Area legislators Driscoll and Hora offer updates at Washington briefing

WASHINGTON —The second of three planned legislative briefings took place last Friday at Washington City Hall where Heather Hora (Iowa State District 92 Representative) and Dawn Driscoll (Iowa State District 46 Senator) provided updates and took questions from the public.

Driscoll gave an update on a property tax bill being worked on by the Senate which has incorporated a good amount of community feedback. This bill aims to provide a 50% taxable value discount for homeowners and lower levy rates when property tax inflation exceeds 2%.

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“As property taxes have climbed higher and higher, Iowans have been looking for some relief,” Driscoll said. “In the past, Iowans have still come to the legislature asking for help, and it's clear that a simple fix is not enough, and a true overhaul is required to make the system more transparent and affordable for Iowans and their families.”

Hora utilized her time to highlight an array of bills which included House File 2542. This legislation creates a three and done strike system for repeat offenders.

If three full strikes are earned it triggers a mandatory minimum 20 year sentence without parole. Any felony and specific violent aggravated misdemeanors are considered full strikes while all other aggravated misdemeanors and some serious misdemeanors are half strikes.

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“Crimes must be accumulated within 20 years for them to count,” Hora said. “The crimes must be committed in separate instances. You cannot accumulate all three points at once. This point system will only be applied to crimes that occur after July 1, 2026.”

Hora also spoke about HF 2676 (ensuring a parent's right to raise their child in accordance with their biological sex), HF 2676 (aimed to improve the health of children by promoting nutrition education and limiting screen time in schools), and HF 2529 (giving farmers and ranchers the ability to repair and alter their own equipment as they see fit).

During the public comment portion, multiple voices raised their concerns towards HF 2171. This bill would eliminate vaccine requirements for students entering elementary or secondary school.

“I'd also like to support voting down House File 2171 on making vaccines optional,” an attendee said. “Please don't make Iowa less healthy and safe for us.”

“Vaccines in a community work when everybody participates, and we already have a way that parents can speak with their physicians and get an exemption,” a separate attendee said about HF 2171.

Senate File 2246, the Governor's bill to reallocate funds from the county veteran service officers, also drew criticism from a local veteran who spoke on behalf of the American Legion who are against the bill. Driscoll gave a response not in favor of the bill as it is now.

“I think that they're still working on it, but as it was introduced, I probably would not support that,” Driscoll said about SF 2246. “I know that there is a lot of work that is still being done on that, and I think that it does need a lot of work.”

There was also disagreement over HF 2324, which is a proposed bill that prohibits public schools from contracting with public libraries or hosting mobile libraries on school grounds.

“In Des Moines there are over 12,000 junior and senior high school students that rely solely on their public libraries,” an attendee said. “This appears to be an unfunded mandate on those school districts.”

Other comments brought up mental health services, funding per person for public school students only being increased by 2%, and the impact of non-compete clauses on healthcare professionals.

“I would absolutely welcome that, because I don't agree with that,” Driscoll said of dropping non-complete clauses. “The non-competes, they protect the employer, not the employee.”

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The next and last legislative briefing will take place on April 3.