State legislators give an update on new legislative session at Mt. Pleasant

MT. PLEASANT - With the start of the new legislative session, State Sen. Rich Taylor of District 42 and Rep. Joe Mitchell of House District 84 made a stop at Iowa Wesleyan University's Chadwick Library to give an update to their constituents.

At the event hosted by the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance, a crowd of over 40 Henry County residents gathered at the university on Saturday morning to hear what the legislators had to say.

Moderated by chamber member David File, Taylor and Mitchell were asked to speak on how on-goings at the capitol could potentially affect southeast Iowans.

In their opening remarks, Taylor and Mitchell explained which committees they were a part of and what bills they anticipated would make the biggest waves.

Taylor explained that he is currently on the judiciary committee and said the committee 'runs through about 200 bills a year.”

'So far this year, we haven't seen much in judiciary come forward … nothing that really affects everybody in the state,” Taylor said. The senator also noted that he is a part of the Veterans Affairs committee.

One of the state senator's main focuses of the current session will be to remove transportation costs from the general education budget, a factor that would make it 'more fair” for rural areas, who would then be able to dedicate more dollars to educating students. While a similar bill that Taylor proposed last year 'failed miserably,” Taylor explained that the new bill allows for an eight-year transitionary period.

Taylor also pointed to a resolution making its way through the legislature that would 'ban abortion,” that he felt would be a hot topic for the upcoming session and encouraged residents to reach out to legislators on the matter.

Rep. Mitchell said he hopes to focus on workforce and has proposed a bill that would create a grant matching program for employers bringing in workers from outside of Iowa. Other initiatives Mitchell plans to work on include child care and 'looking for ways to help subsidize counties to create child care facilities,” as well as improving broadband and 'closing an equality gap to have just as fast internet in Mt. Pleasant.”

Mitchell also commented on the resolution concerning abortion explaining that it 'does not ban abortion,” but rather 'reverses the court's opinion” that abortion is a constitutional right.

Following opening remarks, the legislators were asked to comment on the governor's Condition of the State address. Mitchell noted that his one concern was the governor's proposal for the IWILL penny sales tax coupled with additional income tax cuts.

'It's something that I'm generally for but I just want to make sure we can pay for everything that we promised we were going to fund like our education and Medicaid … I guess my biggest thing is that we can pay our bills,” Mitchell said.

Taylor also brought up concerns with the IWILL sales tax and the income tax cuts, claiming that the tax will be most detrimental to people of a lower income bracket.

'It's basically raising the tax on the poor because even if you cut income tax to people, poor people don't pay income tax now. So they're going to be paying sales tax on top of what they never paid before,” Taylor said.

In response, Mitchell noted that items like groceries and pharmaceuticals are already exempt from sales tax. He further explained that states such as Texas and South Dakota have zero income and corporate tax due to having very high sales tax pointing to potential benefits. He also argued that sales tax is mostly paid for by people who do not live in Iowa.

In answering audience questions, the legislators also spoke on the state's efforts to address climate change and air quality as well as rising pharmaceutical prices.

Taylor noted that in his eight years in the state senate, he has felt legislators have 'stuck their head in the sand to pretend it's not happening,” and that Republicans, who are currently in control of the legislature, do not seem interested in addressing the issue.

Mitchell noted that the state has made efforts toward addressing issues and that the state currently stands as a leader in the nation for renewable energy in solar and wind power.

'I think it's been a bipartisan initiative for the last 10-15 years and something that I am supportive of,” Mitchell said.

Speaking on pharmaceuticals, the representative also noted that he is directly working on a bill that would cap the prices on insulin. Taylor also noted that while the state is working to lower the prices of prescription drugs, unless the federal government decides to legislate on the issue, it would be unlikely that there would be widespread change.

At the conclusion of the forum, both Taylor and Mitchell encouraged constituents to continue to communicate with them

'We have these legislative forums once a month but if you wait until next month to tell us about an issue, it might be too late,” Taylor said, 'We'll have a lot more to talk about in February … some bills will be completely dead and new things may come up.”