Local legislators share active projects

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on Saturday’s legislative coffee meeting.

A full audience arrived at the Meal Site of the Creston Restored Depot on Saturday to listen to their district’s state legislature, State Senator Tom Shipley and State Representative Devon Woods.

State supplemental aid was mentioned both of the state legislators opening statements. Woods mentioned how districts typically asked for an increase of around 2.5% to 3% in SSA, but the Iowa House bill is lower at 2.25%. Additional funding could be applied for from the schools through the transportation equity funding and a one-time payment for per-pupil costs, among other options.

With every option for funding, along with the SSA, the rate of funding could raise to a 3.9% increase of a new $149.2 million to schools across Iowa.

An option the House bill gives for underfunded schools is a property tax “pick-up.” In order to meet the needs of the district, school districts can choose to raise property taxes if they’re unable to properly fund their programs. The “pick-up” would allow for the state to pay for a portion of how much property taxes would be raised to limit the effect on a tax-paying household.

“[We won’t] leave our constituents with the bag there if they choose to have that conversation about property taxes,” Woods said.

SSA was a contentious topic for Shipley, who mentioned how there were multiple avenues for public schools to raise more funds. He mentioned the available transportation equity funding and district operational sharing as options for rural schools. The new bill from the Iowa House, with a 2.25% increase to the SSA rate among other funding options, was viewed favorably by Shipley.

“I’m likely to support that,” he said. “It isn’t everything I want, but I never get everything I want. Never had.”

Shipley, serving his 11th year on the Iowa Senate, outlined a few priorities in his opening statement. The first was a bill which would allow for children of veterans who have a 100% disability rating to attend any of the region’s community colleges or universities tuition-free. California, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota and Texas are among states with similar programs.

With bird flu in the news raising concerns for livestock farmers, Shipley has made a priority of a bill to establish a foreign animal disease response. The state senator acknowledged bird flu as a popular topic, but also mentioned African swine fever as a major fear. With the vitality of animal transportation and Iowa’s major part of the pork industry, Shipley felt a need to take action.

“If [African swine fever] were to get to this country, it would change things within hours,” Shipley said.

While discussing how the disease enters the country, Shipley mentioned immigrants as a source. He said the ability for the disease to be brought over from countries below the border from smuggled food items was akin to an attack on the U.S.

“It is identified as being a possible way for a terroristic attack to damage our food supply, and it will be done very, very quickly,” said Shipley. “What we’re working on is how the department of agriculture will be able to respond to this with the tools to start to gather these animals together and dispose of them.”

This week marks state legislature’s “funnel week,” where legislation has to pass through subcommittees in order to move on to the next phase.

Shipley touched on a few subcommittees with school legislature he is a part of, some of which he described as “small potatoes.” One of them is working on a bill to require schools to take cash as a mandatory option for athletic events. The bill was described by Shipley as a way to allow “anyone to attend a ballgame and [not be] turned away.”

Classifications for public and private schools was being reworked in one subcommittee, with the goal to avoid disparity between the private schools who excel in championship events and the public schools who miss the bracket. Members of the state had asked the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union to make stronger classifications. After a lack of action, state legislature could take matters in their own hands and make the first move.

“They haven’t done anything,” Shipley said. “We’re firing a shot across their bows and saying you fix it or we will.”

School start dates could be moving up to as early as one day after the closing of the Iowa State Fair. Iowa’s set date of Aug. 23 could change from a range between Aug. 18 to Aug. 25, depending on the choice of the schools. Shipley mentioned flexibility to the schools as a major motivator.

Shipley reflected on the passing of chronic absenteeism laws last year, forcing schools to monitor attendance on a stricter scale. He mentioned how some side effects of the law needed to be tweaked, such as a surplus of certified letters exhausting some officials, but said the goal of bringing students back to schools was working according to school districts who have communicated with Shipley.

A state constitutional amendment to prohibit a mandate of child abuse victims to testify in the same courtroom as their accused abusers was pushed by Shipley. Child victims had the option to testify through a video testimony instead of facing the accused abuser in court. Iowa’s supreme court had ruled to block this practice, citing a constitutional right for the defendant to confront witnesses. Shipley disagreed.

“We’re going to fix that through constitutional amendment,” said Shipley.

Shipley compared a version of this year’s agriculture and natural resources budget to the raises in teacher pay approved during last year’s legislative session. He lamented the lack of funding for the budget he analyzes as a part of the agriculture and natural resources appropriations committee he serves on.

“It’s the smallest budget in the state,” he said. “The money we put into teacher’s salaries alone last year is more money than this budget has in it. So, to say we never put money into the schools is disingenuous at best and simply not true.”

Following Shipley’s opening statement, Woods gave hers. The state representative began with discussing a train bill she’s a part of, mentioning a history of train stations in Iowa and how their presence preceded a state government.

“If you’re ever bored one day, go read some train law,” Woods said. “Just looking at what does and doesn’t apply to them, it’s just kind of an interesting read.”

The bill challenges train companies to stop vacation buyouts for specific events. Train companies have the ability to buy out employees’ planned vacations as late as one day before the scheduled vacation. While the bill doesn’t challenge the companies ability to perform these buyouts, Woods said the subcommittee is looking for a “middle ground” for certain events.

Woods mentioned school events for employee’s children, such as their graduation, as events which could receive protection. She said these vacation-time events would be those “you can’t get back.”

Moving on to a topic of human trafficking, Woods mentioned working on a public service campaign to inform Iowans on the subject. She likened the project to examples of other identifiable public service campaigns like “see something, say something” and “stop, drop, and roll,” hoping to make countering human trafficking events a quick and natural instinct.

Screening and training tools for child exploitation for industries close to children was also discussed by Woods. The state representative said she was hoping to give a “science-based” way to inform employees like teachers on recognizing signs of exploitation.

In combatting provider shortages in medical fields while also creating a program to encourage retention of Iowans, Woods mentioned a program to give priority of Iowan medical students and other medical institutions. This program wouldn’t be unique to the state, with Woods mentioning how other states require applicants to specify their time in the home state.

Fiber and broadband providers outreach into rural areas was mentioned by Woods. The state representative mentioned a bill in discussion to connect various networks to reach quality internet access farther into rural areas. Difficulties with offering services will continue until infrastructure is in place, with Woods saying how there’s no “broadband internet highway” available.

“It’s just not ready for primetime,” said Woods.

Choose Iowa was given praise by Woods, noting how the encouragement of Iowa agricultural providers creates stronger opportunities for Iowans. Support for food banks around Iowa and notices for Iowan vendors at farmer’s markets across the state were all mentioned.