Category: Political
News from the Hill…
This week in the Iowa House we passed the rules in which we govern ourselves by. In the Iowa Legislature we follow Mason’s Law, unless our House Rules and/or Joint Rules state something different. Most of the time was spent in committee work and sub-committee work. A bill must pass through a sub-committee then pass the full committee before it is eligible for debate on the House Floor.
Ways and Means Committee…
This week in the Ways and Means Committee we had two presentations. One presentation was on our property tax system. This presentation included an update on SF 295 that was passed two years ago to reform Iowa’s Property Tax System. On a statewide basis property taxes have been growing faster than the rate of inflation for at least twenty years. With the passage of SF 295 the growth of property taxes has slowed. While the property tax system is extremely complicated in the state of Iowa it does seem to work. The other presentation was on the Iowa Inheritance Tax. One of the bills we will be working on this year is to lower the states inheritance tax. People who work hard for their money and build up an estate should be able to decide where they want their money to go when they are no longer with us. This last year the state took in a little over $100 million dollars from the inheritance tax. This money has all been taxed before, it does not need to be taxed again.
Commerce Committee…
The Governors broadband bill, HSB 104, was assigned to a subcommittee this past week in the Commerce Committee. The Chair of the Commerce Committee is the sub-committee chair with two other majority party members and two minority party members. I was named as one of the majority party members. This bill is substantially different from last year’s bill. HSB 104 has a five million dollar grant program and 100% property tax exemption for the new property for a three year period. I believe the grant program is a nonstarter and will not last in the bill. The property tax exemption in the bill is too short to provide any incentive for build out, so I would expect that part to be increased to ten years. The big question that needs to be asked and answered is this, what is the roll of the taxpayer in paying for the installation of broadband in the state of Iowa? Is this a roll of government or private industry? I know what my answer is, but I would like to know where you stand on this issue. We finished the week in Commerce Committee with a presentation by John Deere and DuPont Pioneer on the importance of broadband, via cell towers to the Ag community. They indicated that we are on the front end of a major increase of usage of data in the Ag community. I would have to agree with this and we need more cell towers in rural Iowa. But it requires fiber under ground to connect the cell towers. This all takes money to build out and it is not the responsibility of the tax payers to pay for it.
“If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.” – Abraham Lincoln
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
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News from the Hill…
This past week the Iowa House held the first debate for the year. It was a six hour debate that included some caucus time. The bill established the increased growth of state aid for schools for fiscal year 2016. The debate centered around those who wanted to spend more than what the state has to spend and those of us who are fiscally responsible to keep spending in line with revenue. Some seem to find it easy to make promises that simply cannot be kept. Iowa’s economy is stable but the agricultural economy is simply not as robust as it has been in the past. For instance, John Deere has announced over nine hundred layoffs at several different plants. The layoffs in the Ankeny plant will be its biggest layoff in it’s history. So I believe it is very prudent to steady the growth with the uncertainty of actual funding revenue for the next year. The State funding for school aid for this next fiscal year increases approximately $50 million dollars for school aid and $50 million for Teacher Leadership Compensation. This total is one half of the available growth of additional dollars for the projected state revenues.
Commerce Committee…
In the Commerce Committee this week, we had a presentation from the ICN, about Broadband in Iowa. In the past the ICN has tried to get a bigger piece of business from the private sector. But it appears at this time they have received the message from the legislature that government ran entities should not be competing with the private sector as it is an uneven playing field tilted in the favor of government. The Governor has mentioned “connecting farms, schools and communities” last year in his campaign and this year in his state of the state speech. The governor’s office will be submitting a bill on broadband which I have just now received a personal copy and will read this weekend. The biggest question that will need to be answered is this, what is the role of government (taxpayers) in connecting every farm, school and community? The cost of laying fiber optics is very expensive. There has to be a significant rate of return for companies to be able to afford the investment of laying fiber optics. If taxpayers are asked to make some type of investment, there still needs to be a worthy rate of return on investment. There will be much more on this subject in the near future. I have been assigned to the subcommittee on HSB 96 that is in the Commerce Committee. This bill is an act exempting internet protocol-enabled service and voice over internet protocol service from specified regulatory authority known as VOIP. This bill has been very controversial in the past. While this may be the direction many are going in the industry, it cannot be at the expense of rate payers. There will be much more on this bill in the future, also.
Ways and Means Committee…
The Ways and Means Committee passed two bills out of committee this past week that I wrote about in last week’s newsletter. One of the bills, HSB 67, is very time sensitive. This bill decides whether the State of Iowa is going to couple with Federal Tax Laws for tax year 2014. The bill we passed will not couple with the Federal Bonus Depreciation, but it will couple with everything else including 179 expensing. This is very important for small business and farm businesses. This will lower the projected ending balance for fiscal year 2015, but increase the ongoing revenue for fiscal year 2016. The bill will now move to the house floor for further consideration. The other bill we passed out of committee was HSB 63, which modifies the deductions for 529 college savings plans. I wrote about both of these bills in last week’s newsletter. Both of these bills passed unanimously in committee and now move to the house floor for further consideration. They will become a House File and be assigned a new number.
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” – Benjamin Franklin
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
