Eggs And Issues Nearing Season Finale
A smaller than normal crowd worked their way into Smokey Row this past weekend for the next to last Eggs & Issues for 2015.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The bi-monthly legislative session Eggs & Issues held its next-to-last session inside Smokey Row Coffee House in Oskaloosa on Saturday morning.
The normally lively Republican-Democrat banter of previous years has been replaced by the sometimes split decisions of Republicans in various houses at the Iowa Legislature. The three Republican legislators representing the Oskaloosa Area and Mahaska County is; State Sen. Ken Rozenboom, Rep. Guy Vander Linden and Rep. Larry Sheets.
One of the issues discussed on Saturday focused on the closure of the mental health institutions in Clarinda and Mt. Pleasant. “The closing of the mental health facilities is not a done deal,” said Vander Linden. “I think the legislature is going to object to the idea of closing those two facilities.”
Also passed through the Senate was the school start date, which says that it’s a local control issue. “There was some interesting dynamics of the debate,” said Rozenboom. Rozenboom said that some Senators who are normally in the “camp that the state knows everything and runs everything… suddenly argued for local control on this particular issue.”
The school start debate now heads for the Iowa House. “I don’t know how that’s going to turn out,” Vander Linden said of the impending debate on school start date in the Iowa House. Vander Linden said that a compromise date of August 23rd has been talked about. “I suspect there will be a significant number of people who want to make it towards the Senate version, which is local control. There will be some others who are looking out for the tourist interest, particularly from northwest Iowa, who will want to make it Labor Day.”
School funding continues to be unresolved at the statehouse so far this year. The Republican controlled Iowa House and Governor Branstad are proposing a 1.25% increase for the fiscal year 2015-16 for school funding. The Democrat controlled Senate has said they would like to see a 4% increase. If the two houses can’t agree, the funding increase will be zero for the upcoming fiscal year. “It doesn’t look like to me they are making much progress,” Vander Linden said about the committee work to settle the funding debate.
Sheets said that, in addition to the school funding debate, the legislature is also looking into how school boards may negotiate with teacher unions. “The way the current laws are, is that when the school board decides to go to binding arbitration, the arbiter can only choose between the school boards position and the teachers union position. They are empowered to be able to choose something in-between and come up with a reasonable compromise,” said Sheets.
There is one final chance to ask your legislator a question in a public setting like Eggs & Issues, at the last scheduled event which is slated for March 28th at 8:30 am inside Smokey Row.
