Signed by Governor Chet Culver

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that re-organizes and streamlines multiple government agencies, eliminates or consolidates several advisory boards, appropriates $3.2 million for fiscal year 2011, and authorizes 31 new full time positions in state government.

Highlights:

-Establishes the position of Chief Information Officer within the Department of Administrative Services, to be nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, to work with the Director of Information Technology on all of the following duties (Sec. 8, 11-13):

-Advise the Director regarding the adoption of Information Technology (IT) standards and rules; -Coordinate the Department's internal operations and develop and implement policies and procedures designed to ensure efficiency; -Advise the Director regarding contracts for the receipt and provision of IT services; and -Perform other duties as may be delegated by the director or as may be prescribed by law.

-Establishes IowAccess, which shall provide citizens with electronic access to government information and transactions, and requires the Department of Administrative Services to establish fees for the service (Sec. 18). -Repeals provisions that provide free printed copies of legal publications to various elected and public officials (Sec. 31). -Encourages state agencies to share resources and services, including staff, training, and educational services, in an effort to reduce costs (Sec. 62). -Specifies that an agency's authorized level of full-time employees may be lowered by the Department of Management if an authorized position remains vacant for six months or more, unless it can be shown that the vacant position is difficult to fill and essential to the agency's operation (Sec. 64). -Requires executive branch agencies to incrementally increase the ratio of supervisors to employees from 1 in 15 to 1 in 20 by fiscal year 2016, excepting employees with the State Board of Regents (Sec. 66). -Requires the State Board of Regents and all departments under its jurisdiction to coordinate with the Department of Administrative Services and other agencies when making purchases and in areas concerning IT, with the goal of annually increasing the amount of joint purchasing (Sec. 69). -Requires all state agencies, except for the State Board of Regents and all departments under its jurisdiction, to make purchases through the Department of Administrative Services, and authorizes the Department to make certain exceptions (Sec. 70). -Requires all state employees to be paid via electronic funds transfers (Sec. 77). -Specifies that the Alcohol Beverages Division shall close the main state warehouse every Friday from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015 (Sec. 98). -Levies an annual fee of $25 for a wine direct shipper license, and specifies that no more than 18 liters of wine a month may be shipped directly to Iowa citizens 21 and older (Sec. 101). -Lowers the winnings threshold from $10,000 to $1,200 for any individual who owes money to the state and who wins on a wager at any gambling structure in Iowa, including racetracks and gambling boats (Sec. 172). -Specifies that anyone making a false claim or otherwise knowingly attempts to defraud the state shall owe the state three times the amount of damages the state sustained because of that person (Sec. 400). -Requires the Department of Human Services to adopt rules that restrict physicians to prescribing no more than a 72-hour supply of a prescription drug not included on the Medicaid preferred drug list while seeking approval to continue the prescription (Sec. 408). -Requires the Department of Human Services to determine the proper mechanism to trigger a review of payments provided by the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waiver that are in excess of the median payment amount (Sec. 411). -Requires the Department of Human Services to shift the following mental health programs (Sec. 422):

-The program for juveniles shall be moved from the Cherokee state mental health institute to the Independence state mental health institute; -The adult psychiatric program shall be moved from the Clarinda state mental health institute to the Cherokee state mental health institute; and -The gero-psychiatric program shall be moved from the Clarinda state mental health institute to one or more other cost-effective locations.

-Requires the Department of Corrections to close prison farms 1 and 3 at the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison by October 1, 2010 (Sec. 474).

Full Bill Text