Any of these property tax overhauls would wreck Iowa
I believe the legislation to cut property taxes will be the most important and ruinous for the overall infrastructure for Iowa in a long, long time and a financial disaster.
It will first wreak havoc with rural, smaller cities and counties, but will eventually grab the entire state by the throat and squeeze the life out of it. With aging water and waste systems as well as streets in many rural towns and cities, there is a critical financial and human resource issue with having to establish EMT services as an essential service. Additionally, with aging and declining population in rural areas, sufficient resources to support volunteer fire services is getting ever more difficult.
Law enforcement is more often than not being shunted away from towns and cities to county-level resources already. The state is already bleeding negative revenue that needs to be covered from a quickly declining “rainy day fund.” A property tax overhaul is projected to take away $500 million per year for six years from cities and counties in this bill. Removing that much money across Iowa is clearly a prediction of a reduction in services. And last, but not least, public schools that have been strangled from underfunding for since the beginning of the Terry Branstad era, will suffer at a greater pace.
The shameful, long-term actions of Republican rule in Iowa that has driven people and companies away from Iowa is coming to roost in a tidal wave.
Phillip Thien, Des Moines
Brenna Bird should take action to protect competition in TV news
On March 21, an employee of KGAN’s news division announced that Sinclair is gutting its news operation and outsourcing local newscasts. While the razing of KGAN, a dual CBS and Fox affiliate, is disappointing, it should not be surprising. Three years ago, Sinclair completely shuttered the news operation of KPTH in Sioux City, also a dual CBS and Fox affiliate. These warnings show that the only thing that media consolidation fosters is decline.
On March 19, the Federal Communications Commission waived protective rules and approved Nexstar’s purchase of Tegna. Nexstar will be in the same position as Sinclair of owning 50% or more of the “big four” stations in Des Moines and the Quad Cities. In fact, Nexstar will be one of only two news operations in both markets. Once Nexstar has scrapped what is left of WOI and WQAD, it is not a question of if WHO and WHBF are next, but when the other shoe will drop.
Eight states are currently suing the FCC to stop this illegal merger and prevent what happened to KPTH, KGAN, and countless others from becoming the standard. If Attorney General Brenna Bird has any respect for Iowa’s journalists and newscasters, she will follow.
Cameron LaPage, Des Moines
Trump trashing Robert Mueller should end his presidency
Not one of our Iowa senators or representatives has the courage to condemn their president after his despicable remark, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” after the passing of true American war hero Robert Mueller.
Not only should his comment be condemned by the entire Congress, it should disqualify this man from continuing to serve as president.
Is it anything less than they would be demanding if President Joe Biden had made that very same comment? The Republicans have no limits to their hypocrisy.
Ronald Davidson, Clive
Grassley’s belly-aching is corporate ag hogwash
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s March 19 harangue against California’s Prop 12 is nothing but corporate ag hogwash. He’s belly-aching about a 2018 measure that voters approved by nearly a 2-1 margin. It’s time to move on, Chuck. Or as The Eagles sang in one of their hit songs, “Get Over It”!
By passing Prop 12, voters and consumers were telling the factory farm industry to treat its animals a bit more humanely. It gave gestating sows a few more square feet to move around in their tightly confined crates, and also said most pork sold in California grocery stores needed to comply with this standard.
Corporate ag groups like the National Pork Producers Council and the Farm Bureau have been squealing about Prop 12 for years now. They don’t like it when consumers, and voters, tell them, in landslide numbers, to change their practices. But really, isn’t that what we, the consuming public, should be doing to rein in this out-of-control industry? I guess they don’t like democracy.
While factory farms continue expanding across Iowa and producing billions of gallons of toxic manure that too often ends up in our drinking water, Grassley is cheering them on. Maybe he and our other Republican legislators should start paying more attention to everyday voters and less attention to the corporate ag industry. I for one am looking forward to the November midterm elections.
Hugh Espey, Des Moines
Why can’t Iowa delegation get E15 approved?
I live in Clinton County, a farming county. Even though farmers represent a minority of the population, they impact the majority of our economy.
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, like me, grew up on a farm, baling hay, probably scraping feeding floors. I’m guessing we both grew up believing that farming is the baseline of Iowa’s economy. In my childhood, corn was a crop fed to livestock; now it is a commodity, producing fuel in a world where that other commodity, oil, is ping-ponged back and forth by world leaders.
E15 has been a boon for Iowa farmers and for Iowa consumers. Six times, Randy Feenstra has indicated that E15 legislation was “close to passing.” Is he not able to argue effectively for this bill that is critical to Iowa’s economy? Economy is a nebulous word, but let’s put some bones in it. The economy means jobs. Truck drivers. Nurses. Waiters. Plumbers. Electricians. Teachers. Cashiers. Salespeople. Contractors.
Which could you do without? If you get a chance to talk with Feenstra, ask him to look at the hands that feed his pocket book and ask him to shake those hands in solidarity with farmers and the Iowans they support.
Dianne Prichard, DeWitt
A Texan in Iowa on a cold day
In early March I visited Des Moines, and I’m glad I did! I live and work in Dallas, and have a couple of clients in Iowa. Along the way, I picked up some insider knowledge about an interesting part of the country.
I arrived late on a Monday night at the airport. I had a busy day ahead of me, so I stayed at a hotel nearby. I was a little nervous about the cold-weather driving I had ahead of me in the morning, as I had to visit one of my clients 200 miles away in Orange City, and I was setting out before sunrise in single-digit (yet dry) temperatures.
I headed west on Interstate Highway 80, then north on Interstate Highway 29, around Sioux City, and north into Orange City. I’m a civil engineer by trade, so I’m naturally attracted to infrastructure. In this case, as the sun was coming up, I noticed a steam plume on the western horizon. I later read about the George Neal North Power Station Complex and learned a few things about power generation. Of more interest to non-engineers, though, I soon learned about Dutch immigration to Orange City and the surrounding communities (along with the delicious pastries, cheeses, and meats that I was directed to by the city’s monument sign). PHOTO
The trip back to Des Moines was a combo of county and state highways, which I relished, getting a chance to see some off-the-beaten-path agriculture, and even experiencing “Iowa Nice” making small talk with an Iowan at a gas station, before linking up with U.S. Highway 20 and Interstate Highway 35, heading south into Des Moines.
I made my second work stop of the trip, an architect’s office in a 100-year-old building near Woodland Cemetery. I’m a cemetery aficionado, but my flight was fast approaching, and, despite the cold weather, I’m even more of a zoo aficionado, so I drove over the river to the Blank Park Zoo!
There weren’t many people at the zoo, being a cold winter day, but I had a brisk walk, and got to see some of the cold-weather animals frolicking (lions, sea otters, and indoor rhinoceroses and giraffes, among others). I actually was a bit relieved that my flight home was delayed for an hour, so that I had time to relish the zoo.
As the zoo closed, the sun started to get low in the sky, and I picked up a copy of the Des Moines Register at the airport, and pondered the past 24 hours. It had been a productive work day, but, perhaps more importantly, a snapshot into Des Moines and environs, and I made a mental note to talk to my wife and kids about my trip, and plan a return someday (maybe for the State Fair, and not in the winter!).
David Recht, Irving, Texas
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Any of these property tax overhauls would wreck Iowa | Letters
Reporting by The Register’s readers, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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