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LWVIA 2012 Priorities
Equitable Access to Mental Health Services
• Redesign a coordinated and comprehensive mental health system that ensures convenient and equitable access to an established menu of mental health services for Iowans of all ages who need mental health services. The legislature needs to provide adequate funding for a comprehensive menu of quality services, including those that promote early detection and individualized, evidenced-based treatment of mental illnesses and co-occurring substance abuse disorders. Appropriate levels of care should be available that meet people’s needs in or near their home communities.
• Expand Iowa’s mental health parity law to require insurance coverage for all diagnosed mental illnesses, including substance use disorders. Addressing mental illnesses directly through appropriate care as needed cuts the overall costs of health care by preventing unnecessary institutionalization and emergency care.
Sentencing and Corrections Reform
• Continue to pursue sentencing reforms that allow more judicial and board of parole discretion, reduce mandatory minimums, provide prison alternatives for persons who are mentally ill or have special needs, and include re-entry programs that reduce recidivism and allow successful community reintegration. The state needs to provide adequate community-based resources to accomplish these goals.
• Expand programs that divert mentally ill individuals from the criminal justice system. Examples include mental health crisis intervention teams, jail diversion programs, and mental health courts.
Environmental Issues
• Expand Iowa’s use of sustainable, renewably-powered energy sources. Use existing technologies to make current power plants more efficient. Initiate a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants so as to reduce greenhouse gases which are linked to global warming. Initiate a moratorium on new nuclear plants until a proven method can be found to deal safely with low level spent nuclear waste.
• Strengthen Iowa's environmental programs, especially efforts to prevent pollution in our water sources, and to clean up state waterways. As the legislature works on flood control, long-range planning needs to consider the environmental, public-health, social and economic impacts of proposed plans.
• Expand Iowa’s bottle bill to include additional containers. Iowa should increase the return fee to encourage more recycling and pay for additional environmental programming.
Social Policy
• Legislate common sense gun laws that protect the public, including child safety locks, restrictions on the size of ammunition magazines, closing gun show loop holes, and banning semiautomatic assault weapons. No retreat laws and laws that increase the use of concealed weapons do not bring community peace. Less than 1% of all gun deaths involve self-defense; 99% of gun deaths are suicides or homicides.
• Protect Iowans from predatory lending practices that contribute to the cycle of debt by limiting payday lending fees to 36% APR, as 16 other states and Washington D.C. have done, and Congress did for loans to military families
Governance
• Preserve Iowa’s fair and impartial court system by supporting the current process for judicial selection and retention, and support efforts to improve the process by making better public information about judge performance available to Iowa voters.
• Implement sound campaign finance and election reforms that move toward a transparent publicly-financed election system.
• Preserve Iowa’s system for encouraging citizen participation on the voting process. Voting is a right, and Iowa does not have a problem with voter impersonation at the polls. To require voters to show a state-issued photo identification will disenfranchise the poor, college students from out-of-state, the disabled, and others. Because it would be expensive - $1.7 million just for documents alone, and because it was not needed in Iowa, the Iowa State Association of County Auditors determined that they would not support a state requirement for state-issued, photo voter identification.
Health Care Reform
• Encourage state lawmakers to implement national health care reform in a manner that is coordinated, transparent and encourages public participation and comment. Quality, affordable health care should be available to all US residents. Necessary resources should be dedicated to the effort in order to provide all Iowans access to a basic level of care that includes disease prevention, health promotion and education, primary care (including prenatal and reproductive health), acute care, long-term care, and mental health care.
Immigration
• Support immigration policies that promote reunification of immediate families, penalize employers that hire unauthorized workers, and ensure due process for all persons (including the right to a fair hearing, right to counsel, right of appeal, and right to humane treatment). State lawmakers should resist policies that lead to racial profiling and violate constitutional rights. Children!s interests should always be safeguarded. Policies should be developed to promote the well being and ensure the safety of all children.
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