Area legislators field numerous concerns as public sounds off about issues at local legislative forum

by Lissa Blake

It was a concerned public that showed up for a legislative forum Saturday morning, March 19 at the Allamakee County Farm Bureau meeting room in Waukon.
About 25 people attended the forum, which was hosted by State Representative Patti Ruff (D), House District 56, of McGregor,; State Senator Michael Breitbach (R), District 28, of Strawberry Point; and Darrel Branhagen (R), House District 55, of Decorah.
Concerns expressed during the meeting included school budgeting, education cuts, job creation, hog confinements, medical cannabis and more.
Allamakee Community School District Superintendent Dave Herold lamented the Legislature hasn’t been doing its job regarding school funding, as it is required by law to set school budgeting two years out and the Legislature consistently fails to do so.
“I’m all for setting it for two years. Unfortunately, the House and Senate have not been able to come to terms on what it is,” said Breitbach.
With regard to school budget numbers, Branhagen said, “These are guesses about what we’re going to get in the next year,” (referring to the amount of money coming in to the State).
“But the law isn’t a guess. And for six years it (setting allowable growth for schools) hasn’t been done. So schools across the state don’t know their budget,” said Traci Byrnes of Waukon, a first grade teacher.
Breitbach said it’s not as simple as setting a percentage for allowable growth. He said school funding in Iowa is inequitable, as urban districts with higher student populations and lower transportation costs have an advantage over rural school districts facing declining enrollment and higher transportation costs.
“We have less curriculum dollars to spend than school districts in urban districts,” said Breitbach.
Lowell Engle of Harpers Ferry responded, “Where is the roadblock?”
Ruff said, “Ask your house majority,” referring to the fact the House is currently controlled by Republicans.
Breitbach said he feels like they need to keep the pressure on to take care of the situation. “That’s the only way our schools survive and continue to flourish. If we don’t keep the pressure up, it gets swept under the rug,” he said, adding schools should be compensated for their actual transportation costs.
“With declining enrollments, this is not an easy fix. We have got to start addressing it,” said Breitbach.

JOBS DISCUSSION
Changing the subject, Jerry Halverson of Waukon said, “There are no jobs here. Are you working on getting jobs here?”
Branhagen responded that one good spot in northeast Iowa is Northeast Iowa Community College, which helps train people for jobs.
“What would you do to increase jobs in Allamakee County?” Branhagen asked Halverson.
“We have to bring in businesses and solicit for businesses… We've got to make it here where these people at 65 or 70 have made enough money so they can retire. There have got to be businesses you can bring up here. That’s your job, to bring in business.”
Breitbach responded that he doesn’t believe the function of the government is to create jobs. “When our founding fathers started, they didn’t say we want a government to create more business. We make the atmosphere fertile so people can bring in jobs,” said Breitbach.

SUMMER SCHOOL
Byrnes next lamented about the new third-grade retention program law, which will go into effect next year. It requires school districts to offer summer school to students who are not proficient in reading, but there is no funding attached to the requirement.
“I don’t know where the funding is right now,” said Ruff.
Ruff said one of the problems with the new mandate is the “Sixty-second screener,” where proficiency will be gauged by how fast a student can read, and she is working on a bill that will make sure proficiency is gauged correctly.
Herold next said some schools, like Allamakee, already have after-school and summer-school programs that could fulfill the requirements of the program. “Why can’t we utilize that instead of using the taxpayers’ money?” asked Herold.

EDUCATION CUTS
Melissa Brincks, an agriculture education teacher at South Winneshiek Schools, next expressed her concerns about new career technical education (CTE) guidelines that might hurt students and teachers. She said she was concerned if school districts are required to cut corners, disciplines like ag education will be cut and “kids aren’t going to be able to get hands-on education.”
“Why has that (school funding) become an issue?” asked Engle.
“The money issue comes back to the way we fund our schools. When your school is funded based on dollar amount per student and that student enrollment has been cut in half, you can’t continue to offer the same curriculum. This hurts our rural districts,” said Breitbach.
When Ruff responded FFA would still be an integral part of education, Brincks added, “but extended contracts won’t.” (Brincks was referring to the state’s FFA advisors, many of whom are paid for extended contracts to help with things like planting test plots and helping students at county fairs over the summer.) “The solutions are not clear to anybody,” said Branhagen.

HOG  CONFINEMENTS
With regard to hog confinements, Allamakee County Board of Supervisors chairperson Larry Schellhammer said he thinks the State should get rid of tax credits for manure pits and give counties the right to waive or require residency for owners of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations).
“If you come from three counties away, the counties could deny your application,” said Schellhammer.
“I think that’s a great idea,” said Branhagen.
When Halverson asked why manure haulers aren’t paying road taxes, John Hegg, Winneshiek County Farm Bureau President, said many of those haulers will be going to semis that will be using taxed fuel in the future.

GAS TAX
Waukon’s Pat Bresnahan, who owns Expresso Convenience Store in Lansing, expressed his concerns about how the gas tax has adversely affected his business.
“What the gas tax did was put things on a level playing field,” said Breitbach, referring to gas prices between Iowa and its border states.
“We were at an advantage before,” said Bresnahan.
“We couldn’t continue down the road we were going down,” Breitbach responded, referring to a lack of funding for infrastructure.

MEDICAL CANNIBIS
When someone asked about the status of legalizing medical cannabis in Iowa, Ruff said there are people still working on it.
Dave and Dawn Clark of Waukon are the parents of twins with Gervais Syndrome. They said medical cannabis serves a huge purpose for many children who cannot be on a lot of common medications due to their conditions.
Breitbach said he is hoping marijuana will soon be changed from a schedule 1 to schedule 2 drug, so that more organizations will have authorization to do more research on it.
“It would certainly be helpful,” he said.