Local legislators outline expectations for 2012

Legislators will be returning to Des Moines Monday for the start of the 2012 legislative session.

Hot topics will likely include the state budget, commercial property tax reform and education reform.

After last year?s extended session, Sen. Sandy Greiner expects an agreement between the chambers to move the funnel up one week will keep the session on track. The number of ?really caustic ? really contentious issues? will be limited because of that, she said.

Greiner thinks legislators will focus on the budget.

Last year, legislators approved a budget for fiscal year 2012 and half of fiscal year 2013.

?We?re short some money, so we?ll have to go in and revise fiscal year 2013 to make up the difference,? she said.

Rep. Curt Hanson agreed, ?We?ll have to open up those budgets and refund them because these departments ? whether they be health and human services or schools ? simply can?t exist on what was budgeted.?

?Our state employees are really working on a shoestring-type budget,? Greiner said. So much money goes into education and social services, such as Medicaid and low-income programs, not much is left for everything else, she said.

On the bright side, Hanson said, ?We do have a balanced budget right now. We do have about a billion dollars in the cash reserves and the unspent balances, and revenue has been increasing just a little bit more than we anticipated that the estimated revenue increases would be. That?s all positive.?

Hanson expects commercial property tax reform to come up during this session.

?We know that commercial property tax is taxed at 100 percent of its value, and that?s not in the best interest of business or business expansion,? Hanson said. ?The $64,000 question is how to reduce that without increasing the property tax on residential property, particularly those on fixed incomes, or drastically cutting schools, counties and cities budgets.?

?Everyone that owns commercial property has been clamoring for years,? Greiner said. ?It?s like a balloon ? if you squeeze one place, it bulges someplace else.?

The property tax dollars that support the cities and counties still have to come from someplace, and Greiner isn?t ?real interested in increasing taxes on homeowners.?

Both Greiner and Hanson are waiting to see what proposals come out of Gov. Terry Branstad?s educational summit.

?One of the things I?m going to be concerned about in a rural district is that we don?t create two tiers of education ? one for metro and suburban Iowa and one for rural Iowa,? Hanson said. ?Rural Iowans have the great burden of transportation with their school budgets, and that takes a great percentage of the dollars per pupil.

?Urban and suburban areas have a far smaller percentage of their budgets taken for transportation. That equates to their ability to pay teachers more, to have more aides, to have more computers ? all of those things,? he continued. ?If you don?t have to spend it on transportation, you can spend it on the education of children.?

As a ranking member of the Senate economic development committee, Greiner said, ?I?m really interested in trying to move additional legislation that?s going to create jobs.?

She said she?s not privy to the majority party?s plans, but she wants to work together on measures to help existing business expand and attract new business to the state.

?There are places in the state where the economy is good, and they don?t grasp what it?s like in rural Iowa,? she said. Many of the people who do have jobs are underemployed, and Greiner?s goal is to bring in jobs that match their skill levels.

?Constituents are concerned about jobs of course. They?re concerned about making ends meet,? Hanson said. ?I think we?re gradually seeing an improvement in the state of Iowa. We?re hearing more and more reports that during the next quarter industries and businesses hope to expand and hire people.

?It?s still what I would describe as a wobbly economy,? he continued. ?We didn?t get into this recession all at once ? we?re not going to get out of it all at once.?

Greiner is concerned about proposals to increase the gas tax.

?My biggest concern is the impact it will have on rural people. They are the people who have to travel greater distances to receive services,? Greiner said.

At a forum sponsored by the Coralville and Iowa City chambers of commerce, Greiner asked Rep. Mary Mascher of Johnson County how far she drives to the dry cleaner. Mascher answered eight blocks; Greiner drives 20 miles one way.

?Think of the difference we pay in gas tax just to deliver and pick up a suit,? Greiner said. ?It really worries me that farmers and rural [citizens] are being sold a gas tax with the promise of better roads and bridges.?

For 10 years all the gas tax income went into Des Moines, she said.

?I need a guarantee that money will be focused in repairs rather than new construction before I even consider a vote on it,? Greiner said. She believes the formula needs to be improved so counties get the road money they need.

Hanson wants to work on the state?s forest reserve program.

?There are thousands of acres in Jefferson, Van Buren and Davis counties that are in this program, and the program is good ? it started out with the idea that we take highly erodible lands out of production and plant them with trees,? Hanson said. ?There?s a number of citizens concerned that forest reserve programs pay zero property taxes, and that forces the property taxes higher and higher on those remaining people that live within the county.?