Tensions run hot at Washington’s third, final legislative forum

WASHINGTON — Community members and lawmakers traded barbs Friday at the Washington Chamber of Commerce’s third legislative briefing of the 2025 session, weeks after the passage of a contentious civil rights repeal bill, and on the heels of the first legislative funnel period, which slashed hundreds of proposed bills from legislative dockets.

There was a leftward tilt among many remarks from the audience, and the atmosphere in the room grew tense as several bluntly criticized the voting records of Rep. Heather Hora and Sen. Dawn Driscoll, both Republicans.

A handful of audience members interrupted remarks from the legislative officials, either to push back on their assertions, or to interject with follow-up questions amid narrow time limits for both questions and answers during the event. Others bristled at a newly enforced rule that out-of-county audience members wait until every Washington County resident had a chance to speak, before posing their own questions to their elected officials.

While the legislative session is just over halfway complete according to a 110-day calendar posted by the state, last week’s event in Washington marked the Chamber’s last scheduled briefing with the area’s lawmakers this year.

Mutual frustration aired over school funding bill delays

Legislators and school representatives alike lamented a delayed bill to address public school funding next academic year. While the state House and Senate have each passed their own Supplemental State Aid bills, the chambers have struggled to reconcile differences between the proposals over the last month, with the House version proposing a 2.25% increase, compared to the Senate’s 2%.

With public schools now facing publication deadlines for their budget proposals, the uncertainty has caused major headaches.

“It’s pretty much a crapshoot for us, when we’re trying to set a property tax rate,” said Mid-Prairie Business Manager Jeff Swartzentruber. “Are we going to get 2%? Are we going to get 0%? That also affects how we negotiate with our teachers and our staff, what kind of raises we want to give them.”

Highland and WACO Superintendent Ken Crawford said he had similar concerns.

Driscoll and Hora have both publicly backed the 2.25% number, and said Friday they agreed with school officials that the legislation was long overdue, either way.

“The chairs of education in the House and the Senate, they’re trying to come to a compromise,” Driscoll said. “We would love for it to pass. Personally, I would, I think that it is important to get that done, and hopefully they can come together soon.”

Swartzentruber replied that schools needed the bill done back in February, repeating his frustration over the delays. Lawmakers said they were sympathetic, but weren’t sure when the final bill would materialize, or what it would look like.

“We would agree, but there’s such a difference between where the House and Senate is,” Hora said. “The House has so many added-on things … in addition to the 2.25%, whereas the senate is at a straight two. We aren’t budging on what we believe is right for the schools, and they aren’t budging on what they believe is right.”

Lawmakers take heat over civil rights repeal

The state legislature last month approved a reform to Iowa’s civil rights code, striking all references to “gender identity” and replacing the term with references to sex, based only on one’s reproductive organs rather than their outwardly presented social identity.

The legislation passed both chambers with exclusively Republican votes, including Hora’s and Driscoll’s. The legislators said the reform was needed to prevent courts from striking down other laws they claimed would protect women and girls, including sex-based restrictions on bathrooms and locker rooms.

JJ Johnson, a Richmond resident, pushed back on the policy Friday, posing the afternoon’s first audience question as he criticized the policy and said, “I would love for you to defend your decision to vote for that bill.”

A quick but enthusiastic applause followed Johnson’s question, before Hora replied.

“I don’t know what rights we rolled back, because there’s 28 other states that don’t have gender identity in code,” she said. “We were protecting girls by not allowing men in their personal spaces … we needed to take gender identity out so we could protect girls.”

Johnson argued the repeal would allow entities like restaurants, banks, landlords and local governments to discriminate against transgender Iowans, whose identities do not match their reproductive organs at birth.

Hora disagreed, saying state laws shouldn’t compel anyone to accept a person’s gender identity as anything other than their sex.

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“In the 28 other states, are they being thrown out of restaurants?” she said. “We just made them the same as everybody else. Because you believe you are something other than what you are, it should not be protected in code.”

Most of the audience appeared to disagree with Hora, scoffing at her response.

Save for brief remarks from two of the representative’s daughters, who attended the event and expressed similar opinions, everyone else who spoke on civil rights argued the recent reform failed to protect Iowans, since it removed explicit legal protections for some, and because other laws could require privacy-breaching inspections to enforce.

“I am also worried about the safety of women and girls, but not from your supposed trans danger,” said Washington County resident Katie Hostetler, another speaker whose comments drew a brief applause. “I’m concerned about real threats like gun violence, domestic and sexual violence, and children being subjected to invasive gender checks, due to bills like this.”

Audience critical of pesticide lawsuit protection

A handful of audience members expressed disagreement with legislation that would limit lawsuits against pesticide companies over health complications they allegedly cause, unless those complications fall within the scope of product labels. The bill came up for a second year in a row this session, amid concerns that agricultural chemicals may have played a role in the state’s high cancer rates, and in some Iowan’s development of Parkinson’s disease, according to a handful of lawsuits.

One Riverside resident in the crowd Friday, whose name was not audible, criticized Senate File 394, which was approved by a committee last month.

“We had five friends die from cancer, two of our very best friends, and it’s bull---- that they can’t sue the chemical companies because of that,” the man said. “It’s been studied, and it’s not radon, it’s not water, it’s farm chemicals.”

