A key Republican lawmaker doesn't want public employees to worry about their pensions when the Legislature comes back in January.
“There will be zero IPERS bills, period,” Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, the new chair of the House State Government Committee, told the Des Moines Register in referencing the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System.
The Wilton Republican's position on the committee will give him the power to advance or reject bills on the pension program.
Kaufmann added: “No tweaks, no adjustments. I’m not even entertaining changing punctuation, let alone policy." Iowa Democrats speculated in the days and weeks before the midterm election that Republicans would weaken the program if they retained control of state government. In his campaign for governor, Democrat Fred Hubbell accused accused Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of threatening to "take away" pensions from future employees. Reynolds, who won a full term, strongly disputed the claim.