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House
Sends $115 Million in Heating Relief to Governor
Sales
Tax on Utilities Phase Out Plan
The
Iowa House is continuing to help Iowa families battle the cold
this winter and skyrocketing heating bills.
The
Utility Tax Cut was passed Tuesday night, with a bi-partisan vote
of 89-11. The bill
affects every resident of Iowa that pays his or her own electric
or gas bill. Residential
customers pay the highest rate on utilities because their
consumption is lower, so this bill helps lessen the burden on Iowa
families.
In
addition to providing immediate relief to Iowans for the billing
cycles of February and March, the state sales tax on electric,
natural gas, and other heating fuel for residential customers will
be permanently eliminated over a five-year period.
LIHEAP
Supplemental Funding
Senate
File 65 is the $15 million supplemental appropriations bill for
the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal
year 2001. The bill
contains $11.3 million in reallocations from one-time funding
sources and $3.7 million of reallocations within the LIHEAP
program itself.
Although
many accusations have been directed towards House Republicans
concerning the funding of LIHEAP, Rep. Dwayne Alons, R-Hull,
defends it best “We are not taking from the poor to give to the
poor. We’re taking
from government agencies, the bureaucrats, to give to the poor.”
House
Passes Right To Work Measure
The
Iowa House of Representatives passed the important Right to Work
measure this Wednesday. This will be added to the Department of Economic
Development’s website and promotional materials, and will
publicize that Iowa is a Right to Work state.
Iowa is one of 21 states having a Right to Work law.
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Right
to
Work measures protect employees, and provides that no employee shall
be deprived of the right to work at his or her chosen occupation for
any employer because of membership in, affiliation with, withdrawal
or expulsion from, or refusal to join any labor union, organization,
or association, which disregards this policy is illegal and void.
Last
year, Governor Vilsack pulled the phrase “Right to Work” from
all promotional material and the Department of Economic Development
website.
Our Right to work law is one of our best marketing tools in
attracting business and jobs to Iowa.
The Governor’s decision to remove Iowa’s Right to Work
statement has forced the Legislature to make sure the law is
protected and publicized.
House
Republicans are strongly committed to growing the state’s economy.
In reinstating the Right to Work designation, House
Republicans recognized its importance in attracting and retaining
good jobs in our state.
Ways
& Means Update
Bills
Passed In The House This Week:
HF
103
A bill for an act relating to information included in written
promotional materials distributed by the department of economic
development.
Bills
Waiting For The Governor’s Signature:
HF
1
A bill relating to the exemption from the sales and use taxes of the
gross receipts from the sale, furnishing, or service of metered gas
and of fuel used in residential-type dwellings.
SF 65
A bill for an act providing supplemental funding for the low-income
energy assistance program for the fiscal year beginning July 1,
2000, and providing an effective date.
Bills Passed
Out of the Ways and Means Committee This Week:
No
bills passed out
of committee this week
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Week
in Review Archives
