The View From Here

We have finished week thirteen of the legislative session when most of our time was spent on floor debate. We have also started turning our attention to the budget and working through the details of each department’s budget.

This week we passed Senate File 167, which sets funding for K-12 education. The legislature increased funding for schools by $240 million, bringing total state funding to over $4.2 billion. The state is investing $7,988 per pupil and continues the teacher pay increase from last year. This puts Iowa among the top ten states for teacher salaries.

Since education funding is by far the biggest budget item for the state, we set that budget first and will now be working on every other item in state government. Our target for the total budget is $9.411 billion, which is up 5.2 percent from last year. With the tax cuts made in past years, it is important that we budget conservatively and prioritize our investments.

Since we legalized fireworks in Iowa several years ago, it has been necessary to make some adjustments. This week we passed SF 303 which allows consumer fireworks: July 3 between 9:00 am and 10:00 pm; July 4 between 9:00am and 11:00 pm; and December 31 from 9:00 am until 12:30 am January 1. The use of fireworks allows Iowans and citizens around the country to celebrate these important holidays in a patriotic manner and the way Iowans desire. I always enjoy sharing fireworks as a family, especially when the youngest members can be frightened by the big community display. It’s one of those things Iowans do to celebrate our freedoms.

I’ve heard of some disturbing increases in property taxes this week. We are working to make the process more transparent so that taxpayers know why their taxes are going up. The proposal, Senate Study Bill 1227, increases the homestead exemption to $50,000 to help bring real relief to residential property taxpayers. It also immediately removes the rollback for all classifications except agriculture. Additionally, it implements a consumer price index (CPI) adjustment alongside the 2% revenue restriction to help local entities manage times of high inflation. Lastly, it provides a cushion to help small communities that may not be growing much.

The House passed two bills dealing with CO2 pipelines that I appreciated. However HF 943, which bans eminent domain for carbon pipelines, did not make it out of committee. HF 639 would narrow the definition of common carrier so that private companies could not use eminent domain, increases the insurance requirements of the company owning the pipeline, and requires IUC board members to attend meetings. This bill was amended so that almost all of the good parts were eliminated and several items were added that would make it easier for Summit to prevail in their effort to force the pipeline through land when property owners don’t want it. I will continue to work for real protection of our God-given rights.

As a busy senator and farmer this spring, I affirm a statement I recently ran across.

If you don’t schedule your priorities someone else will.