~by Victoria Riley, GCNO editor
A few years ago I was in Ames with one of my adult daughters. As we drove past Best Buy on S. Duff, she noticed the name of the access St, Chestnut St.
“Hey, Mom,” she said. “When I was in high school I was hanging out with …” and she named a few friends. “It was about 11:30 and you called and asked where I was and I said ‘Chestnut St’ and you said OK and that was it. You thought I was at C’s house. I wasn’t. I was on Chestnut St in Ames at the theater. I didn’t lie. I was on Chestnut St.”
She was right. She hadn’t lied. But the phone conversation stayed in her head all these years because she knew she had, in fact, not been truthful. She didn’t lie. She said the truth, but not the whole truth.
Sen Jesse Green used the same strategy at the legislative forum Oct. 1 in Jefferson.
The conversation was about the Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy fund – IWiLL. IWiLL is an amendment to the Iowa Constitution approved by voters in 2010. Per the amendment, should the Iowa legislature increase the state sales tax, 3/8 of one cent will go into the fund to improve water quality, protect soil, enhance wildlife habitat, and increase recreational opportunities across the state.
It has not been enacted because the legislature has not increased the sales tax since then.
Green provided a brief explanation of IWiLL for a forum participant who questioned the state’s efforts to improve water quality but didn’t know about IWiLL. Green spoke the truth.
What he didn’t say was that eliminating IWiLL was on his radar. He omitted that information.
Just 12 working days later Green signed on to Senate Joint Resolution 6 that would start the ball rolling to change the voter-approved constitutional amendment so that the 3/8-cent of sales tax revenue would be earmarked for property tax relief, not relief for our threatened environment.
What he said was that IWiLL “could be a solution to two big problems in Iowa, property tax and water quality.”
Green didn’t say an increase in the sales tax could be a solution to either high property taxes or poor water quality. If the sales tax is increased, the state could use 5/8-cent any way it wants, including property tax relief.
So why put IWiLL in jeopardy?
In response to an email objecting to canning IWiLL, Green tallied $782.5 million appropriated by the legislature since 2010 that fall into the stated purpose of IWiLL. That’s $52.1 million per year of an $8.5 billion budget – that’s 6-tenths of one percent of the annual budget, using the same total budget for FY24 in the calculation for each of the 14 prior fiscal years.
If SJR6 proceeds, there will be ample time to discuss the issues of soil and water quality, habitat protection and recreational opportunities. A constitutional amendment wouldn’t be on a ballot until 2028. But, legislators who don’t deal openly and honestly with constituents will be on a ballot in 2026. Lies, whether they be lies of omission committed by a savvy politician or bald-faced lies, will be remembered.
