Legislative Resources
Iowa’s commercial construction industry employs thousands of Iowans, pays millions in taxes to federal, state and local governments and is a key element to sustainable economic growth for our state. With such credentials, you might wonder why would policy-makers want to burden the construction industry with far reaching employment and environmental regulations and stymie growth opportunities for the industry by dictating decisions traditionally left to a company’s management team. Your guess is as good as ours.
To effectively counter the anti-business and anti-construction forces at the Iowa Capitol, MBI employs two full time lobbyists and retains two additional lobbyists (link to lobbyists’ page). Though a tremendous amount of resources goes into MBI’s public affairs program, it pales in comparison to the money spent by groups targeting Iowa’s commercial construction industry. Likewise, the same environment exists at the federal level in which Associated General Contractors of America works tirelessly to protect and promote the construction industry.
This Legislative Resources page will offer you an expanded view of various sources of public affairs information that will give you a better appreciation of MBI’s public affairs efforts.
- Message from Chairman Leonhart
Ask yourself, “Where would Iowa’s construction industry be without MBI?” The answer, I believe, would be somewhat freighting. Without MBI’s advocacy at the Iowa Capitol, our industry would be rife with onerous regulations and left to the whims of non-competitive forces. On the private-sector side of the construction business, MBI advocates for common sense laws and regulations that create a favorable business environment for Iowa contractors and businesses. Likewise, in the public sector, MBI strives for policies that promote fair competition. This is good for the construction industry as well as the public owner. But most importantly, MBI’s efforts in keeping the public procurement process based on sound policy are good for the Iowa taxpayer.
- 2009 Legislative Session Summary
The 2009 session came to a close on Sunday, April 26th at 5:55 a.m. The odd adjournment date and time was indicative of a very strange and politicized legislative session. In fact, during the 48 hours leading up to adjournment, the legislature was in session for 37 of those hours. Going into the session the governor and legislature were faced with huge challenges. At the top of the list was a budget shortfall in the neighborhood of $700 million while flood stricken areas were in dire need of financial help. The budget needs were met to the most part with federal stimulus funds, targeted budget cuts, a little dipping into the state's cash reserve funds and a multi-million dollar bonding initiative. Also, during the session, over 80,000 Iowans lost their jobs and were looking to the governor and legislature for some sort of help. In response, the governor proposed a stimulus package that focused on infrastructure. After much debate, a package was passed to help alleviate some of the jobs pressures. However, and to seom extent - ironically - the governor and Democratic leaders were also pushing for an agenda that would increase burdens on business and jeopardize more jobs. In addition, Iowa's contracting industry - mainly MBI - was in the "legislative cross-hairs" for much of the session. Fortunately, MBI came out "relatively" unscathed but very leery of what next year's session has in-store. To learn more about the legislative session, please read the MBI 2009 Legislative Session Review.
- Action Alert
With the adjournment of the 2009 legislative session, there are no Action Alerts. The 2010 legislative session begins on January 11, 2010, in which the Action Alert network will be activated.
