Mitchell, Taylor talk property taxes, broadband during Legislative Breakfast

On Saturday, March 30, Rep. Joe Mitchell (R-Wayland) and Sen. Rich Taylor (D-Mt. Pleasant) met for a Legislative Breakfast in Iowa Wesleyan's Chadwick Library from 8:30-10 a.m. where they were asked questions on property taxes, broadband and education funding from the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance, which hosted the breakfast.

During the remainder of the time they answered concerns posed by the public on matters such as medicine and mental health.

Property Taxes

House Study Bill 165 is being discussed by state lawmakers as a way to establish budget limitations for counties and cities, making it harder for local government to raise property tax bills.

'The bill has not made it to the Senate yet that I'm aware of,” Taylor said. 'Overall I'm not in favor of the Legislature limiting our local governments on what they can and can't do, how they can tax and how they can't. At some point, the local government has to have control because Mt. Pleasant knows what's best for Mt. Pleasant and New London knows what's best for New London.”

Taylor felt the bill would cause local government to start taxing the maximum amount to be 'on the safe side” so that if any unforeseen needs arose, they'd be able to have a reserve to draw from since they wouldn't be able to raise taxes as easily.

'It makes it so that as the assessments go up, the levies go down,” Mitchell explained. 'There's not a 2 percent cap because you can pass a resolution as a city or as a county to raise that to whatever you want. If you want 110 percent of your budget instead of 102 percent of your budget you can do that, you just have to vote it on through the city council or the Board of Supervisors. That could only be reversed with a reverse referendum.”

Mitchell thinks a reverse referendum is unlikely to occur unless there is 'absurd spending.” He also said the bill would not affect the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System (IPERS), as has been rumored.

Broadband

In January, Gov. Reynolds requested $20 million over two years to increase broadband infrastructure across the state, particularly for rural areas.

'I think broadband is a huge deal when we're trying to get businesses to come to our rural towns, so I support her initiative,” said Mitchell.

Taylor also stated a desire to see broadband become more accessible, but felt there was more state government could do to make it available.

'We're not doing near enough to get broadband out were it needs to be,” said Taylor. 'We could find the money if we wanted to. I think there's a lot we could pull in from a lot of places, so maybe that's something we need to look into there, too.”

Neither Taylor nor Mitchell are aware of the governor making plans to expand 5G, though Taylor said he would be willing to work on making it more available.

'If we want younger people to come here and support our businesses we want to be sure we can market that and say we have high speed service here as we do in Des Moines,” Taylor said.

Education funding

On March 13, the house approved an extension of the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) penny sales tax in a 96 to 3 vote. Originally set to expire in 2029, this extension will allow schools to continue to collect a 1-cent sales tax to support school projects and property tax relief until 2051.

'I am very much in support of extending that (end date), because it allows the schools to plan and get their funding far into the future,” said Taylor, though he would like to see SAVE continue without a set end date.

Mitchell was part of the majority vote which approved the bill in the house earlier this year. 'I think (it's) great for out schools and our communities,” said Mitchell. 'I think it's one of the best bills that we've done this year.”

Medicaid

privatization

On Friday, March 29, UnitedHealthcare Inc. announced it is pulling out of the state Medicaid program, leaving only two other insurance companies in the state, Amerigroup and the Centene Corporation.

'To my understanding, UnitedHealthcare didn't want to comply with the standards that we put in place,” Mitchell said of the company's departure. He recommended that going forward the executive branch guarantee any managed care organizations (MCOs) brought in would comply.

'My opinion's the same as it's always been,” Taylor said. 'We throw these insurance companies out of our state and we take back over the Medicaid Enterprise with the Iowa Medicaid Enterprises like we had before. It wasn't perfect, but people were getting the care they needed and the providers were getting paid, We have to take a serious step, put our foot down, say ‘you're done' and go back to what we had and see if we can improve (that).”

According to Mitchell, however, the current method which was adapted three years ago and has state Medicaid in the hands of private insurance companies, can be made to work.

'The state auditor's office came out in November and estimated we've saved over $120 million dollars since we've done this and that's just the facts,” Mitchell said. 'I'm not defending it, I don't think it's a perfect system and I think there needs to be a lot of improvements, but it should be noted we did this to save money (and) we have saved money.”

Taylor responded to this $120 million figure with skepticism.

'Somehow or another I know that it cost us over $240 million more out of our budget than what we expected so far,” Taylor said. 'So I don't know where she came up with those numbers.”

Taylor pointed out there is a new state auditor now, Rob Sand, who was sworn in early this year replacing Mary Mosiman. Taylor mentioned he would like to see if Sand would come up with the same numbers as Mosiman.

Mental health

Last year, Gov. Reynolds signed an executive order to create a Children's Mental Health Board meant to provide more mental health care to Iowans.

'I know we put in our budget, $3 million for the new mental health care program to get it started up,” Mitchell said. 'I know we also put some money in there (to train teachers) to recognize some early signs for mental health care for children. I think we're making a good step by initially starting up the program and I look forward to continuing to work on that.”

Taylor, however, worried the amount was not significant enough and likened it to throwing dimes at a one-dollar problem. He believes $50 million dollars is what is needed to really make progress, an amount he believes could be pulled from tax credits.

'I'm not seeing that moving as fast or as much as I think it should,” Taylor said. 'We're dead last in the nation on children's mental health (and) that's where all our adult mental health comes from.”

Earlier this month, following a board vote, it was determined that Hillcrest Family Services in Mt. Pleasant would be one of seven programs across the state set to close. The Henry County facility provides services such as therapy and counseling.

Regarding this, Mitchell said he met with the CEO of Hillcrest and the situation was somewhat unclear. 'Really it's a he-said-she-said kind of deal,” Mitchell said. 'Hillcrest said they're owed this much money, and I think it was AmeriHealth who said that they don't.”

According to Mitchell, AmeriHealth agreed to pay a portion of what Hillcrest claims they're owed, though he's unsure whether or not this will affect the closing of any programs going forward.