Report from the Statehouse, Week Five
Information compiled by Jill Altringer, ISA Contract Lobbyist

The Iowa Legislature entered week five, working on many things, from a smoking ban to tax incentives for Microsoft. In between there were several discussions that impact agriculture. The most important to Iowa soybean producers included:

SURFACE WATER PROTECTION ACT
Work continued on HSB 615, which is designed to assess each watershed in Iowa and get all of the stakeholders within those watersheds to work together. From cities to farmers to individuals to business, the bill is designed to treat watersheds like communities and help improve water quality for everyone. Much of the discussion centered around duties of the Coordinating Council and its interaction with DNR and IDALS.

Recognizing that one agency can’t be completely responsible for solving watershed problems, the Taskforce recommended a process for the state agencies to coordinate through the Council, allowing them to maximize their resources to study the watersheds. Roger Wolf, who participated with the Watershed Taskforce and served as a subcommittee chair during the process, has been attending the subcommittee meetings and reporting to the Legislators about the intent of the Taskforce. The subcommittee will continue working on this issue next week.

SENATE VOTES ON SOY TRANSFORMER FLUID CREDIT
The Senate concurred with the House’s amended bill that extends the expiration date of an income tax credit designed to encourage electric utility companies to use a soy-based transformer fluid. SF 572 will go to the Governor.

IOWA POWER FUND PRE-APPLICATIONS
The Iowa Power Fund Board has now received 78 pre-applications. The Governor delivered the applications to the Office of Energy Independence (OEI) and the Power Fund Board. “The pre-applications have come in from across the state and the organizations requesting the funds are diverse,” said Governor Culver. The Power Fund board will evaluate the pre-applications and decide which projects should move forward with a full application process, with the first grants possibly awarded in April or May.

The Governor signed the $100 million Iowa Power Fund, aimed at boosting renewable fuel research and production of alternative energy. The money will largely be used for grants to be distributed over four years.

In livestock related issues:
VETERINARY DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY
Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy, along with the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Chair of the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, updated the Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee on the activities of the vet diagnostic lab. The lab was provided an additional $2 million by the Legislature last year, with the intent to increase this to $3 million in FY 2009 and $4 million in FY 2010. The recurring appropriation is necessary; Iowa’s lab is substantially underfunded compared to its peers and, therefore, more heavily reliant on fees.

The primary focus of the lab is providing timely, comprehensive and high quality diagnosis to Iowa farmers who have animal diseases within their livestock herd. The lab conducts more than 1.3 million tests annually and processes 45,000-50,000 cases a year from livestock producers. The vet diagnostic lab is the leading lab on avian influenza disease research. In addition, they are going to work with the University of Nebraska on the conflicting data regarding whether feeding distillers dried grain from ethanol plants livestock may in turn cause e-coli in meat. This research is significant to Iowa’s emerging renewable fuels industry.

LIVESTOCK ODOR RESEARCH MONEY REQUESTED FROM COMMITTEE
Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, DNR Director Rich Leopold and ISU Dean of Agriculture Wendy Wintersteen made a presentation to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee about the need to fund the odor mitigation proposal the three groups worked on during the interim. The proposal outlines a five-year, $22.8 million project of applied odor mitigation research on livestock operation statewide. It is believed this research will help both the livestock industry and concerned neighbors.

In opposition, a group of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) was the capitol this week handing out literature titled “10 Reasons Why the Odor Study Stinks,” stating that “taxpayers should not be expected to clean up the pollution created by factory farms” and “local control would be a no-cost solution to this problem.”

Additional legislation introduced that may have impact:
SF 2166 BIODIESEL TAX CREDITS. Increases the tax credit for selling biodiesel, with the increase going from the current 3 cents for biodiesel with 2 percent (B-2) to 30 cents for B-30. (While this is not ISA’s bill, ISA inserted language in the comprehensive biofuels bill to do the same thing. That larger bill has not yet received a number.)

SSB 3179 WATER PERMIT FEES. Authorizes the EPC to set fees for water use and establishes the criteria for setting the fees. This limits the uses of the fees for scientific and technical purposes related to water, and for compliance purposes, and requires the EPC to review the fun balances and anticipated expenses annually.

If you have questions regarding ISA positions and issues in the Iowa legislature, please call Carol Balvanz at 515-251-8640.