Driscoll and Hora, both farmers, said they supported the bill. While the elected officials said they hoped to see more research into Iowa’s second-highest rank in the nation for cancer rates, they argued that companies shouldn’t be liable for labeling practices not required by the federal EPA.

“You can’t sue for anything not required of them to be put on the label, or not even required, but what they can put on their label,” Hora said. “The EPA won’t allow them to, (and) the EPA approves their labeling, so it’s an EPA issue.”

A handful of crowd members said they were still skeptical, however.

“If pesticides cause cancer, why are you not allowing Iowans to sue for their cancer?” said Kathleen Gent, a county resident who said she was an epidemiology professor. “I’m sorry, this is my area, it just sounds like doublespeak. You’re not protecting Iowans, please reconsider.”

Driscoll reiterates library support

In a repeat from last month’s legislative briefing, a few community members brought up concerns about proposed bills that would limit public library content, and create new legal liabilities for libraries, where some critics accuse the institutions of providing obscene materials with taxpayer dollars.

Washington Public Library Director Cary Ann Siegfried said she remained concerned about the proposed legislation, arguing it would create unnecessary and expensive legal risks for the taxpayer-funded institutions. She also criticized House File 880, which would withhold funding for libraries that work with the American Library Association and similar advocacy groups.

“To me this bill is a complete waste of time,” said Siegfried, a librarian of almost 40 years. “Why are we spending time on bills like this, that are going to harm public library services in Iowa, rather than looking at ways to bring back the library levy and improve library services.”

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Driscoll chaired a senate subcommittee last month where she blocked the advancement of two bills that would raise library’s liability for allegedly obscene materials. She said she stood by the decision, and agreed with Siegfried about the public institutions’ importance and ability to moderate their own collections.

“I’ve toured many of our libraries, and I think they’re doing a great job,” Driscoll said. “I did not support (those bills).”

Hora, however, voted in favor of both of those bills as a member of the House education committee.

The representative said she was eager to get them out to other members of the Republican caucus for a wider discussion, and has previously expressed skepticism about libraries’ discretion over their materials.

“What will happen with those bills, I’m not sure,” Hora said. “If the bills do what they say, then I’m for them. Obscenity has a definition in Iowa Code … it has to go up to scrutiny, and then it’ll be easy to decide whether it’s obscene or not.”

Elected officials disagree over grain indemnity reform

In another rare split between Driscoll and Hora, the pair of lawmakers and farmers said they disagreed over proposed grain indemnity fund reforms that survived the funnel period.

The proposals would raise the minimum and maximum required balance of the state’s grain indemnity fund, a safety net for grain producers whose buyers go bankrupt between the date of a harvest’s purchasing contract and its delivery for payment.

A House version of the bill would exempt protection for credit sales, and for deferred-payment contracts wherein the price of grain is determined only after its delivery. The Senate version lacks such a stipulation.

Sen. Driscoll said she was in favor of the bill, arguing it would keep the emergency fund large enough to cover the state’s steadily increasing corn and soy production levels.

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“When the fund originated back in the early ‘80s, the production, we definitely did not have the kind of yields that we have today,” she said. “We had to update the floor and the ceiling on that to protect the farmers, because we’re producing more grain on less ground.”

Hora, meanwhile, said she opposed the bill. She argued that protection shouldn’t extend to deferred payments.

“The fund is OK as it is,” she said. “Credit sale contracts and deferred payment are management decisions, and we should not insure management decisions … it’s a management decision, it’s not selling it for cash.”

Kurt Hora — Rep. Hora’s husband — said he agreed, during his 30-second share of the audience comment period.

“Them dollars could be invested in market development, versus sitting there in a multi-decade account that you hopefully never have to use,” he said. “Diverting that money to conservation and other programs that you guys are already spending money on would be a better use of those dollars.”

New tax bill is on the horizon

Sen. Dawn Driscoll spent most of her opening remarks discussing a property tax bill introduced the week prior, which was sent to her and several other members of a Ways and Means subcommittee.

The senator, whose re-election campaign highlighted property tax cuts as a top priority, said SSB 1208 was “a historic tax bill that will bring relief to Iowa taxpayers.”

The senator said the 52-page bill would create “predictability” for businesses and local governments, some of which have previously criticized recent tax reforms for restricting local control over levies.

“This bill builds on the success of House File 718, which has addressed the immediate needs of Iowans … and sets the stage for deeper reform,” Driscoll said. “This bill will be the biggest overhaul of the property tax system since the 1970s. It will bring certainty, predictability and transparency to local governments, and will provide real reform and relief for Iowans. It levels the playing field between the urban and the rural, which is very important, and it also controls local government spending, while providing more flexibility.”

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According to Driscoll, the senate’s proposal would provide $426 million in tax cuts, create a $25,000 homestead tax benefit, and lower the state’s uniform levy by 2030. She added that it would limit cash reserves for local government entities, and add property tax credits for seniors age 65 and up.

The bill would also gradually move away from Iowa’s property tax rollback model, and set new limits on how much property taxes could grow from one year to the next. Driscoll said the switch would “make the property tax system simpler, fairer, and easier to understand.”

None of the legislation is set in stone, however, and the bill hasn’t yet seen a subcommittee meeting. Driscoll said she welcomed feedback on the matter as lawmakers hash out the details.

“This is a work in progress, this bill,” she said. “This was just the roll out, and we have the entire session to work on that.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com