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Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:24 PM

Hans in the House - Week 7, 2024

COMMUNITY COLLEGE DAY

Pictured below are more photos from the Community College Day:

FAST FACTS:

  • Des Moines Area Community College’s Last-Dollar Scholarship is helping to grow Iowa’s workforce. For graduates of this program, their wages and employment in 2021 ranged from $43,790 to $50,593. Eighty-six percent of these graduates were employed in Iowa and they earned $12,512 each year more than those not in the program.

     

  • Eastern Iowa Community College’s Last-Dollar Scholarship award 628 students in 2022 with a total of $731,279 and 564 students with $484,193 in 2023.

     

  • Iowa Western Community College’s Last-Dollar Scholarship awarded 294 students with a total of $879,735 in the 2022/23 academic year and 221 students with $478,191 in the the 2023/24 academic year.

     

  • Northeast Iowa Community College’s Last-Dollar Scholarship has helped 1,619 students save $6.1 million on tuition since 2019.

     

  • Southeastern Community College’s Last-Dollar Scholarship awarded 306 students with a total of $894,000 of direct support during the 2022/23 academic year.

BILL ON ELECTRIC ADVANCE RATEMAKING

  • HF 2554: This is a bill that relates to electric power regulation, energy storage, and transmission facilities advance ratemaking principles. Advance ratemaking is a practice where utilities petition the Iowa Utilities Board for a pre-established set of regulations and rate of return for future energy projects, allowing them to recover costs proactively to reduce risk.

     

  • This is a good bill that helps to establish base load, which is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, so that the rate costs are kept down.

     

  • Overall, this piece of legislation essentially adds oversight to the electric process by making the Iowa Utilities Board privy to the growth of any electrical company in any certain sector. Infrastructure such as wind turbines and solar panels are subsidized by the government, so electrical companies tend to build a great number of them as it is fairly cheap to do so. However, this creates an excess of energy in our state, so it’s passed on to the MISO Grid. The MISO Grid is the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and manages the flow of electricity across the high-voltage, long-distance power lines that stretch from Canada all the way down to Texas. This energy is then sold to other states to use, like Illinois for example. The ratepayers, i.e. people like you and me, pay for this energy, so we want to make sure we are getting the best return on this investment by adding more supervision.

     

  • In addition to all of that, it also opens the door for future conversations on moving towards nuclear energy here in Iowa, which has the potential to be the cleanest energy source yet.

Please join me at www.wilzforiowa.com and on Facebook at Hans for Iowa House District 25 to stay up to date on everything I’m doing!



Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:23 PM

Hans in the House - Week 6, 2024

PMIC BILL

  • As some of you might be aware, I am running a bill, HF 2402, that deals with psychiatric medical institutions for children, or PMICs. This was the first bill that we ran in subcommittee for this Legislative Session, so we were hoping to have it out on the House floor sooner, but we needed to make some changes to make sure that all the stake holders in the process felt comfortable with the bill. This was truly a bipartisan effort and was the first time that MCOs, or Managed Care Organizations, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and PMICs all sat down at the table to figure out a solution to the problem. The bill ended up unanimously passing the House this week and will serve as a starting point as we continue to address this issue in the future.

     

  • This bill provides for an enhanced rate for psychiatric medical institutions for children that care for children with specialized needs and makes regulatory changes to PMICs based on feedback from providers. This piece of legislation establishes an enhanced per diem rate for higher acuity needs of $763 and ensures that kids are not placed with PMICs that are out-of-state. It would require therapy and Behavioral Health Intervention Services to be a required service while a child is at a PMIC. It would also standardize between all MCOs the authorization for PMIC placement including length of stay and concurrent reviews and also require those MCOs to offer support for families. Finally, it would also allow for step-down PMIC placements or supervised apartment living for a child to utilize programming at the PMIC will living independently.

     

UPDATE ON THE AEAs

  • You asked and we listened!! The House has been engaging in conversations with the AEAs, teachers’ union, superintendents, and parents to develop bills to improve special education outcomes and increase teacher pay.

  • This month, we have introduced three bills as a result of these in-depth discussions. One on AEA reform, one on increasing teacher pay, and one on a 3% SSA increase. I want to emphasize that these bills are not set in stone and discussions are ongoing. However, these will be the bills we work off of after the funnel deadline.

