Moore, Shipley report on legislative session

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part update from Representative Tom Moore and Senator Tom Shipley, who met with constituents Saturday. Questions asked by attendees of the legislative coffee will appear in Tuesday’s CNA.

In his opening remarks, District 21 Rep. Tom Moore (R-Griswold) said with a legislative session shortened by 10 days, this week will be a heavy push for appropriation bills coming out of committee as the state legislature’s first funnel approaches Friday.

“I don’t know what the Senate’s like, but we’ve had subcommittee after subcommittee after subcommittee,” said Moore. “We had 45 different subcommittees on one day. I think they said that was like the second highest number of subcommittees in the House we’ve ever had since they started tracking that information.”

Education

Moore, who serves on education, state government, human resources and environmental protection committees, said the House passed a plan for state supplemental aid (SSA) for K-12 funding. The plan, which has been in the works for the past five years, is a 2.5% increase to SSA with a $5 increase in per pupil funding.

“We’ve got about, I think it’s 130 schools now that don’t get the exact same per pupil funding that the rest of the state does,” said Moore. “We’re getting things more equitable between all the schools in the state. And this was all a result of years ago when we went from the old method of school funding to the new SSA funding, that some schools were created with an imbalance in their per pupil funding.”

When it comes to education, Moore said nearly $2 million has been added to transportation funding, too and $19.2 million to the supplemental fund.

“That’s one time money out of the ending balance that will go to schools for them to pay for inflationary costs or other one-time costs,” he said. “Obviously, they wouldn’t be able to use that $19.2 million for ongoing salaries or things like that, but it does help defray some of the other costs.

In an effort to address teacher shortages, Moore ran a bill, now for the third time, to eliminate the PRAXIS exam. PRAXIS is a series of tests that measure teacher candidates’ knowledge and skills and are used for licensing and certification. Moore said there are some who argue in favor of the PRAXIS exam, but those standards have nothing to do with whether that person could actually be a good teacher.

“There used to be one (test) at the beginning when you went into a teacher preparatory class, you take this test to see if you qualify to even take the courses. And then there’s one at the end,” said Moore. “But when you’re all done, you’ve got to pass this test and you don’t get your teaching certificate, which to me was just egregious because we’ve got students who go through four years of college and rack up thousands of dollars of debt to become a teacher. And then because they can’t pass this stupid standardized test, they can’t become a teacher. Their score didn’t matter on it because it was determined by a whole nationwide set of scores.”

Moore said there has been some consensus, siding with his views of eliminating the PRAXIS, and said this is the year it will move through the House and Senate. If it passes, Iowa’s 32 teacher preparatory institutions will have to contact students who graduated but did not pass.

“All they’ll have to do is apply to the Board of Educational Examiners and they can become a teacher,” Moore said. “It’s always been on my agenda, but even more so now with the teacher shortage.”

Another bill to address the teacher shortage will lessen recertification requirements. Moore said teachers must have five hours of credit every five years, which come from different sources. He said, with the amount of in-service trainings and the number of teachers who return to school for graduate degrees just because they want to.

Moore said the House and Senate also passed a Renewable Fuels bill, which will increase the availability of E-15 at the pumps in our gas stations.

Victim protection

Senator Tom Shipley said the Iowa Senate has passed a bill pertaining to sexual assault, limiting what questions can be asked of a victim.

In court, certain questions are not allowed to be asked of a victim, however those questions can be asked during a deposition.

“Some of these defense attorneys or whatever will do everything they can to throw them off their game,” said Moore. “And now we’re going to restrict what they can ask, even in deposition, because just the process, what they’ve already been through is bad enough. And if they’re going to have to be asked this stuff in deposition, they’re just going to choose not to even show up.”

Natural resources

When it comes to natural resources, Shipley said hunting and fishing licensing is under consideration. He’s trying to find a happy medium to meet the desires of local hunters, but also wants to help people with limited access to hunting ground, such as non-resident hunters or individuals who lack financial resources to lease their own hunting ground. The overall goal is to help manage the deer population.

“There’s two sides to that argument, and both of them have some validity,” Shipley said. “We want to make sure we get people out hunting ... that revenue off those hunting licenses are very important. That pays for a lot of things.”

Transportation and supply chain

In transportation, Shipley said the Senate is working on a bill to lower truck weight limits.

“Usually there’s a proclamation at harvest time to run heavier weights,” Shipley said. “And there are arguments about, well, how does that affect our roads and bridges? You also got to remember, too, if you carry more weight on a truck, you need fewer trucks on the road.”

Shipley said an employee of one grain elevator said when they could run 90,000 pounds over a period of time, that was 140 fewer trips they had to make.

“So from a road safety standpoint, that plays into it,” he said. “Plus the simple fact of the matter is finding enough people put in those seats to drive those trucks.”

Shipley said the federal government made it more difficult to obtain a CDL, which is contributing to the shortage of drivers, ultimately affecting the supply chain. He said he spoke with one trucking company owner, who raised wages in an effort to attract employees, but it backfired.

“Now they can make as much in three days as they did in four. You know what they’re doing? They’re not showing up to drive day four,” Shipley said. “And he says they know (he) can’t fire them because (he) can’t find help.”

When it comes to redistricting, Shipley said Senator Amy Sinclair will have eastern Union County next year, now that Union has been split into two districts. Shipley’s districts will include a portion of Union, Ringgold, Taylor, Montgomery, Page, Adams and all of Cass. He will lose Pottawattamie County.

Shipley said a controversial bill under consideration is one that restricts how much ground the Iowa Department of Natural Resources can purchase.

“Sometimes you get government entities competing against private individuals to be able to get this ground bought. And so a young person doesn’t have the opportunity. Now, I have no idea of the future of this, but it has really raised the hackles of a lot of people because they want more public land in Iowa. The DNR, in the last two years, has acquired 14,000 acres in Iowa. That’s something not many people know now.”

Shipley said the money the DNR purchases ground with comes from a variety of things, such as taxes on ammunition, which go into the Fish and Wildlife Trust Fund.

“Some of it’s federal money. Some of it is given to them,” said Shipley. “And frankly, I can argue both ways. ... But it’s a very touchy subject, very touchy.”

Shipley said the Natural Heritage Foundation is using the state revolving fund to get money to buy ground, and doesn’t believe a nonprofit should be able to use government money to purchase ground.

“There was a case down in Ringgold County where one family wanted to buy (land) for a young man to help get started with calving and they just blew away what the thing went for,” said Shipley on why he wants to explore ways to level the field to make land ownership attainable.”

The next legislative coffees will be 8 a.m. March 12 and April 9 at the depot.