News from the Hill…
This week continued to be a “one step forward and two steps backwards” type of week. While we make progress it is only noticed by setting a stake in the ground. Even then there have been some days the progress is hard to see. No wonder we find ourselves four work days past the scheduled end of session. All of the major pieces of unsettled legislation are in a conference committee. Discussion is going on between key players of both the House Republicans and the Senate Democrats. Some are working together better than others, but talks continue. Leadership of the House and the Senate continue to talk between themselves and the Governor’s office.
I was extremely hopeful that we would press through this week and finish. So, I packed enough clothes for seven days and made plans to stay till the finish. Apparently the Senate Democrats had different ideas, so we will be going into the second week of overtime.
Property Taxes…
The Conference Committee on Property Taxes did not meet this week. However, Senator Bolkom and I have met several different times to work our way through to an agreement. If ten people can come to an agreement better than 150, then the two of us should be able to do so faster than ten. The bill is made up of several major components, so we have picked areas of the bill to work through at each meeting. While I remain optimistic for a property tax bill being signed into law this year, I remain realistic in knowing that it will not be as substantial as I would like to have.
Tax Increment Financing…
A couple of weeks ago I assigned a bill, HSB 236, to further tie loop holes that are being used in Tax Increment Financing (TIF). The subcommittee members held a couple of subcommittees to listen to some of the pros and cons about the bill. The people who liked the bill shared some of their own experiences on how the present law was being abused. Those who disliked the bill, people using the loop holes to skirt the law, shared that the world would come to an end if we passed the bill. The scare tactic tends to be quite dramatic and over used here in Des Moines. This week, I introduced another bill, HSB 238 that took just one part of the TIF bill and though that would be an easier lift this late into session. This bill capped the amount of TIF debt a city could have at $8,000 per capita. This amount is four times the state average. The bill came out of committee with a vote of 16 aye and 8 nays. Presently there is a constitutional debt limit of 5% of the assessed value within a city. Bond attorneys have become very good at finding ways to skirt this law. This is a loop hole that needs to be closed for the protection of taxpayers. This bill still needs some work and it is late in session so I pulled the bill from the debate calendar. However, the issue is not going away and neither am I. I will be back next year with a better bill.
Fiscal Responsibility…
This week in the Appropriation Committee they passed out a bill, HF 648, which took some of the onetime money and paid off some of the debt the state, has. This is an excellent use of onetime money and it pays great dividends into the future. The use of onetime money will be a major stumbling block this year. I assume we will spend some and save some. My goal will be to save more than we spend. The second goal will be not to spend any of the onetime money on ongoing expenditures.
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
– Ronald Reagan
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
-Tom Sands
