Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Democratic leaders in the House have released a proposed amendment to the so-called prevailing wage bill, with debate now delayed until Friday at noon.
Sources close to Democratic negotiations said the amendment was intended to alleviate some of the concerns of rural legislators in order to get the 51 votes needed for passage. The bill now includes exceptions for certain types of county- and city-funded projects, among several other changes.
Here is the original definition of when “prevailing wage” would apply from HF 333:
- Projects funded by the State Board of Regents of $100,000 or more.
- Projects funded by a school district of $300,000 or more.
- Projects funded by a county with a population of 40,000 or more (based on the annual census) and are $100,000 or more.
- Projects funded by a city with a population of 20,000 or more (based on the annual census) and are $100,000 or more.
- Any project of $1 million or more.
Here is the amended application of “prevailing wage”:
- For Regents institutions and community colleges, all projects falling under the definition of “vertical infrastructure” (i.e., improvement of buildings, appurtenant structures, and utilities; and site development.). For “horizontal infrastructure” (water, storm water, and sanitary sewer projects, and roads and streets), the project has to be $100,000 or more.
- Projects funded by a school district of $300,000 or more
- “Horizontal” projects funded by a county with a population of 40,000 or more (based on annual census) and are $100,000 or more.
- “Horizontal” projects funded by a city with a population of 20,000 ore more (based on annual census) and are $100,000 or more.
- Any project of $1.5 million or more that receives at least 20 percent of its funding from the state.
- Any disaster related projects that receive state funding in Blackhawk, Johnson, Linn, Polk and Scott counties.
Bill drafters from the Legislative Services Agency worked on the amendment, sponsored by State Rep. Rick Olson, for most of Thursday. The House was supposed to come back into session at 1 p.m. but did not return until nearly 7 p.m., and that was only to send both parties’ members to caucus meetings.
The House was adjourned at around 10:30 p.m. until noon Friday.
Meanwhile, Republicans have proposed 30 amendments of their own, ranging from changing the name of the bill to “Price Fixing for Public Improvements Act” to forcing public bodies to comply with Iowa’s English Only law when implementing prevailing wage.
A vote is expected to take place Friday after what could be a contentious debate.
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