From the ground up

By: 
Dan Zumbach
Iowa State Senator, 48th Dist.

     Week eight in the legislature was the first funnel week of the year. This deadline requires bills to be out of their originating chamber’s committee in order to be considered for the rest of this year. The days went by quickly with a majority of my time spent in subcommittees and committees to make final decisions on bills.

     A bill went through committee which creates a criminal offense for a person who either obtains access or employment at an agricultural production facility which is not open to the public, intending to cause physical or economic harm. This legislation is important to protect livestock producers from malicious actors seeking to destroy their businesses with false accusations.

     Private property is a vital aspect of the success of our state and nation. It provides people with the pride of ownership. They maintain and improve their property for tangible and intangible reasons, and in Iowa thousands of people make their living off the land.

     The Senate Natural Resources Committee approved a bill in an effort to increase fairness in the sale of private property. It is a narrowly crafted bill focused on ensuring private individuals do not have to compete with another private entity using taxpayer dollars to help it outbid them when property is for sale. The bill does not inhibit any practice currently underway to allow conservation boards, local governments, or the DNR from purchasing land for water quality or conservation. It does bring some balance to land purchases in this state by ensuring one private entity is not using taxpayer dollars to help it acquire land.

     The Senate remains committed to ensuring the long-term fiscal responsibility in the State of Iowa. This commitment includes being mindful when it comes to spending taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. It is one thing to talk about being prudent when it comes to spending, it is another to double down and put that language in the Iowa Constitution.

     Taking the current 99 percent spending limitation law and putting it into the Iowa Constitution will ensure the state continues its commitment to crack down on spending. This crackdown will hinder the legislature from circumventing any laws to balance a budget. It would also prohibit the surplus from being calculated in the expenditure limit. It ensures ongoing expenditures are not budgeted to exceed ongoing revenues. The constitutional amendment would limit spending increases each year to no more than 4 percent growth from the previous year’s net revenue estimate.

     This is an important first step toward long-term fiscal responsibility. As a proposed amendment to the Constitution, it must pass both chambers in the same form during this General Assembly, and again in the following General Assembly before it can go to a vote of the people. Enacting a Constitutional Amendment is difficult, and it should be, but this only demonstrates the importance we put on responsible state budgeting and reining in state spending.

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