Archive for January, 2010

Wife, the girls, and I just got done watching the movie G-force. It was a funny movie. The girls were glued to the tv, so by their expressions and bursts of laughter, I would say they enjoyed it very much.
The movie is about a bunch of guinea pigs as government secret agents. It is a Disney movie and a good family movie. I do not regret spending the money to watch it. So anyone who has kids, I would recommend this movie. /MIke

The bill SF2062 was recommended to add amendment H-8033 which is an amendment to push the date of separation from May 28th, to June 24th. Also the bill WAS modified in the Senate with the following addition:

a. During September 2010, and each September thereafter for a total of five years, the state shall pay to the participant, or the participant’s beneficiary, an amount equal to twenty percent of the years of service incentive benefit for that participant. Receipt of a years of service incentive benefit pursuant to this section by a participant shall be in lieu of receiving a payment for the participant’s accumulated but unused vacation upon termination of employment.

This was added in the final Senate Bill and I did not catch it. So basically you will lose your accrued vacation in lieu of the $1,000 per year of service up to $25,000.

Revised on Jan 29th.It was brought to my attention by Jim, that you are not losing your vacation time. You are losing the one lump sum payout of your unused vacation time. They are rolling your unused vacation time into you benefit of $1,000 per year up to a maximum of $25,000 and then paying that sum out annually over 5 years. This can be seen by paragraph g. “

g.  "Years of service incentive benefit" means an amount equal
 to the entire value of an eligible employee's accumulated but
 unused vacation plus, for eligible employees with at least
 ten years of state employment service, one thousand dollars
 for each year of state employment service up to a maximum of
 twenty=five years of state employment service.  For purposes
 of this paragraph, "state employment service" means service, as
 defined in section 97B.1A, for which the employer is the state.

This was the status as of Thursday:

As of Thursday (28th) as far as I can tell there was no vote yet. This may change today.

Below is how the entire bill reds as of Thursday (28th)

More >

From: www.RadioIowa.com

A former teacher who’s now a legislator hopes to revive the effort to push back the first day of school in most Iowa school districts. Currently, school districts may obtain waivers to set the beginning of school as early in August as they wish. Representative Polly Bukta, a Democrat from Clinton, wants that to stop.

“We wanted a school date to start after the worst heat in August,” Bukta says. “The date we would have is the 4th Monday in August as a start date, rather than people getting waivers and starting as early as they want.” But Bukta admits the proposal probably won’t pass this year as most lawmakers want to leave the decision up to school administrators.

“I would like a uniform school start date throughout the state and I would like it right around Labor Day, the last Monday in August. Now, whether we get there is another question,” Bukta says. “My hopes are dim.” And Mary Gannon of the Iowa Association of School Boards says if Iowa schools had started on August 24th — the fourth Monday of this past August, they’d be in big trouble.

“We’ve already got schools with 12 and 13 snow days this year and that means they’re going until probably the third week of June at this point — and we’re still in January. If we were to start school two weeks later, that means they’re going to school until probably about the 4th of July,” Gannon says.

“And I’m not sure that’s what parents want — and I’m not sure that’s what the tourism industry wants.” A few members of the House Education Committee met yesterday at the statehouse to discuss the school starting date issue. Representatives of Iowa’s tourism industry argued letting schools start earlier and earlier in August hurts attractions like the Iowa State Fair.

The date of last summer’s fair fell later in August than usual and JoAnn Johnson, a lobbyist for the fair, says because schools started so early that month, fair attendance dropped. “A number of 4-H and FFA kids this year actually could not stay to show their projects, had to leave early,” Johnson says.

The tourism industry is offering another argument — that the state loses tax revenue because schools start too early in August. Amy Campbell lobbies for the Iowa Travel Federation and she cites the northwest Iowa area of Okoboji as an example.

“We loose $70,000 a day in one community for every day we start school early — $70,000 of tax revenue a day,” Campbell says. “So if you add that to the whole state, we’re losing a lot of revenue for each day we start early.” Tourism officials say having school start earlier in August also means teenagers go back to school and leave jobs open for the remainder of the summer season.

Republicans were quick to criticize Democrat Chet Culver’s outline for state spending. Governor Culver revealed his budget draft on Wednesday afternoon. It relies heavily on state government reorganization plans. Culver’s counting on those efforts to wring over 340 million dollars worth of savings out of state government. Republicans like House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha says that’s no small task.

“I think there’s a fair amount of ‘pie in the sky’ with that number,” Paulsen says. “But, look, House Republicans last year offered $300 million-plus, so, let’s get to work and see if we can find it.” Paulsen and other Republicans say the governor’s budget draft also calls for spending more money than the state will actually collect in taxes this coming year.

“The bottom line is state government is still too big, his budget spends too much money and taxes are too high,” Paulsen says. State Ag Secretary Bill Northey, a Republican, issued a statement early Wednesday evening, saying Culver’s budget sketch for the Department of Agriculture is so lean it will force him lay off as many as 50 workers. Culver told reporters earlier on Wednesday that his budget plan would not lead to layoffs.

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