Greiner: ?Up to you to elect people who keep their word?

Sen. Mark Chelgren joined local legislators Sen. Sandy Greiner and Representatives Curt Hanson and Jarad Klein at the Legislative Breakfast hosted by the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce Saturday morning at Best Western Fairfield Inn.

Tracy Vance, the chamber?s executive director, explained he invited Chelgren to the breakfast because when the redistricting takes affect July 1, Greiner will no longer represent Jefferson County; Chelgren will.

Chelgren said he moved to Iowa 16 years ago after riding and meeting his future wife in RAGBRAI. He lives and own businesses in Ottumwa, and said he considers himself a ?constitutional libertarian.?

Klein said the most significant highlight of the week was that the House had passed a ?genuine property tax reform? on Wednesday that has been sent to the Senate for the incorporation of its ideas.

The bill, he said, is for all classes of property tax: residential, ag and commercial, industrial, railroad.

?If we don?t do anything, we?re looking at a $2.5 billion increase in the next 10 years,? said Klein, but this bill provides $400 million of relief to residential property tax holders and $600 million of relief to commercial property tax.

Klein said the bill does not stop local governments from growing.

?There is still going to be 2.3 percent average growth of local county budgets,? he said. ?We?re going to tie this to inflation and to Iowan?s incomes. When our government costs go up and way exceed the family income, we?ve got a problem and that?s what we are addressing with the property tax bill we passed on Wednesday.?

Chelgren said one of the first things he learned in Des Moines was that no current legislator can hold a future legislator to anything, so even if a 10-year-plan is approved for tax relief, it doesn?t mean future Legislatures will follow it.

Greiner took issue with Chelgren?s statement. She pointed out a solution can?t always be accomplished in one year, so that is why plans often stretch across years.

?It?s up to you to elect people who keep their word,? continued Greiner. ?I don?t have a problem buying into a plan that takes several years.?

Greiner said tax relief could be done in one year, but the cut that would have to be made would be so drastic, the state would literally be shut down, and there would be no assistance to even the neediest.

?The reality is no Legislature is supposed to hold another Legislature to anything, but if you, the electorate, elect honest people who keep their word, that?s the way those plans work,? Greiner said. ?But if you?re going to elect a bunch of shysters who say, ?well yeah they said this, but we don?t care,? that?s where your problems all start. You get people that are wiling to promise you things that can?t possibly happen, but they promise them anyway and they go ahead and just keep spending ? and that?s what?s happened in the last eight, 10 years ? and now, this is where the rubber meets the road.?