Legislators discuss allowable growth

Public preschool, schools? allowable growth funding, fuel taxes and roads, and mental health services were the most talked about topics Saturday at Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce Legislative Breakfast.

Rep. Curt Hanson said the Legislature has moved from discussion to action mode now.

?I?m sorry to see the Iowa House has not set allowable growth by the Feb. 13 deadline,? Hanson said. ?Education is truly a priority. I don?t think we should be waiting to the end [of session].

Iowa?s government is on a biennial budget, Rep. Dave Heaton told the 30 or so people gathered.

?Next year 4 percent is set and I?d like to have the same education budget the second year,? said Heaton. ?I don?t see the problem. Schools know their budgets a year in advance.

?The debate [in Legislature over schools? allowable growth] this week didn?t look at history,? said Heaton. ?If we go so far out, then have to make cuts ? schools can?t deal with the inconsistency. It?s a time to be cautious, and schools need to know the budget will have consistency.?

Heaton said a 6 percent allowable growth for Iowa school district, promoted by Democrats, can?t be sustained by the state?s budget.

?We have $120 million property tax relief and $100 million in Medicaid, I don?t think 6 percent allowable growth can happen, the revenue is not there,? said Heaton. ?I do support early childhood education and if we can find the money to open preschool for all children, I back that.?

Iowa recently has provided no-cost preschool for all 4-year olds. Now legislators are looking for ways to extend no-cost preschool for younger students also.

Sen. Rich Taylor introduced the subject of preschool.

?We?re working on education, and the biggest goal in the state now,? he said. ?We can?t do enough to give kids a good education. We?re pushing hard to give all children free preschool regardless of income, from 2-years old.

?We have legislation proposing it for 3-year-olds, but it?s more than the governor put in the budget,? said Taylor.

Tom Rubel, executive dean of Regional Economic Advancement/Advanced Technology at Indian Hills Community College, said he was glad to hear the Legislature was working on more preschool.

?What we do for our youngest children really makes a difference,? Rubel said. ?Solid preschool programs pay dividends. Just ask any kindergarten teacher about children with preschool experience versus those without.

?I know there only so much funding, but preschool is a really good investment.?

Taylor replied it is one of his priorities.

?We see the results in other countries that start children earlier,? said Taylor. ?Kids are excited to learn, and the early we start, the better.?

Richard Beall, director of Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, asked the legislators about removing caps for online education.

?In some cases, the quality of online schools was not there,? said Hanson. ?Caps were put in.?

Taylor said some are looking to take the caps off, while looking harder at monitoring.

?It seems quality control is important,? said Beall.

Heaton said online learning is a great assistance to learning.

?But to do a whole high school online ? that?s not what we?re looking for,? said Heaton. ?We want local schools to do the teaching.?

Hanson cited an example of a Bloomfield biology teacher who developed online learning to enhance courses.

?She was an excellent teacher and it needs to be done right,? said Hanson. ?One of the dangers is when an online school is done only for profit.?

Tom Thomson asked about the state budget and programs.

?If we?re living off of a surplus budget, is there any kind of study about how different departments procure services? For example, health and human services,? said Thomson.

Heaton said one mistake at the state level is not listening to people at the front end of using services.

?The only way to really understand how it works is to see it work on the user end,? said Heaton. ?Legislators need to visit every aspect where state government touches, and listen to people.?

The Department of Human Services has taken severe cuts in the past three to four years, said Taylor.

?We?re using the department of corrections as one of our main mental health services and it would be better to get inmates better care and to meet their mental health needs,? said Taylor. ?I think we need a more balanced approach for what we?re trying to accomplish. And it comes back to good education.?

Heaton said Iowa has 857 beds for mental health patients in the whole state, and 650 of those are in private institutions.

?Iowa ranks 47th in the 50 states for mental health beds per capita,? said Heaton. ?We need to work to open more critical care and acute care spaces.

?It?s estimated one-third of the beds are occupied by people held longer than needed because there?s no place to place them back in their community.?

Jefferson County Supervisor Dick Reed brought up road conditions.

?The weather is really kicking the heck out of our roads, some of the hard-surface roads are separating because of the hard frost,? said Reed. ?Roads are important to education, too, because so many students are transported.

?We?re working on an urban renewal project to have Heartland Co-op build a facility in Fairfield,? said Reed. ?The property tax roll back hurts the TIF district.

?How does economic development work with roll backs?

?If you have the opportunity to give more funding for infrastructure, we could sure use it,? said Reed.

?We watch our county budget, and our sheriff and central point of coordination ? we?re all trying to do the same things, serving people. But when we have to transport mental health patients across the state for a bed, that?s more work and expense for the county and state.

?We have a diversified county here, it?s neat,? said Reed. ?We have growth but we don?t have enough money for our roads. We?re a pay-as-we-go county, we haven?t bonded for road upgrades.?

Heaton said Jefferson County property owners are lucky the county has not bonded for road improvements, as many other counties have.

?That?s one reason we?re looking at a fuel tax, to have the drivers who use the roads help pay,? said Heaton.

Reed said the county engineer recently estimated the cost of bringing all of the county?s hard-surface roads up to grade A condition.

?It would cost $20 million,? said Reed. ?And it?s not just our county?s problem ? it?s the same problem in all counties.?

Taylor said he sees a need to increase the fuel tax.

?It?s not popular, everyone doesn?t want it, but if revenue is needed ? it?s not the total answer but we have to do something now,? said Taylor. ?I think we need to act during this session.

?I don?t see this moving through this year without the governor taking a leadership role, saying he wants it,? Taylor said.

Among the 30 or so audience members in attendance Saturday were high school students from both Fairfield High School and Maharishi School. Sponsors introduce each student, who then told a little about themselves, including any post-secondary plans.

?I am impressed with the high school students here today,? Heaton said. ?I can?t believe the number of students interested in going into medicine.

?Fairfield is a special place, I enjoy coming here.?