Iowa House loses ‘good friend’

The Iowa House is wrapping up this week (Feb. 6) that was shortened by the sudden passing away last Friday morning of our very good friend and colleague Rep. Martin Graber of Fort Madison, representing House District 100.

He left behind his wife and two daughters, one of whom lives in Vinton. He served his country and state honorably and retired as brigadier general from the National Guard.

Session was canceled Tuesday (Feb. 4) for the funeral, which enabled several dozen representatives and state officials to attend, while others attended the visitation Monday (Feb. 3) evening in Fort Madison.

He was truly a caring and compassionate gentleman.

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An update on House File 144, the gambling moratorium that blocks the issuance of gaming licenses until 2030. The Senate determined that there were not enough votes to pass the bill out of committee, so there was no action on it.

That opened the opportunity for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to vote on this, which passed. There is the possibility that the commission’s vote is not legally valid, so their vote might not be the final say.

Just like home mortgages, payments on bonds issued by the state seem to go on forever. While the state of Iowa has a significantly lower amount of outstanding bond debt when compared to other states, the cost of these bonds still has a big impact on what can be done to address state infrastructure needs of today and tomorrow.

In 2009, Gov. Chet Culver and legislative Democrats believed it was wise fiscal policy for the state to borrow $800 million for a variety of state and local infrastructure projects.

The I-JOBS program, as it was called, ended up primarily financing the repairs to the University of Iowa in the aftermath of the floods of 2008.

Perhaps the biggest ongoing impact of the I-JOBS program is the continual debt service payments for this ill-fated scheme. The state issued $695 million of bonds backed by the state’s gaming tax revenue.

At the end of Fiscal Year 2024, the state still owed $421 million in principal and interest on these bonds. The state will pay approximately $45 million this year from state gaming tax collections to the holders of these bonds, instead of using the funds for needed repairs and new construction at state facilities.

The payments on all the I-JOBS bonds will not end until Fiscal Year 2034.

Another portion of the I-JOBS program was the issuance of $115 million academic building revenue bonds by the Board of Regents, state of Iowa. The Legislature authorized this series of bonds to fund construction projects at the three state universities.

While the bonds are backed by tuition revenue from each school, the state actually makes the payment via the Tuition Replacement line item in the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund.

The I-JOBS bond and other previous academic building revenue bonds are still being paid off today. At the end of Fiscal Year 2024, the state still owes $232.2 million in principal and interest on these bonds.

In Fiscal Year 2026, the state will appropriate $25.6 million from RIIF for the year’s payment on these bonds. These payments will not be finished until Fiscal Year 2036.

The state has two other buildings where bonds were issued to finance their construction. In 2007, the Democrat-led Legislature authorized the selling of bonds to finance the construction of a new Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison.

Today, the state is still making annual payments on the 20-year bonds. In Fiscal Year 2026, the state will pay $13.8 million of judicial revenue for this bond. At the end of Fiscal Year 2024, the state still owed $37.55 million in principle on the bonds that will finally be paid off in 2027.

The other building financed by bonds is the curious-looking headquarters of the Iowa Utilities Commission. Financing of that project comes through fees charged to utilities regulated by the IUC. At the end of Fiscal Year 2025, the state still owed $4.2 million on the bond which will be paid off in Fiscal Year 2029. The state will pay nearly $900,000 on this bond in Fiscal Year 2026.

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship issued a press release in which Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced that his state agency is encouraging Iowa corn growers to leverage the new Nitrogen Fertilizer Application Consultation Tool to inform nutrient application decisions this growing season.

The N-FACT tool takes multiple field-level production variables into account, then recommends an optimal nitrogen application rate to help farmers balance productivity, environmental stewardship and input costs. The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative, led by Iowa State University will debut the N-FACT tool today at the Iowa Ag Expo.

The N-FACT tool leverages thousands of data points from hundreds of field trials conducted by ISU. Data inputs include field location, weather, residual soil nitrogen, estimated planting dates and input and commodity prices.

Field trials were conducted in each region of the state, yielding more than 21,000 possible optimal nitrogen rate scenarios. The N-FACT tool is a free resource available to all Iowa farmers at n-fact.ag.