As we go into our 6th week of this session, the issues of importance are coming clearer. I expect the House will concentrate on the following five items:
These are large items and funding for them exceeds the available revenue. The feedback from my district puts the local option sales tax for school infrastructure as the most important followed by Time 21 (highway maintenance and new 4-lane highways).
We have to be very careful with new spending because the spending increases by the majority party and the governor last year (for the current and future years) are about as much as the total spending increases for the previous 14 years. Spending is a serious problem.
I want to share some concerns by the State Auditor. The Auditor released his report on Tuesday, February 12, concerning the Governor’s proposed budget recommendations. He said the proposed budget ‘raises taxes and maxes out the state’s credit cards’ and needs to be brought under control.
The budget is very difficult to follow Ð in fact, the most difficult to follow in my ten years in the legislature. Borrowed funds are being paid back such as the $183 million being returned to the Senior Living Trust Fund. Then in the 2009 budget it is proposed that we turn around and drain the money from the Senior Living Trust Fund. The governor is proposing to take money from the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund for the General Fund Revenue spending, while bonding to create a long term debt. This is a way to borrow a lot of money that could lead to a very serious problem if revenue income should reverse in the future. We are still experiencing record revenue growth in Iowa, but this could change.
We have filled the Rainy Day Fund and the Economic Emergency Fund. This should be done at times of record revenue growth so that money is there in case there is a future downturn in the economy, such as the one in the early 2000’s. We definitely should not take money from those funds when we have record growth, nor should we do bonding to create long-term debt at a time of revenue growth.
The Economic Growth Committee heard a presentation this week about the success of the Cedar Valley TechWorks bio-campus in Waterloo, Iowa. This project was one of the first in the state to receive funding from the Iowa Values Fund. I was Chairman of the Economic Growth Committee when the Iowa Values Fund was developed and passed in the legislature. It was good to learn another Iowa Values success story.
According to information given in the presentation it was money from the Iowa Values Fund along with generous donation from John Deere that was being parlayed into this successful and growing project. The building and land were donated by John Deere and have been updated to include thousands of square feet of laboratory space for the development of bio-industries. This is an excellent example of government and the corporate world working together to get something done. Something that otherwise would never have happened.
Representatives from the project report reported that they already had their first tenant who will be using 25,000 square feet of space for research and laboratory testing of new biotechnologies. They have many other prospective new tenants.
The presenters from TechWorks emphasized the attraction of Iowa as a site for these biotech industries. The state provides close access to an educated workforce as well as natural resources.
Please feel free to contact me anytime.
Representative Clarence Hoffman
Home: 1-712-263-4884
Statehouse: 1-515-242-6447
Email: clarence.hoffman@legis.state.ia.us