Iowa’s Legislators Complete First Week’s Work

Under Iowa’s Golden Dome.

Des Moines, Iowa – The legislative session has begun for Iowa, and with it came two freshmen legislators for the area. Sen. Ken Rozenboom and Rep. Larry Sheets, both Republicans reported to the state house for the first time, with Rep. Guy Vander Linden, also a Republican joining them.

Absorbing all of the information thrown at a freshman legislator was put into perspective by Sheets, when he compared it to, “drinking water from a fire hose.”

On Tuesday, in a joint session, legislators heard from Governor Brandstad and his proposals for the year, where he said, “I will propose legislation to permanently change the school finance formula so that “allowable growth” will be replaced by 100% state aid. No longer will the school aid formula trigger automatic increases in local property taxes.” Here are the Governor’s highlighted proposals.

Providing Property Tax Relief:

• The governor’s property tax plan fully funds the Homestead Tax Credit and the Elderly and Disabled Tax Credit;
• Permanently changes the school finance formula so that “allowable growth” will be replaced by 100 percent state aid, meaning no longer will the school aid formula trigger automatic increases in local property taxes;
• The current four percent cap on valuation growth for residential property and agricultural land will be cut in half to two percent and applied to all classes of property.

Making our Schools the Best in the Nation

• Update the teaching system by elevating the teaching profession with a new teacher leadership and compensation structure that provides five career pathways in order to offer new professional opportunities;
• The Teach Iowa Initiative will address another key problem: Recruiting top students to become teachers. Beginning teacher pay will rise 25 percent, from $28,000 to $35,000 per year, and the Teach Iowa Initiative will attract top students with a priority placed on hard-to-hire subjects, like math and science, with awards also going to future teachers in other majors as well;
• A new college or career ready seal that high school students may earn in addition to their diploma.

Improving Iowa’s Quality of Life:

• $2 million to support medical residency programs in Iowa;
• $2 million to launch the Rural Physician Loan Repayment Program to primary care physicians and expand it to include OB-BYN and emergency medicine doctors;
• Pass a Certificate of Merit law and a cap on non-economic damages.

I spoke with the local delegation shortly after his speech on Tuesday about their thoughts on the Governor’s proposals.

Rep. Guy Vander Linden (R) stated, “He only gave us the very highlights.” Vander Linden added, “I haven’t had a chance to see the details of it, but until it gets through the committee process I really probably don’t know what to think of it just yet.”

The allowable growth for school funding is part of the discussion at the state house, but Branstad’s plan could change how schools get funded.

“Now the governor proposes we finance school in a different way. So that’s one of the details that I’m really interested looking into. Allowable growth triggers property tax increase and of course we’re trying to decrease property taxes so we’re sort of working across purposes there. I’ll be very interested to see how he’ll sort this out. It may be a good idea,” Vander Linden said.

Rep. Larry Sheets (R) added, “The allowable growth thing for small schools like Moulton and other schools has sort of been like the angel of death. The fact that he’s talking about getting away from that and trying to substitute something that is hopefully better, that’s very encouraging. I think I approve of what I’ve heard of it so far.”

District 40 Senator Ken Rozenboom added his thoughts about education reform and its funding. “Education of course floats to the top of any discussion up here in Des Moines. The governor this morning [Tuesday] talked about increasing beginning teacher pay from $28,000 to $35,000. One of the big questions I have is what do we do with year 2, 3, 4 teachers that are not yet at $35,000. Has that been factored into the cost of this? A lot of things on the table here we need to talk about and we’ll fight through.”

On the discussion of changing the way school is funded, Rozenboom added, “I see that as real progress, and what I mean by that is, I’ve talked to a lot of people about allowable growth and I’m more than willing to admit I don’t understand the system. But in talking to even other legislators, I’m beginning to think they don’t understand the system either. The governor this morning talked about maybe some flaws that existed when that was set up in the 70’s. I think if we have a system that the people don’t understand and it’s complicated, maybe it is time to take a look at the fundamentals. I would applaud that. “