Categories
Basketball Burlington Notre Dame Danville Iowa Sports West Burlington

Danville Tops Notre Dame, 83-46

Photo by Dan Hockett Notre Dame’s Xavier Williams (32) shoots against Danville during Thursday night’s game at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington. Danville defeated Notre Dame, 83-46.
Photo by Dan Hockett
Notre Dame’s Xavier Williams (32) shoots against Danville during Thursday night’s game at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington. Danville defeated Notre Dame, 83-46.
Photo by Dan Hockett Danville’s Connor Hogberg (2) goes to the basket around Notre Dame’s Xavier Williams (left) during Thursday night’s game at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington. Danville defeated Notre Dame, 83-46.
Photo by Dan Hockett
Danville’s Connor Hogberg (2) goes to the basket around Notre Dame’s Xavier Williams (left) during Thursday night’s game at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington. Danville defeated Notre Dame, 83-46.
Categories
Burlington Iowa News Political West Burlington

Woman Testifies on AR-15s for Self Defense

Gayle Trotter testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee

Categories
Burlington Iowa News Political West Burlington

An Immigrant’s Testimony on Violence Prevention

Categories
Burlington Iowa Letters to Falcon News Political West Burlington

State Issues from Tom Sands

News from the Hill…

This week was Southeast Iowa Great River Days at the capitol.  Part of the group was made up of High School Juniors from the Southeastern Community College Program, M Power U.  They gave three different presentations on their position on fuel tax, sales/use tax on purchases of goods over the internet and education reform.  While I may disagree with their positions, I think that the young people did a great job in making their presentations and speaking to the audience.  I continue to be impressed with the quality of students in the M Power U.  This is a great program with good opportunities for those who participate in the program to witness the importance of being involved.

Fuel Tax…

Presently in the Iowa House no bill has been filed to increase the State fuel tax.  But there seems to be much discussion with people around the state of Iowa.  The discussions people have with me reflect that many different organizations support an increase to the fuel tax, but many people do not.  Federal mandated fuel efficiency vehicles have flattened out the fuel tax revenues for the road use tax fund.  At the same time inflation is increasing the cost of construction and repair.  Some say the only solution is to increase the revenue by a tax increase.  That solution begs the question what will we do when that increase is no longer enough?  It is unclear what will be done with the fuel tax, but it is clear to me that if the only solution going forward is to increase the fuel tax, that is only short term solution for an ongoing problem.  There needs to be better efficiencies in the IDOT planning, there should never be road use tax money used for bicycle trails, there needs to be a better long term plan for a stable revenue stream and finally we should look for ways to decrease some other tax that Iowans pay.

Education funding Presentation…

Wednesday the Legislative Services Agency gave a presentation to the Ways and Means Committee on School Finance Formula Funding Review and the primary focus was on Property Tax implications.  State funding to K-12 School aid for this fiscal year is 2.6537 billion dollars or 42% of the state general fund budget.  The total amount of Funding for K-12 education from local property taxes equal 2.0646 billion dollars state wide.  The per pupil foundation formula that is set by the state is 6,001 dollars for each student.  This is arrived at by a mixture local property taxes and state aid, which comes from taxes paid to the state.  There is additional funding available outside the foundation formula, which may come from property taxes, income surtax, sales tax and federal aid.   Based on the Department of Management’s FY 2012 Estimated General Operating Funds for Elementary and Secondary Education total of $4.887 billion (State/local/federal), the per pupil amount is approximately $10,321.  This is the most money taxpayers have ever spent on education.

Federal Income Tax…

On Monday, January 28, the House Ways and Means Committee passed HSB 38, which has now become HF 110.  This bill either couples or decouples Iowa Income taxes with the Federal Income Tax changes.  The bill that passed couples with all of the Federal changes with the exception of bonus depreciation.  Personally I would prefer coupling with bonus depreciation also.  However, the state has not coupled with this for several years and our depreciation schedules are all messed up.  The impact of conforming to the federal changes resulted in a reduction in state revenues of $24.8 million for FY13 and $35.4 million for FY14.   The previous figures do not include bonus depreciation for which the bill does not couple.  Bonus depreciation coupling would have resulted in additional reduction of revenue in the amount of $36 million for FY13 and $28.6 million for FY14.  While coupling is a reduction to state revenues it is a net gain to tax payers.  I always place tax payer’s interest ahead of tax receivers.  There seems to be enough people looking out for the tax receivers.  The Senate has passed a similar bill out of their Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, so it appears that one of the chambers will pass their bill out and send it over to the other chamber and the bill can land on the Governor’s desk for signing soon.  It is important for our taxpayers and tax preparers know how Iowa will couple with the Federal Tax changes.

“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” – Theodore Roosevelt

For more information on these and other bills:  www.legis.iowa.gov

-Tom Sands

Categories
Burlington Iowa Obituaries West Burlington

Obituaries

Marie Louise Little, 92, Burlington, formerly of Winfield, died Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Categories
Burlington Iowa News Political West Burlington

Addressing the ‘Great’ Gun Myths

Myth #1. The assault weapon myth. Obama, Feinstein and allies use fear mongering to push gun-grabbing agenda.

Myth #2. The high-capacity magazine myth. Anti-gun crowd deliberately misleads the public.

Myth #3. The cop-killer bullet myth. Politicians go after ammunition as a sneaky way to get your guns.

Myth #4. The gun-show loophole myth. FBI checks have to be fixed; new laws not needed on private gun sales.

Categories
Burlington Iowa News West Burlington

Missouri Woman Stops Serial Rapist in Self-Defense

Categories
Burlington Iowa News West Burlington

Ailing Widower with Parkinsons Stops Crazed Intruder who Tried to Kill Him

Categories
Burlington Notre Dame Danville Iowa Sports West Burlington Wrestling

2012 Wrestling Photos in Gallery

2012 Wrestling Photos now available in our Gallery.

Photo by Dan Hockett
Photo by Dan Hockett
Categories
Basketball Burlington Burlington Notre Dame Fort Madison Iowa Sports West Burlington

Notre Dame Falls to Ft. Madison, 58-66

Photo by Dan Hockett Notre Dame’s Alex Kuster goes to the basket against Fort Madison Tuesday night at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington. Fort Madison defeated Notre Dame, 66-58.
Photo by Dan Hockett
Notre Dame’s Alex Kuster goes to the basket against Fort Madison Tuesday night at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington. Fort Madison defeated Notre Dame, 66-58.
Photo by Dan Hockett Notre Dame’s Jeff Giannettino shoots over Fort Madison defenders at Father Minett Gymnasium Tuesday night in Burlington. Fort Madison defeated Notre Dame, 66-58
Photo by Dan Hockett
Notre Dame’s Jeff Giannettino shoots over Fort Madison defenders at Father Minett Gymnasium Tuesday night in Burlington. Fort Madison defeated Notre Dame, 66-58