Legislators talk priorities for 2017

     The 2017 session of the Iowa Legislature kicked off this Monday, with Republicans now in control of both chambers following the 2016 election. Constituents in our area will be served once again by Rep. Tedd Gassman of Scarville in the House and Sen. Dennis Guth of Klemme in the Senate, as the two Republicans won reelection in November. Both legislators shared some of their thoughts on what the priorities will be for this year’s legislative session.

     Rep. Gassman says he believes the top priorities this year in the House will be education funding, water quality, minimum wage and changes to collective bargaining. He says section 179, which deals with coupling the Iowa tax code with the federal code for bonus depreciation, will also be part of the discussion.

     “The budget is going to be very tight this year,” said Gassman. “At present, it looks like we will be about $100 million short of income compared to what we budgeted for FY17.” Gassman says the Ag economy is down, which means fewer tax dollars coming in from farmers and others working in the Ag sector. He says they’ll need to de-appropriate that $100 million from somewhere else to balance the budget.

     Sen. Guth says that the new Senate Majority Leader, Bill Dix, has laid out the following four priorities for the 2017 legislative session:

     • Put the 99% of revenue spending limit into a Constitutional Amendment to be voted on by the citizens of Iowa.

     • Add the right to keep and bear arms to the Constitution of Iowa.

     • Protect the life of the unborn by stopping all public funding of any organization that provides abortions and redirecting those funds to the many organizations that serve women more broadly.

     • Tort court reform, so the loser pays in litigation cases.

     See story in this week's Tribune.