Week 3: SSA, property taxes and casino moratorium

By Rep. Jon Dunwell

As week three came to an end, three topics dominated conversations: SSA school funding; property taxes; and a casino moratorium.

The current moratorium on new casinos in Iowa is set to expire. The industry believes Iowa has plenty of casinos and building additional ones will cannibalize existing facilities. On the other hand, Cedar Rapids plans on applying for a casino with the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. On Thursday the Iowa House stepped in front of the IRGC and voted in a 5-yr moratorium. The bill the House passed was worked out with the Senate and it is believed they will pass it. I voted for the moratorium but for different reasons. I’m no fan of gambling and I don’t want to see it expanded.

I continue to work on property taxes with a group of legislators. We have discovered some existing systems that we believe work. Truth in Taxation would create a property specific tax statement prior to any levy/budget being approved. Each taxpayer would receive a statement outlining: 1) What they paid last year; 2) The proposed levy; 3) What their taxes would be if the levy is approved;4) The breakdown for each taxing levy; 5) Dates of public meetings. Such information being provided PRIOR to any levy/budget approval has proven to create greater engagement and accountability between voters and taxing entities. I believe a good Truth in Taxation plan could possibly allow us to get rid of the rollbacks and the “growth limits” imposed in HF 718, while creating significant accountability for local taxing entities. Finally, we have had numerous meetings around SSA funding for schools. Great disagreement exists at the Capitol. The Senate and the Governor have communicated their firmness on a 2 percent increase. Whereas I believe many in the House would like to minimally match the mandated pay increase for teachers — CPI (approx. 2.6 percent) or 3 percent, whichever is lower. Though we may disagree on specific funding, we do agree…

• Our system is complicated and needs to be updated and simplified.

• Too much money is tied up in categoricals and local leadership needs more freedom in spending where it is needed.

• The dollars being proposed are really about 2.6 percent if the minimum staff increases we mandated last year and continually fund are included.

Our 30-day deadline will probably lead us to approve the 2 percent but I believe the House will be looking for other ways to provide more dollars for our public schools. And it’s time for us to not just review our funding model but change it.

Let’s keep the discussion going!