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Iowa
Association of Legislative News
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August 3, 2007
Fair Share is a "Live Round" for 2008 Legislative Session
Annual Sales Tax Holiday - This Weekend!
Manufacturing and Environmental Conference
STAFF:
Mike
Ralston
President
515/235-0562
Government Relations Team:
John
R. Gilliland
Senior Vice President,
Government Relations
515/235-0566
Kellie
Paschke
Vice President,
Government Relations
515/235-0567
Tess
Dickinson
Government Relations Coordinator
515/235-0561
ABI ADVISORY COUNCIL
Resources & Links
ABI
Political Education & Action Center
for
-Issue Alerts
-Write Your Legislator
-ABI Voting Records
Iowa
Prosperity Project
for
-2007 Officials
-Register to Vote
-Issue Education
For
your own FREE
Prosperity Project website, click here.
Upcoming
ABI Events - Mark Your Calendar!
Click Here to
Register
August:
Thursday, August 9th –
7:30-9:30am @
“Effectively Managing Drug Testing”
Thursday,
August 16th –
7:30-9:30am @
“Effectively Managing Drug Testing”
September:
Thursday, September 20th –
7:30-9:30am @
“Taking Control of Rising Health Care Costs”
Friday,
September 21st –
7:30-9:30am @ The New Ventures in
“Taking Control of Rising Health Care Costs”
**
Thursday, September 27th –
10am-2pm @ DMACC in
“Employee Drug Testing Compliance” (Cost
$250)
October:
Tuesday,
October 16th – 8am-4pm
@ Marriott Hotel & Resort in
“Environmental & Manufacturing Conference”
Copyright
© 2007 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.
Fair
Share is a “Live Round” for 2008 Legislative Session
This week, ABI issued a
press release calling on legislative leaders to drop the “fair
share” debate for 2008. This release came after a report card,
issued by the AFL-CIO, indicated there were not enough votes to pass any
version of a “fair share” bill.
As you can see from the
news story below, legislative leaders will continue to push this
legislation. Please do not be fooled by your local legislators who
might tell you that the issue will not be debated in 2008. It is
clear from this story that is remains a priority.
Click
here to see where your legislator stands on the issues.
Top Democrats say it's too early to take bill off 2008 agenda
By Rod Boshart
The Gazette
August 1, 2007
DES MOINES - A major business group in
Legislative leaders said they plan to work again next year to improve
''We consider it very much a live round,'' said House Speaker Pat
Murphy, D-Dubuque, leader of the chamber where the legislation stalled
in 2007. It would have allowed contract negotiations involving public
employment to include a fee paid by non-union workers for benefits they
gained via collective bargaining.
The measure cleared the Senate, 28-21, after it was revised to remove
private-sector businesses and their employees. Democrats hold a 30-20
edge in the Senate and a 53-47 majority in the House since Rep. Dawn
Pettengill of
Ralston said a report prepared by the Iowa Federation of Labor and
posted on the union organization's Web site indicated 49 representatives
in the 100- member Iowa House supported Senate File 413 in its current
form applying only to public-sector employees. Support for the measure
applying to all
''The union's own scorecard shows there aren't enough votes to pass this
legislation,'' said Ralston, who organization is made up of about 1,300
businesses employing more than 300,000 Iowans.
''We hope that legislative leaders will declare this divisive issue
'dead' so we can move forward working together on ways to grow the
economy, creating high wage jobs,'' he said. Otherwise, business
association members will launch another all-out effort to oppose
legislation that Ralston said would be bad public policy and ''gut''
''I'm not in a position to declare anything alive or dead,'' said Senate
Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, DCouncil Bluffs. ''We haven't had a
caucus since the session ended. All of those things will be discussed
and considered in good time.''
Mark Smith, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, said ''fair
share'' remains a top priority of organized labor and he hopes the
measure could come to a vote next session and make its way to Democratic
Gov. Chet Culver's desk for his expected signature.
