This has been another very busy week, lots of accomplishments in sub-committee and main committee’s.  Congressman Tom Latham stopped in for a visit on Thursday, February 20, and spoke to the republican caucus.  This gave us a chance to share some of our concerns at the National level.  Other guests I had this week were Tom Greene and Bob Arbigi, both from Burlington.  Tom is a pharmacist and Bob is with SEICAO.

Budget concerns and Economic Growth continue to dominate our thoughts, time and work.  When revenues are flat and demands for more money are coming from every organization in the state, it makes for some very difficult decisions that are yet to be made.  The Appropriation Committee has been working on bridging the gap between revenues’ and expenditures, but they still have a ways to go.  Fiscal responsibility is one of the main issues that I ran on and it continues to be one of my strongest points.  Without responsible spending and planning we will never be able to attain our true potential as a state or as a people.  Just because we are not having as big a problem that some of our neighboring states are having, does not mean that we should do any less in fiscal responsibility.  In fact because of our prior fiscal responsibility is why we are better off than some of our neighboring states.

Some of the questions that we need to continue to ask ourselves in this; what is government doing today that it should not be doing?  Government has grown to a level that we as taxpayers cannot afford.  Another question is; does all of the money that is appropriated towards programs go to help the people in need?  Or does it go to feed bureaucracy?  Until we are ready to answer these questions and try to do something about correcting this problem, we will be limited in what we can attain.

There are several different ideas and pieces to the pie of solving the problem of the size of government, but the following are some of the ideas that will provide better communication between the taxpayers and their local governments.  The initiatives will also help in slowing the growth of government.  

On Wednesday, February 18, the House Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee announced a five-step plan for property tax reform.  The five bills are just the beginning of the plan for tax reform in the state.   The bills are not being proposed as an alternative the Farm Bureau’s plan on TIF.

The five initiatives are:

1. Truth in Taxation Initiative – House Study Bill 166 – dealing with County Ending Fund Balances; This is a bill that I have been given to manage through the committee process.
2. True Property Tax Relief Initiative – House Study Bill 165 – dealing with the Property Tax Relief Fund;
3. Voter Awareness Initiative – House Study Bill 167 – dealing with the Local Option Sales Tax Reform;
4. Limiting Government Growth Initiative – House Study Bill 163 – dealing with County Budgets and expenditures;
5. Accountable Budgeting Initiative  – House Study Bill 164 – dealing with Super-Majority Vote.

These initiatives provide more checks and balances between local governments and the property taxpayer.  Additionally, these bills set up reforms for the current property tax system.

This week in the Commerce Committee the republicans caucused on title insurance, there will be more on this subject in the near future.  House Study Bill 8 is a bill that I was the chair of through the Commerce Committee and will be my first bill that I floor manage out on the House floor.  We passed HSB 8 in the House Commerce, Regulation and Labor Committee, Public Disclosures by Banks, on Thursday, February 13.  The bill eliminates the requirement that state chartered banks must make a list of the names, addresses, and number of shares held by officers, directors, and shareholders of the bank available to the general public.  However, the state chartered banks still have to provide the information to the Iowa Banking Superintendent and its shareholders at their annual meeting.  This also puts state chartered banks on the same level as national banks and credit unions, which do not have to make their officer, director and shareholder lists available to the general public.  As the vice chair of commerce committee I continue to receive many of the bill assignments.  This keeps me very busy and gives me a great opportunity to learn the sub-committee process.

The House Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, February 18, unanimously approved a bill that will increase the penalties for persons who possess and manufacture the drug flunitrazepam – commonly referred to as the “date rape” drug.  Currently, this offense is classified as an aggravated misdemeanor.  The bill elevated the offense to a Class D felony – punishable by no more than 5 years in prison and a fine of at least $750 but not more than $7,500.

At 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, February 22^nd, I will be having a forum at the City Hall in Mediapolis.  On March 1^st I will be in Strahan Hall, Muscatine Community College, in Muscatine at 9:00 am, and at LaReyna’s Restaurant in Columbus Junction at 1:00 pm.

Until next week,

Tom Sands