May 26, 2009

The Honorable Michael Mauro

Secretary of State

State Capitol Building

L O C A L

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I hereby transmit Senate File 467, an Act relating to and making appropriations involving state government, by providing for agriculture, natural resources, and environmental protection, and providing for effective dates. Senate File 467 is approved on this date, with the exceptions noted below, which I hereby disapprove.

I am unable to approve the item designated as Division VI of this bill in its entirety.  Division VI of the bill directs employees to submit actual receipts for meals and other costs and requires that reimbursement up to the maximum amount shall only be allowed in an amount equal to the sum of the actual receipts submitted. While I agree with the general intent of this division and believe that employees should be reimbursed only for actual expenses, this language would be particularly difficult to administer because similar language has not been consistently required by the Legislature for every state agency or department or for the Legislature’s own employees. Accordingly, I have issued Executive Order Thirteen to require the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to implement a policy that will require every executive department of the Culver-Judge Administration to institute cost-effective and transparent practices that will track reimbursements paid to state employees for meals, travel and other work-related costs.

I disapprove the item designated as Section 23 of this bill in its entirety. Section 23 delays the implementation date of the requirement to begin having septic tanks inspected at the time of property transfer from July 1, 2009 to July 1, 2010.  With over 550 unsewered communities and over 100,000 leaking and/or malfunctioning spectic systems in Iowa, this language is inconsistent with the objective of Senate File 261 that I signed last year to protect and improve water quality and to assure home buyers that they are purchasing a property that has a functioning septic tank. Importantly, we now have funds available through the IJOBS Program that I proposed for helping unsewered communities, and as July 1, 2009, over 200 inspectors will be certified to inspect septic tanks.

For the above reasons, I respectfully disapprove the designated items in accordance with Article III, Section 16 of the Constitution of the State of Iowa. All other items in Senate File 467 are hereby approved this date.

Sincerely,

Chester J. Culver

Governor

cc: Secretary of the Senate

Chief Clerk of the House

CJC:rco