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Representative Ro Foege
Report from the Iowa Legislature
May 4, 2003
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
I would characterize the recently adjourned legislative session as the good, the bad and the ugly. Let me start with the good.
We began this session with three priorities: providing modernization and growth for Iowa’s future, managing the state budget, and protecting Iowans who are feeling the pinch in a bad economy. Last week, the Iowa House passed the Iowa Values Fund to transform our economy and create 50,000 new high-wage, high-skill jobs. We also took a bold step to modernize our economy with a property tax reform proposal that will make property taxes more competitive, understandable and progressive.
The Legislature also took action on several of my education priorities this session. We were able to maintain our commitment to the class size reduction program in a difficult budget year. And, we passed a character education initiative that will improve student achievement and cut down on disruptions in the classroom. My bill to make hearing screenings mandatory for newborn babies was also passed in this session and signed by the Governor last Thursday. If we can catch hearing loss early, we can vastly improve language development skills for children.
The bad? Unfortunately, the Iowa Values Fund and the property tax reform proposal have not passed the Senate yet. The majority leader in the Senate simply shut that chamber down and refused to take up these issues passed by the House. I plan to keep working on these issues until they are signed by the Governor, and I will gladly return to Des Moines, if necessary, to make sure these bills become law.
There is other unfinished business. We have not yet lowered the cost of prescription drugs for senior citizens, nor have we required that insurance companies cover mental health and substance abuse problems as they do any other illness. The privacy of Iowans’ medical and financial records is still not protected. We were not yet able to increase the minimum wage, an issue of importance to many working Iowans who are struggling to support their families. These are critical issues that we must continue to fight for.
The ugly? In order to balance our budget, we took the worst action possible. We shifted the burden onto local property taxpayers and named it “Reinventing Government”. We cut $70 million in support for cities and counties, leaving many local governments with little choice but to lay off police officers and firefighters and cut other services. And, we balanced the budget on the backs of abused and disabled children by cutting (not with my vote!) $37.5 million from services to children and families who receive services from the Child Welfare system of the Iowa Department of Human Services and those who receive services from the Area Education Agencies in Iowa.
Another ugly piece of legislation is the ill-conceived income tax cut. The version passed by the Iowa House has several problems, as it makes our tax structure even more regressive. And, it does not remove federal deductibility. The richest Iowans gain most of the benefit, while the middle class barely gets a Happy Meal. A huge problem with this cut is that it leaves a $685 million deficit in the state budget to be faced in a few years with absolutely no answer as to how to handle it. Obviously, property taxpayers have to be concerned, fearing the solution may be to pass more responsibility onto local governments, forcing property taxes up.
I urge Governor Vilsack to call us back into special session as soon as possible so that we can finish the business of passing the Iowa Values Fund, in order to develop an economy that supports our values. We need to spur economic growth for our children and for the future of our state. Perhaps, we will have an opportunity to revisit some of the “bad” and the “ugly” issues in the special session.
You can write me at the P.O. Box 128, Mount Vernon, IA 52314; or e-mail me at
ro.foege@legis.state.ia.us.
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