Smith said his group's legislative scorecard is based on actual votes or
positions that were indicated in private caucus or to federation
officials with the knowledge that they are subject to change based upon
how proposed legislation is drafted and other factors. He said the
posting has been online for more than a week and no one has called his
office to dispute the data.
Contact the writer: (515) 243-7220 or rod.boshart@gazettecommunications.com
Annual
Sales Tax
Businesses that are
open on August 3 and 4 are required to participate. No sales tax,
including school and local option sales taxes, will be collected on
sales of an article of clothing or footwear having a selling price of
less than $100.
Click here for complete rules and a list of the tax-exempt items.
Time is nearing for the development of ABI’s 2008 Legislative Agenda. The ABI agenda is developed by members for the benefit of members. It all starts with you. Now is the time to sign-up for ABI Committees meeting later this fall. The only qualification you need is that your employer is an ABI member and that you try to attend the fall meeting.
ABI will host five (5)
policy committee meetings in the
- Employment and Workforce: focused on traditional human resources issues including health care benefits and the challenges of workforce and skill development as well as unemployment compensation issues.
- Workplace and Product Safety: focused on safety of any business’ most valuable resource: its people, as well as the products and services they make and provide. This committee will address occupational safety, workers’ compensation and liability issues.
- Economic Growth: focused on economic development issues ranging from regulation of commerce to state incentive programs to transportation of people and goods.
- Environment: focused on the issues affecting the regulated community from air, water and land.
- Tax: focused on the all forms of tax levied on business including property, income and sales and use taxes.
You
are invited to a reception honoring
Representative
Christopher Rants
Representative Kraig Paulsen
Representative Linda Upmeyer
Representative Jeff Kaufmann
Representative Rod Roberts
Representative Doug Struyk
Tuesday,
September 18, 2007
5:00 – 7:00pm
RSVP
to Kellie at (515) 235-0567 or kpaschke@iowaabi.org
Paid
for by
The
summer’s coming to an end and there’s still time for one last hurrah
by winning:
PRIVATE
VIP SKY BOX TICKETS TO THE
Sunday, August 19th @ 1:05pm
What’s
included if you win?:
-
Sky box seating (#320) right behind home plate!
- 20 tickets for you, your family and friends for an afternoon of
baseball!
- Enough hot dogs & beverages for all to enjoy!
- A visit from Cubbie Bear himself!
How it works:
- A minimum bid of $500 will start the bidding process. All proceeds will benefit Iowa Industry PAC – working to elect business to the legislature.
- Submit your bid online with your bid amount and contact information. But DON’T forget to keep checking back to see what the current bid is!
- Winner
will be contacted on Friday, August 10th by the end
of the business day.
CLICK
HERE to
place your bid
For questions
please contact:
Disclaimer:
Contributions to IIPAC must be personal funds. State law prohibits
corporate contributions. Contributions to IIPAC are not tax deductible.
(Paid
for by
MANUFACTURING AND
ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE
"Make Green, Save Green, Go Green"
SAVE
THE DATE
October
16th, 2007
| 8:30 AM - 4 PM
MARRIOTT
HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTER
Keynote
Speaker:
Andrew
Winston
Co-author: “Green
to Gold”
Featuring:
the
true cost of
§
Maximize your Workforce
§
Process Improvement
§
Manufacturing Expo
§
Compliance Management & Law
§
IDNR & EPA Update
§
Environmental Management 101
COST
OF EVENT:
Members - $150
Non-Members - $200
Additional guests - $75
Exhibitor booth spaces will be available and
will include:
- 6
foot table and signage
- One
conference registration
- Conference
attendee list and contact information
- Inclusion
in Conference promotional materials
Exhibitor
Booths:
1 table - $500
2 tables - $750
To reserve your booth space, contact Heather Iburg @ (515)235-0572 or hiburg@iowaabi.org
Iowa
Association of Business and Industry
904 Walnut Street, Suite #100
Des Moines, IA 50309
www.iowaabi.org
515-280-8000 / 800-383-4224