     

  • HSB714: Increasing Teacher Pay

 

  • We have taken feedback from the teachers’ union, superintendents and more as we crafted this legislation to responsibly raise teacher pay. Our bill increases the minimum teacher salary from the current amount of $33,500 to $47,500 beginning next year, and then bumps it up again to $50,000 the following year. This bill also increases the minimum wage for education support staff to $15/hour. Our teachers are doing essential, important work. We want our teachers to receive the compensation they deserve and incentivize more people to enter the profession. While some may say this bill may not directly address veteran teachers, our plan includes additional TSS money and increasing State Supplemental Aid by 3%, both of which would give schools additional money to spend on teacher salaries how they see fit.

 

  • HSB713: Improving Special Education Outcomes

 

  • While the Governor’s original AEA reform proposal did not passed committee, we have continued discussions with stakeholders to draft our own legislation to improve outcomes. The goal of our bill is to improve special education outcomes. We believe it does this by providing accountability over the AEA’s services, creating a task force to review the current system and look for areas for improvement, and giving more flexibility to the school districts on how to spend their money. A couple important things to note that are different about our bill from the original proposal you may have heard about previously. The goal of our bill is for there to be no disruption to special education services. This bill does not terminate any employees of the AEA’s. This bill does not prohibit the AEAs ability to perform any of the services they do now.

     

    • Here are some highlights of what the bill does do:

       

  • Ties the salary of each AEA’s chief executive to the average salary of the superintendents of the districts they cover.Currently, the 9 chiefs each make around$300,000 annually. It puts the Department of Education in charge of professional development and gives the DOE true oversight over the AEA’s budgets. It creates a legislative task force to review the AEA system and make recommendations. The money devoted to special education will stop at the school district, but school districts will be required to contract with the AEAs to provide those special ed services. This bill gives school districts more control of media services and education services money over time. Many districts may continue to use the AEAs for all services. However, if they can provide those same services for less money, or more effectively through other means, they will have that flexibility. Starting in school year 2025-2026, the media services money would stop at the school district. Beginning in school district 2026-2027, both the media services money and the education services money would stop at the school district. The school district would then have discretion over how best to spend those funds and provide the services they need to their students.

     

  • This is just a quick summary of this bill and we will continue to dig into the details as this bill works its way through the legislative process.

CREDIT UNIONS

Please join me at www.wilzforiowa.com and on Facebook at Hans for Iowa House District 25 to stay up to date on everything I’m doing!



Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:21 PM

Hans in the House - Week 5, 2024

FUNNEL WEEK

  • It’s crunch time up here in the House! We are now in what is referred to as “Funnel Week”. Unfortunately, it’s not as fun as a funnel cake, but it’s still interesting and important to know.

  • So what is Funnel Week? Funnel Week is the last week that a bill could be approved by a committee and remain eligible for consideration to be brought to the House Floor. While the bills that do not meet this deadline are considered “dead", it doesn’t mean that their content is completely out of consideration for the rest of the session. Legislation that involves spending or tax and government oversight components are exempt from the funnel and in addition the language from the bills that did not make the deadline can be added on as amendments to other bills or be brought up as leadership-sponsored legislation.

MEET A PAGE!

VALENTINE’S DAY

  • As some of you may know, my family business is a flower shop called Edd the Florist based out of Ottumwa. Obviously, the week of Valentine’s is a particularly busy one for me with this business, so this week I spent a couple days at the flower shop to make sure that my community is cared for.

  • Edd the Florist is a real testament to the American dream. The family-owned shop was first purchased by my parents in 1956. My mother, Margaret Wilz, immigrated to the United States from Germany at 17 years old, followed by her husband and my father, Karl. They traveled by train from New York through Chicago and finally to Ottumwa in search of where to begin building a new life together.

  • Once there, they bought a flower business called Edd the Florist. They couldn't afford a new sign, so they kept the name and got to work establishing strong family and community ties. For more than half a century, my family has dedicated themselves to the flower shop as well as the community of Ottumwa. The business remains in the Wilz family today as my family and I continue to run the shop.

  • Under my leadership, the flower shop has also grown to include one-of-a-kind gifts, including gourmet food items, candies, candles, bags, and more. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, I would highly encourage you to swing on by and say hi!

THANK YOU!!

A huge thank you to all those who wrote me a letter on the AEAs! It means a lot to me to hear your opinions on the issue!

Please join me at www.wilzforiowa.com and on Facebook at Hans for Iowa House District 25 to stay up to date on everything I’m doing!



Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:18 PM

Hans in the House - Week 4, 2024

BILLS IN THE WORKS

  • PBMs…what are these? PBM stands for “pharmacy benefit managers” and they are a third party administrator of prescription drug programs for commercial healthcare plans, self-insured employer plans, Medicare Part D plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as well as state government employee health plans.

  • This week, the House Commerce Committee unanimously passed House Study Bill 640 related to Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

     

  • This bill prohibits discrimination by PBMs against pharmacies, requires profits from spread-pricing to go back to the employer/insurer, and requires an appeals process for pharmacies that are unable to acquire drugs at the reimbursement rate from the PBM.

     

  • In 2022, the legislature brought PBM oversight under the Department of Insurance, and this session, the department also brought a bill based on a year and a half of regulating the industry. House File 2099 expands PBM’s duty of good faith and fair dealing to pharmacies and prohibits retaliation against pharmacies that file complaints against PBMs. These bills are now eligible to be considered on the House Floor.

     

  • This is a very important issue for our community as this legislation will help our friends out over at Southside Drug.

This week, the House Health and Human Services Committee advanced House Study Bill 502, the very first bill that I chaired for this Legislative Session, unanimously. This bill provides for an enhanced rate for psychiatric medical institutions for children that care for children with specialized needs. The children’s mental health facilities often must turn away difficult children that require additional support because of cost. This bill will ensure that those kids with specialized needs like a history of aggression, diagnosis of intellectual or developmental disability, or those with sexualized behaviors are cared for and receive treatment. This bill also makes many regulatory changes that PMICS have noted as barriers to providing care.

 

The legislature has prioritized expanding access to mental health care in Iowa over the last 6years and will continue to work on this important issue. Just last year alone, the legislature had the following bills signed into law on this topic:

 

  • Mental Health Rate Increase – The HHS budget (SF561) provides $13 million in increased state funding towards mental health and substance abuse Medicaid rates. In total with federal funding, this is over $35 million increase to ensure that the state can recruit and retain mental health providers to care for Iowans in need. These increases came based on a Medicaid rate review that compared Iowa’s mental health rates to surrounding states and to Medicare.

     

  • Medical Malpractice – House File 161 limits the total amount of noneconomic damages for a medical malpractice claim at $2 million for causes of action involving a hospital, and at $1 million for all other causes of action.

     

  • Rural Emergency Hospitals – Senate File 75 establishes licensure in Iowa for Rural Emergency Hospitals. Federal law created this designation in 2020, and has allowed this new hospital designation to begin January 1, 2023. This bill also requires ambulatory surgical centers to be licensed in Iowa.

     

  • Mental Health Non-Competes – House File 93 prohibits noncompete agreements with mental health providers, allowing the provider to stay with their patient.

     

  • Psychologist Prescribing – House File 183 removes the requirement that a psychologist complete certain requirements within 5 years of being issued a conditional prescription certificate. This bill also changes that the physician supervising does not need to be board-certified in specific specialties.

     

  • Psychiatrist Public Fellowship – House File 274 revises the state-funded psychiatry residency program that was established last session, to include two fellowship positions. The program will annually graduate 9 psychiatry residents and 2psychiatry fellows.

     

  • Physician Assistants – House File 424 repeals requirements that physician assistants practice under the supervision of a physician, and instead requires collaboration, including psychiatric PAs.

     

  • Commitment Hearings – House File 466 allows health care providers who have examined a patient involved in a substance abuse or mental health commitment to testify by video. Current law only allows for telephone testimony.

     

  • Mental Health and Disability Services –House File 471 comes from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to specialize the Independence Mental Health Institute to behaviorally complex youth and the Cherokee MHI to acute and forensic adults, makes changes to the Regional MHDS Governing Board makeup, and adds competency-based restoration to the core service domains of the MHDS Region.

HOW IS THE CAPITOL SO SHINY?

DID YOU KNOW?

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is announcing that February 13 will be recognized as Statewide High School Voter Registration Day. On this day, Iowa high school students are encouraged to take steps to register to vote, make a plan to vote when they are eligible, and learn more about Iowa’s voting process.

 

Please join me at www.wilzforiowa.com and on Facebook at Hans for Iowa House District 25 to stay up to date on everything I’m doing!



Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:17 PM

Hans in the House - Week 3, 2024

ACHIEVEMENTS:

I had the honor of getting to chair the subcommittee on HSB 555, which is a bill that deals with public utilities, specifically by adding electric storage unit and nuclear to the list of energy production facilities. It also removes an annual report to the legislature on small wind innovating zone applications and also requires electric storage units over 25 megawatt hours of electricity to have a generating certificate. Not only that, but it increases the amount for affiliate transactions that are exempt to $250,000 and increases the statement of franchise for cable and video services from 10 to 25 years. In simpler terms, this piece of legislation would essentially increase reliability, reduce costs, and clean up the code when it comes to energy. This bill ended up passing that subcommittee and was brought before the Commerce Committee and ended up passing that as well. Now it will move forward to the House Floor where it will be voted on to determine if it will become a law or not.

EXCITING NEWS:

An exciting bi-partisan issue that I am helping to champion is cancer prevention. Iowa is the number two state in the nation in terms of cancer cases and that is the wrong podium to be on. Representative Austin Baeth, myself, and others have collaborated to find the best possible solution to tackle this problem. We have a number of bills that are being put forward that are related to one another in terms of cancer prevention. Typically, when an issue like this is put forward, a group of bills will be put together, which would be called an omnibus bill, where all the bills are wrapped into one that would cover the whole issue. However, we have decided to come at this problem from a different angle. Instead of wrapping all the bills into one, we have divided them out into individual bills that will be sent to different subcommittees to stand on their own merit. I have the opportunity to then go to each of these subcommittees and speak on behalf of these bills.

One of the bills that we are pushing for is a tax on cigarettes. If you’re anything like me, the last thing you want is more taxes, but what this bill will do is help generate a new source of revenue that will help fund the research on cancer. Another bill that we are putting together is a bill that would help to implement a plan to reduce obesity in our state. Cancer has been shown to be linked to obesity, so tackling this issue will not only help to prevent cancer, but also just generally keep us healthy as well.

Please join me at www.wilzforiowa.com and on Facebook at Hans for Iowa House District 25 to stay up to date on everything I’m doing!



Thursday, February 29, 2024 5:15 PM

Hans in the House - Week 2, 2024

WAPELLO COUNTY SNOWFALL FACTS

  • Since 1895, the average temperature has been 21.30 degrees for the month of January in Wapello County.

  • In Wapello County, the historic low for the month of January was -1.6 degrees in 1912.

  • The historic high for the month of January in Wapello County was 44.6 degrees in 1933.

  • Over 45 years ago, Wapello County set its snowfall record in 1978 with a whopping 15 inches of snow within 24 hours.

 

 

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO

I have been hard at work meeting great people from all over the state! It is always such a joy and a pleasure whenever you stop in to say hello! Please don’t ever hesitate to reach out if you are ever in the neighborhood! Pictured above is me with my friends Joy and Michelle from the River Hills Community Health Center!

Please join Rep. Austin Harris and myself this Saturday, Jan. 27th, at 11am at Evans Middle School in Ottumwa to discuss Area Education Agencies.



Friday, February 3, 2023 3:08 PM

Hans in the House - Week 4


Friday, January 27, 2023 3:07 PM

Hans in the House - Week 3


Friday, January 20, 2023 3:05 PM

Hans in the House - Week 2


Saturday, January 14, 2023 2:59 PM

Hans in the House - Week 1


Wednesday, April 6, 2022 12:32 PM

by KTVO News Desk Friday, April 1st 2022

KTVO

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Ottumwa business owner Hans Wilz announced plans Friday to run for Iowa House District 25.

The newly-created district encompasses the majority of Wapello County, including the cities of Ottumwa, Eldon, and Agency.

“Wapello County has been my home for more than 50 years, and I’m so excited to have the opportunity to represent our community at the State Capitol,” said Wilz. “This campaign will be about bringing southeast Iowa’s priorities to the State House and making Iowa even better for Iowans.”

Hans, a Republican, lives in Ottumwa with his wife, Beth. They've been business owners in the area for over 30 years. In addition to running the family business, Edd the Florist in Ottumwa, Hans has worked alongside other businesses all across the country to help them succeed and grow.


This website is sponsored by Wilz for Iowa and is for informational purposes only. The content does not provide legal, financial, or professional advice. While we strive to provide accurate information, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, and any reliance on the information is at your own risk. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from the use of this website. Thank you for visiting our site.
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