DES MOINES — To adjourn the legislative session, Iowa lawmakers had to settle disagreements over Planned Parenthood and state employee salaries that didn’t amount to much money but represented deep philosophical differences between the two parties.
At one point the disagreements amounted to less than $15 million, a figure dwarfed by the $7.35 billion budget. They led to long meetings and were among the last issues resolved during the session, which adjourned Friday. Ultimately, legislators agreed the differences were too great and opted to return home, where some can begin work to defend their seats in the fall election. It also sets the stage for both issues to come back in January.
Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, opposed a plan in the Republican-controlled House to remove state Medicaid dollars for family planning facilities that provide abortions, a move aimed at Planned Parenthood. Such facilities already can’t use state money for abortions, but the GOP renewed an effort members have tried in previous sessions to deny the group any state funding.
“We have hashed this out,” Wessel-Kroeschell said. “Nobody’s going to change my mind. I’m not going to change their minds on this issue.”
The state dollars in question totaled less than $500,000, according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency. If lawmakers had ended the funding, the state would have been ineligible for more than $2.5 million in federal dollars for family planning services.
Republicans agreed to drop the proposal in the hours before adjournment, and secured more tax credits for adoptive parents.
Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, supported the defunding. He said for some lawmakers it’s a moral issue and no amount of state dollars is appropriate, even if Planned Parenthood provides other services for women’s health.
“It becomes a challenge,” he said. “How do you balance or line your morals up with your practical sense on how to govern? It’s not an easy balancing act.”
Lawmakers were also at odds over $9.7 million for salaries to the Iowa Department of Transportation, which said it needed the money to avoid layoffs. House Republicans said the agency shouldn’t get additional money for salaries amid a recent increase in the state fuel tax. They also argued other state agencies weren’t receiving new funding for salaries.
The Democratic-majority Senate challenged the proposed cut in new dollars, and lawmakers eventually agreed to provide half the money.
Rep. Josh Byrnes, R-Osage, led the effort last year to increase the fuel tax to repair Iowa’s deteriorating roads and bridges. He questioned his party’s stance and pointed out the requested money would come from a road fund that is separate from the general fund.
“If we’re going to turn around and cut them, and they have to lay people off, then why did we increase the fuel tax to do more projects?” he said.
Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, helped finalize the transportation budget and said debate over the issue will resume next year, noting concerns about public safety hazards amid construction and possible layoffs.
“When we come back in January, we will be back for the other half of this funding,” he said on the Senate floor.
Lawmakers also will likely again take up efforts to clean up Iowa’s waterways amid growing concerns and a lawsuit by the Des Moines water utility that seeks to force county officials to reduce farm runoff. Multiple funding plans were floated this session, including one by Gov. Terry Branstad to use money from an education infrastructure fund. Republicans pushed their own proposal to use money from a separate infrastructure fund and an existing water use tax. Branstad later backed the GOP plan, though he expressed interest in reviving his idea.
House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, remained critical of a proposal by some Democrats to use surplus dollars that she said could fluctuate.
“Some people didn’t like the ideas the governor had. Other people didn’t like ideas we had,” she said. “But we need to find something that’s a reliable source.”
Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, acknowledged there was little collaboration between the chambers on water quality this year. He said there needs to be a better process next session of “people talking to each other instead of at each other.”
Some lawmakers say differences on medical marijuana, which had a strong lobbying effort and led to a late night House debate in the days before adjournment, were too great to reach compromise. Upmeyer defended a GOP plan that would have expanded the current law on cannabis oil, though advocates argued it didn’t create a manufacturing system to allow people to access the drug.
Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said the upcoming election could change the Legislature to better address medical marijuana and water quality.
“That’s why we have elections,” he said. “Iowans have given us divided government. We’ve done the best we can with it. We’re to a place where several of those issues simply aren’t going to move with the divided government.”