A roundup of legislative and Capitol news items of interest for Thursday, March 24:

REVENUE OUTLOOK: State budget makers will get their final update on state tax collections Friday before assembling the fiscal 2012 spending plan. The state Revenue Estimating Conference is slated to hold its quarterly meeting at 10 a.m. on Friday at the Capitol building. The three-member forecasting council has pegged total revenue growth for the current fiscal year at 3.9 percent with a net expectation of 3.1 percent growth through June 30. However, the tax collections for the first eight months were running about 6 percent ahead of projections – a $217.2 percent increase over the same period in fiscal 2010. That could prompt the prognosticators to bump up their expectations at Friday’s meeting. The panel also will revisit and possibly revise its fiscal 2012 estimate of 4.0 percent net growth in revenues and an overall expectation that total tax collections will increase by 4.5 percent next fiscal year.

NUKING CONSUMER PROTECTION: Legislation under consideration by the Iowa Legislature to shift the upfront costs and financial risks of building a new nuclear reactor to MidAmerican Energy’s customers would “rip the heart out of consumer protection,” according to Mark Cooper, who analyzed the legislation on behalf of Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility. Advanced cost recovery measures in HF 561 and SF 390 were “a bad idea before the events of the past few weeks in Japan, and it is getting worse by the moment,” Cooper said. However, the bills, which outline how the Iowa Utilities Board should proceed with rate-making principles should a rate-regulated public utility move forward with plans to build a nuclear plant, remain alive in the and the Senate Commerce Committee will have a subcommittee meeting on the bill from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 26 in room 116 of the Capitol. Cooper called advance cost recovery “an unfair tax” on ratepayers because capital markets are reluctant to finance nuclear power plant construction. House Commerce Committee Chairman Chuck Soderberg, R-Le Mars, defended the legislation, saying Iowa needs nuclear power generation to meet future base-load needs. Nuclear energy “is the only option left …that Iowa can depend on 24/7, 365 days a year,” he said. An amendment to the bill, suggested by the Office of the Consumer Advocate, addresses issues it had with consumer protection, Soderberg said.

LOGGERHEADS: Members of a House-Senate conference committee met privately Thursday but still have no reached an agreement on a package of supplemental spending and tax policy items. The main sticking point in the GOP insistence on creating a tax relief fund that would capture surplus dollars at the end of each fiscal year and earmark them for tax reductions. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said legislative Republicans tentative had worked out their agreements but Democrats still were not on board, although he thought negotiators were “very, very close” to finalizing a package. However, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, told reporters “I think we’ve made progress but I wouldn’t say it’s close.” In the meantime, he said, the Legislature should approve $18.5 million in supplemental funds for indigent defense and public defenders to pay the state’s past-due bills, but Paulsen declined to sign off on any supplemental spending without the creation of the tax relief fund. Negotiators expected to continue talking next week.

UNCOMMON SERVICE; Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, and Rep. Annette Sweeney, R-Alden, were presented the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association’s annual Hoover Uncommon Public Service Award. The award commemorates Hoover, an Iowa native and 31st president, and honors those in state government who represent the values and unwavering commitment to public service as defined by Hoover. It takes its name from a 1948 speech in which Hoover said the “great human advances” were not brought about by mediocre people, but “by distinctly uncommon people with vital sparks of leadership.” Dvorsky, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is serving his sixth term in the Senate. He served seven years in the House. Sweeney, is serving her second term in the House. She chairs the Ag Committee.

EDUCATION BOARD: Gov. Terry Branstad on Thurs Gov. Terry E. Branstad today appointed Brandon Bolte the state Board of Education. The board is made up of 10 members, nine voting members and one non-voting student member. Bolte was appointed as the student member. The voting members serve six year terms, while the non-voting member serves a one-year term. All members are appointed by the governor. Bolte is the son of Kim and Curt Bolte of Ankeny. He is a junior at Ankeny High School where he participates in track, football, individual speech team, group speech team, debate team and student think tank. Brandon is the current vice president of the National Honor Society and will serve as the group’s president beginning in the fall semester. The student member of the State Board of Education is not subject to Senate confirmation. Bolte will replace Corey Anderson of Norwalk on the board and will serve a one-year term from May 1, 2011 to April 31, 2012.

BIG-NAME ROSTER: U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, Iowa’s 4th District congressman from Ames, has landed some major attractions for a yearly youth event he sponsors. Latham says high-school students who attend his 2011 Iowa Youth Leadership Summit on April 28 will have the opportunity to listen to Gov. Terry Branstad and University of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz talk about the importance of leadership skills. Ferentz will deliver an address via satellite, while Branstad will attend the summit at Iowa State University’s Scheman Building in Ames. Latham says all high school students in the 4th congressional district are invited to attend. Interested students can respond to the invitation via the http://latham.house.gov/Forms/Form/?ID=1132 Web address.

SOLAR BUS TOUR: The Iowa Policy Project, Iowa Environmental Council and Environmental Law and Policy Center are joining forces on Friday to raise awareness of the potential for solar energy in Iowa. The groups plan a joint solar bus tour with stops in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Organizers say former University of Iowa and NFL star Tim Dwight, a solar industry developer, will participate in the tour, which will include news conferences at each location. Dwight and local experts and businesspeople will speak at the news conferences. “Now more than ever Iowans need to be thinking about a sustainable energy future using the safest and most cost-effective strategies technology has to offer,” said David Osterberg, executive director of the Mount Vernon-based Iowa Policy Project. “Iowa is showing the way with its leadership in wind energy, and good things are happening with solar energy as well. This tour will illustrate those opportunities already being found in our state.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’re going to see layoffs of epic proportions if those two things come to pass.” – Mary Gannon, a lobbyist with the Iowa Association of School Boards, in assessing the situation if the Legislature agrees to a zero allowable growth for K-12 schools next year and significantly pares back the current voluntary state preschool program in fiscal 2012. She said the state’s largest teachers’ union has forecast at least 1,500 layoffs not counting support staff and administrators under a no-growth scenario. The comments came during a House subcommittee discussion of the cost of creating a new oversight board and executive staff to educate and enforce the state’s open meetings/open records laws in while panel members favored creation of an advisory panel and a Web site rather than a Senate-passed board approach. Rep. Kevin Koester, R-Ankeny, said it appeared a joint effort by the state Citizen’s Aide/Ombudsman’s and the Iowa Attorney General’s offices is addressing most problems and Senate File 430 appeared to trying to fix a problem that is being addressed.