The Register's editorial

Perhaps the best thing the GOP-controlled Iowa Legislature did this year was adjourn.

In fact, lawmakers should have done it earlier, considering they spent their final days ramming through petty, vindictive bills seemingly intended to punish a select few individuals and organizations.

While last-minute, clandestine lawmaking may not be a new tactic, it is wrong. It allows no time for debate, dissent or public comment. And it was a final insult after a session of missed legislative opportunities to improve the lives of Iowans by doing things like restoring voting rights to felons and raising the sales tax a fraction of a penny to invest in conservation and recreation.

Of course, Gov. Kim Reynolds is hardly powerless. She can veto bad legislation. She can act on her own to make changes to Medicaid. She can sign an executive order giving felons the right to vote. She has a soapbox to advocate for real improvements in this state.

What she does in upcoming months will be a test of her leadership. So will how she responds to some of the worst bills Republicans shepherded through during the 104-day legislative session. The current group of lawmakers will be remembered for:

Helping teens get pregnant

Republicans are very interested in banning abortion but seem not very interested in preventing pregnancy. In 2017, lawmakers decided to forfeit federal family planning money for a program that provided birth control to Iowa women. This session, they refused to move forward on Reynolds' proposal to make birth control pills available to adults without a prescription. And they have relentlessly targeted Planned Parenthood, an organization focused on pregnancy prevention.

The day before the session ended, they added a measure to a budget bill prohibiting organizations that provide abortions from being eligible to apply for specific sex education grants. That will prevent Planned Parenthood, one of this state's most significant providers of sex education (and providers of health care to Iowa women) from receiving certain federal money. The result will likely be more abortions and more unwanted children who may end up in foster care or in need of public assistance.

Meddling with judicial nominations

Iowa has long had a sound, nonpartisan system for selecting Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges. A 17-member nominating commission interviews applicants and sends three names to the governor. He or she ultimately makes the appointment.

Yet on the very last day of the legislative session, Republicans approved a plan to give the governor more power in the process of selecting nominees. Among other things, the bill removes the senior justice from the commission and replaces that seat with a governor's appointee. If Reynolds signs the bill, which she should not do, she and future governors will be able to pick nine members of the commission instead of eight.

Though the final legislation was scaled back from earlier attempts to tamper with Iowa’s judicial selection, the bill was motivated by Republican lawmakers who simply disagree with recent court rulings. These include rulings that were unanimous, meaning justices appointed by both Democratic and Republican governors agreed with them.

Muzzling the Iowa attorney general

Current GOP leaders want one message coming out of Iowa: This state supports President Donald Trump. That seems to be the motivation behind a bill requiring the Iowa attorney general to get permission to join out-of-state lawsuits. Attorney General Tom Miller has rightly joined a handful of lawsuits initiated in other states seeking to block bad policies like separating families at the southern border.

Republican legislators apparently fail to envision a day when their political party no longer controls the Iowa House, Iowa Senate and governor’s office. They also seem to have no grasp on the constitutional separation of powers. The Iowa Constitution places the attorney general in the judicial branch.

More:Iowa GOP again fails to understand the concept of separation of powers

Like other GOP overreaches, this one will likely — and probably should — ultimately be settled by the courts.

Denying care to transgender people

In March, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down administrative code prohibiting Medicaid from paying for “sex reassignment” surgeries. The ruling allowed the health insurance program to pay for gender transition-related care, including surgeries.

The Iowa Legislature responded to the court by passing legislation to explicitly prohibit reimbursement for such medical procedures by insurance funded with public dollars. That affects not only Iowans who rely on Medicaid, but also public employees and their families who are insured by policies provided by city, county and state governments. Talk about overreach.

If lawmakers want to micromanage health insurance coverage and spending, they should take an interest in how privatizing Medicaid is wasting millions of public dollars and preventing Iowans from getting care they need.

But that would require effort, courage and leadership. Instead, they went out of their way to single out and deny care to a group of Iowans who already feel marginalized. What a disgrace.

Trampling on local control

Remember how the GOP used to advocate for “local control”? Well, those days are gone. Lawmakers approved a bill requiring local governments to jump through more hoops to raise property taxes. It requires public hearings and a two-thirds majority vote of the local board or council to approve a property tax levy that generates a revenue increase of 2% or more.

Apparently city leaders across Iowa are supposed to be grateful the final version of the legislation was scaled back. Instead, they might want to tell state lawmakers to take care of their own budget and let local officials take care of theirs.

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Lawmakers deserve credit for continuing work toward building a better mental health system for children. Iowans can also be grateful this group failed to advance a few especially bad ideas like imposing work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries or passing a 60-page attack on voting rights in this state.

Following the Legislature's adjournment, Reynolds called the session “a win for Iowans.”

“Earlier this year in my Condition of the State address, I said now is the time to deliver on the promises we made to Iowans looking for a way up.”

Iowans looking for a “way up” are not helped by more opportunities to gamble, less access to sex education and shortchanged funding for basic government services.

They would, however, be helped if lawmakers would dedicate themselves to actually improving the quality of life in this state. That means funding the outdoors, protecting workers and helping families struggling to afford basics like housing and child care.

Republicans should focus on those priorities next legislative session instead of pushing an agenda that targets the poor, the marginalized and anyone else politicians want to punish.