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Legislators discuss property taxes at first chamber forum in Fairfield
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Tax policy took center stage at the first Legislative Forum of the season hosted by the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, Jan. 18.
The event, held at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, featured Iowa Sen. Adrian Dickey and Iowa Reps. Jeff Shipley and Helena Hayes answering questions from the audience. The chamber announced before the event that this first forum would focus on taxes and education.
Fairfield resident Margaret Dwyer asked the first question, wanting the legislators to explain how local governments could support themselves if the state Legislature is putting limitations on their taxing authority.
The three legislators said that property tax is the No. 1 issue at the Legislature, and Dickey added that about 90 percent of the emails he receives are about property tax relief. He said he feels the Legislature is being fair to cities and counties, and that every institution has to cut its budget when it doesn’t have the money, just like in private business.
Dickey said that, when local governments reaped more revenue from property valuations going up, some of these entities spent more money than their constituents wanted them to. He added that it’s better to leave money in the hands of taxpayers.
“You know how to spend your money better than me,” he said.
Shipley said that he was watching the show Iowa Press, on PBS, when a county supervisor was being interviewed about the Legislature’s limitations on local governments’ property taxes. The supervisor told the host that his county made cuts that it should have made 10 years earlier, but was never forced to.
John Morrissey, City Attorney for Fairfield, said House File 718 that the Legislature passed in 2023 was making it hard on local governments to “make do.” He said Fairfield had to put $500,000 from its reserves into its general fund to make up for the shortfall in revenue caused by HF 718.
“Small towns are feeling this, also,” Morrissey said. “Police departments will tell you they are undermanned by four or five employees.”
Morrissey also said that Fairfield worked hard to improve its bond rating after it had slipped to a low point about a decade ago, and he’s worried that HF 718 will lead to another downgrade in the city’s bond rating.
Morrissey told the legislators that “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” Shipley responded that he knew that quote well, and identified its source as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
“Taxation is also the power to destroy,” Shipley added. “We need to focus on essential services. A lot of people say that they are not getting good value for their [tax] dollar.”
Fairfield resident Rich Sims asked the legislators why, every session a bill is proposed to place a moratorium on confined animal feeding operations, and yet that bill never sees the floor. He asked the legislators if they would at least assign this bill to a subcommittee for further study.
Shipley said that he was the only legislator from the area to have ever signed onto a proposal like that, and yet even he didn’t support it in the current environment.
“The ag economy is not great now, and it seems like a solution in search of a problem,” Shipley said.
Shipley said that support for a CAFO moratorium is dwindling, and that there were fewer co-signers of that legislation this year than in the past.
“It’s not a good time to kick down on ag,” he said.
Shipley encouraged supporters of a CAFO moratorium to try proposing a more limited bill like one that increases CAFO setbacks or tweaks enforcement.
Fairfield resident Diane Rosenberg asked about Senate File 2412, a tort reform bill that deals with liability of pesticide manufacturers. Rosenberg referred to this as the “pesticide immunity bill,” shielding pesticide companies from lawsuits. According to the Iowa Legislature’s website, the bill deals specifically with pesticide warning labels, and states that a pesticide label provides sufficient warning if it was approved by the EPA, is consistent with the most recent human health assessment, or is consistent with the EPA’s carcinogenicity classification for the pesticide.
Rosenberg said she thought the bill was a bad idea, especially considering Iowa is the only state where cancer is growing, she said.
Dickey said the bill is different from how Rosenberg characterized it. He said the bill would prevent companies from being sued for failing to have a label that the federal government prevented them from putting on.
Hayes said she didn’t agree with the legislation, and that she has not voted in favor of the other pieces of tort reform legislation in the last few years.
The chamber’s next Legislative Forum will be Saturday, March 15, starting at 7:30 a.m. at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
