009.  The reaction to the Governor’s speech can be described as “frightening” for business.

Here’s an excerpt from the Governor’s speech:

" Iowa has always had a tradition of fairness in the workplace. Republicans and Democrats proved this when they locked arms and joined together in a bipartisan effort to pass the state's first-ever collective bargaining law.

"Our predecessors showed great courage when they found consensus on this, and so many other important labor-management issues. I believe, if we try, we can too.

"Let's start by talking about what we can agree on. Let's make Iowa the best place in the nation to work. We can all agree a dignified work environment is an Iowa value.

"We can all agree we must pay our workers competitive wages. We can all agree that the right to bargain collectively in the workplace is an important right. We can all agree that companies should be held accountable for hiring illegal workers.

"And, we can also agree that it's critical to have healthy and productive labor-management relations in our state.

"So, for the benefit of working Iowans, I challenge you to try to find consensus, and to not be afraid to debate difficult issues, like, prevailing wage, independent contractor reform, choice of doctor, fair share, and the right to bargain matters like employee discipline and discharge.”

The Governor then completed his speech with much discussion about civility and bipartisan cooperation.  The divisiveness of the issues articulated had to make any employer in Iowa as well as any potential Iowa employer wonder what kind of an economic future Iowa is headed for.

Combined Corporate Income Tax Reporting Back

Governor Culver also included in his speech on Tuesday a vigorous appeal for Iowa re-writing its corporate income tax laws to capture more tax revenue from corporations headquartered out of state. 

Specifically, Culver said, “I believe our corporate tax structure must be fixed.

It's just not fair that big, out of state, multi-billion dollar corporations that do tens of millions of dollars of business in Iowa avoid paying Iowa income taxes because of an outdated tax loophole.”

Culver’s budget estimates Iowa tax revenues can increase $75 million if the law is changed to require any corporation with any reporting requirement in Iowa to combine all its subsidiaries and file an Iowa return based upon an apportioned allocation of tax liability between Iowa and all federal jurisdictions.

ABI will vigilantly work to defeat this legislation on behalf of its members who provide millions of dollars of payroll in Iowa .  Unfortunately, this type of annual “uncertainty” in Iowa ’s tax climate has already hurt the state’s economic development efforts by the Governor’s comments.

House Labor Committee Meets:

Chair Reassigns Bills

The House Labor Committee met on Thursday.  During the meeting Chairman Rick Olson (D-Des Moines) assigned new legislation and reassigned proposed legislation from last year that did not pass the House.  The majority of reassigned bills were workers’ compensation.  See below for a brief summary of each piece of legislation.  Click on the link for full text.

HF 2026—Bill prohibits employers from employing illegal immigrants by fining companies a $10,000 civil penalty for noncompliance.  The legislation also addresses the classification of independent contractors as employees and related penalties for misclassification.

HF 334 – Expands eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits and lessens attachment to the workforce requirements.

HF 676 – Allows claimants to reopen an award or agreement for settlement of workers’ compensation benefits based on changes in earning capacity that were known at settlement but not adequately reflected at time of settlement.

HF 677 – A person who is hired by an employment agency is an employee of that agency for workers’ compensation purposes.

HF 743 – Eliminates use of scheduled injuries if a reduction in the employee’s earning capacity results and allows for additional compensation as unscheduled permanent partial disability.

HF 797 – Eliminates apportionment of prior benefits paid.

HF 914 – Would change 95-years of Iowa ’s workers’ compensation laws by denying employers any oversight of the treatment or medical care for those injured on the job. Allows employee to freely choose any care without notice to employer for 90 days. (Estimated premium increase of up to 13.7% = $93 million).

SF 341 – Would allow workers’ compensation claims to be made in Iowa for injuries suffered by an employee while working outside the state, if the business operates in Iowa and the employee regularly works at or from that location.

ABI Legislative Reception “Awesome”

Despite snow in many parts of Iowa Wednesday, more than 400 ABI members and legislators attended ABI’s annual Legislative Reception at the Science Center of Iowa.  Described as “awesome” by both ABI members attending and legislators, the event provided great opportunity for member networking and citizen “lobbying” on behalf of the business community.  Nearly 100 legislators attended including Democrat and Republican leaders from both the Senate and House.  Prior to the reception, members heard an “insiders” briefing on the issues facing the Legislature in 2008 from the Government Relations staff.

Thanks to all attendees for making this annual event such a huge success!

The Iowa Industry PAC is ABI’s best weapon to stop “anti-business” legislation and get back to advocating a pro-active business agenda.  

Please invest in your company by donating to IIPAC.  

Contributing is easier than ever!  CLICK HERE!

                                 Iowa Association of Business and Industry
                         904 Walnut Street, Suite #100
                           Des Moines, IA  50309
                          www.iowaabi.org
                           515-280-8000 / 800-383-4224