Sen Jesse Green, who represents Greene County as part of Iowa Senate District 24, and Rep Carter Nordman, who represents Greene County as part of Iowa House District 47, met with about two dozen constituents at a forum hosted by the Thomas Jefferson Gardens board Feb. 11. Green and Nordman are both Republicans.
Rick Morain was moderator for the forum.
Green is in his third year of his first four-year term as senator. He serves on four committees: agriculture, natural resources and environment, appropriations, and as chair of the local government committee.
He said during this session he proposed a campaign finance bill that would limit the amount of out-of-state funding a candidate can receive, most likely a percentage cap. He is also proposing a bill that would give property owners rights when drone operators want to fly over their property.
Nordman is also in his second term as representative, but his first term serving Greene County due to the 2022 redistricting. “I’ve really enjoyed getting around and meeting new people, especially here in Greene County,” he said during his introductory remarks. “I’ve loved hearing from so many people in Greene and Guthrie counties about the issues we’ve already dealt with in the Statehouse.”
Nordman serves on the appropriations, local government, commerce and judiciary committees, and is chair of the education appropriations committee.
He said his larger focus this session is a workforce bill in the appropriations committee. In an effort to make the Regents universities play a bigger role in developing the workforce in Iowa, Nordman is introducing a bill that would create a grant process for students at the three universities who plan to enter a high-need career field. Students would receive a tuition grant for their last two years in college, with the last payment coming after they’ve worked in Iowa for one year.
Those who attended the forum were invited to write questions for Green and Nordman. Morain determined which questions were asked and in what order.
The first question asked was about their support for the bills providing state funding for private schools via educational savings accounts for students. The state will put $7,598 – the per capita state expenditure for each public school student – into an account for each student who attends a private school. Those funds can be used to pay private school tuition and other educational expenses.
Green said he attended a private school through eighth grade and then went to a public high school, and that both experiences were good. As an adult he is a member of Countryside Bible Chapel, where most of the children are homeschooled.
He said that through his personal experiences and as a teacher of the Bible, “I’ve seen what happens when a child is placed in the right environment that meets his needs. I want to make sure that finances are not an issue for any family, regardless of their world view, to find the educational environment that best fits them.”
He said he was very clear during his campaign that he supported state funding for private schools.
“I have such a high view of Greene County Schools and Boone County, and all our rural public schools. I don’t think this bill is really going to affect these public schools here,” he said, and added that studies show only 2 percent of students leave for a private school if they’re given an option. “I don’t think that losing 2 percent of students is going to break public schools.”
He said that school choice is the best way to “take the government out of the conversation about curriculum and what books are in a classroom.”
Nordman also said he was clear during his campaign that he supported school choice, and that he carried the district with close to 70 percent of the votes.
According to Nordman, the ESAs will not belong to parents, but will be managed by a company hired by the state at an estimated cost of $1 million.**
Green explained how the Senate hopes to provide property tax relief. Property tax is the largest source of revenue raised and directly controlled by local governments. According to Green, all state senators and representatives have heard from taxpayers that property taxes are out of control.
Green supports Senate Study Bill 1124, which proposes a “back-to-basics” system aimed at controlling the growth and streamlining the property tax system. The bill would simplify and consolidate 18 levies; limit levies that seem to be open-ended; reinstate hard levy caps; eliminate loopholes abused by local governments to exceed limits set by law; and increase voter participation in bond referendums and debt consolidation.
Senate Study Bill 1125 would decrease the portion of a home’s valuation subject to tax; double the homestead benefit to $10,000 per household; double the military service tax credit to $4,000 per household; increase the qualifying threshold for the senior property tax freeze; reduce the taxable value of business property from 90 to 80 percent; and standardize the Local Option Sales Tax statewide.
If SSB 1125 were approved, it would trigger the 3/8-cent allocation for the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, also known as Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy, or IWILL. IWILL is part of the state constitution, but when it was approved it was set up so the funding for it would not be available until the next time the state sales tax is increased. At that time, IWILL will get 3/8 of a cent of the increased tax.
Green explained that 10 percent of the counties in Iowa don’t use the local option sales tax (LOST). They collect 6 cents in sales tax, while most counties collect 7 cents and keep one cent for local uses. Sen Dan Dawson, chair of the Senate ways and means committee, “wants to trigger the IWILL in the most conservative way possible.” Collecting a straight 7 cent sales tax statewide would do that.
“As we continue to lower income taxes, we’re obviously going to have to have a conversation about sales tax,” Nordman said. “I think before we raise the sales tax, we need to broaden the base of the tax that’s currently being paid.” He said there’s a long list of exemptions from the tax that he thinks should be examined.
The House bill doesn’t include IWILL. “We’ll see where that goes as the House and the Senate continue to talk about a property tax bill,” Nordman said.
Green plans to propose a bill that would protect from drones the airspace over farmland, citing a bull in Senate District 24 that sustained possibly fatal injuries when he was spooked by a drone and ran into a fence. “That’s totally unacceptable,” Green said.
One forum attendee used that information in asking a question about gun laws. The question included a time line naming six felonies in Greene or Boone counties in the past year that involved firearms, all six involving men using firearms against women. “What is the value of a really great bull in Greene and Boone Counties? When do you plan to drop (propose) a bill protecting the women and girls in Iowa?” was the question.
Green answered that in the situations mentioned many laws were broken and that adding more laws would not have prevented the situations. “We do have a mental health issue in the state of Iowa. I think that’s a bipartisan issue that we see with mental health.”
He said there are loan forgiveness programs to encourage psychiatrists to practice in rural Iowa, and that he’d welcome suggestions for changes that would prevent gun violence.
A question about House Bill 114 dealing with transportation and limiting liability for negligence by trucking companies, similar to last week’s legislation capping medical malpractice settlements, was very personal for the questioner, whose son was killed in June 2017 when his open cab tractor was rear-ended by a grain truck.
Green said trucking companies are seeing “crazy” premium increases for insurance, in part due to law suit awards given “purely on emotional evidence, not probable evidence.”
According to Nordman, “predatory trial attorneys come in and try to wipe out an entire company because of an incident.” He said the bill “needs work,” and that “it’s not ready for prime time.”
The legislators were asked about the bills concerning the Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.)
Nordman said the bill introduced during the first week of the legislative session was a starting point meant for discussion. He said any changes to the SNAP must obtain a waiver from the USDA. “Under the Biden administration, I don’t think a waiver is going to be granted,” he said.
He said the intent of the bill was to ensure people on SNAP weren’t buying pop, candy, and energy drinks. “As a taxpayer I don’t think that’s appropriate. A lot of these people are also getting a lot of other welfare programs, and if we’re paying for them, I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate to be buying luxury items with taxpayer money. That’s what the intent (of the bill) was.”
In 2019, according to Nordman, Iowa was fined by the USDA because there were too many Iowans getting SNAP benefits who weren’t qualified. The purpose of the bill is also to bring better compliance with federal regulations, he said.
Green and Nordman also answered questions about local control over county elections, consideration of CSR when siting utility-size solar panel installations, and increasing Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes.
**Nordman and Green clarified for GCNO after the forum that parents will not have direct access to the ESAs. They will submit bills for tuition and other expenses to the managing company. The company will then pay the school, tutor or vendor. Accounts will remain open until the student graduates from high school or passes a high school equivalency test, or until they’re age 19-20. At that time, any unused funds in the student’s account will revert to the state. They also said the definition of “educational expense” is narrow, primarily covering tuition or tutoring costs.
