It appears a bill that would raise the state gas tax by a dime a gallon in on the fast track at the statehouse. The bill is eligible for debate in the Iowa House on Tuesday. Last Thursday, House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, used his authority to replace two members on a key House Committee who opposed the bill. His moves ensured the bill passed on a 13-to-12 vote, but they also heightened the ire of the bill’s opponents. Drew Klein, the Iowa director of Americans for Prosperity, accuses Paulsen of favoring road builders over Iowans in general.

“Leadership is clearly more interested in appeasing special interest groups that have been funding the movement than in looking for ways to shield the taxpayer,” he said. A Des Moines Register “Iowa Poll” released this weekend found that while 61 percent of Iowans consider the deteriorating condition of Iowa’s roads and bridges to be an issue lawmakers should address, Iowans are evenly divided over idea of raising the state gas tax. The poll found 48 percent support the move and 50 percent oppose it. Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock has been among those who opposed the idea of raising the state gas tax in the past, but he suggests a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the legislature now agree it’s the best means to plug a shortfall in the state fund that finances transportation projects.

“We need to find additional resources to get it into the road funding, to solve those long-term problems, and I’m prepared to cast a vote in favor of it,” Dix says. For the past four years the Iowa Farm Bureau have been lobbying for a gas tax increase, citing the closure of roads and bridges that create long detours for farmers and rural residents. Over 200 Farm Bureau members were at the statehouse last week to lobby legislators on the issue. And earlier this month, Governor Branstad said the “timing is right” to pass a gas tax increase this year.

(Radio Iowa)

The leaders of Iowa’s private colleges and universities say the stability of the state’s higher education “eco-system” is threatened by the proposed “performance-based” funding formula for the three state-supported universities. Mark Putnam, the president of Central College in Pella, says rewarding the state universities with more tax dollars if they enroll more Iowa high school graduates is “perilous” not only for private colleges, but the public universities as well.

“Instability is not a friend to students’ education or research, so changes that occur abruptly can be incredibly disruptive and it creates behavior patterns that are not healthy for institutions,” he says. “So if institutions begin to look at: ‘How can I take students from the others?’ or ‘How can I start to position myself to win?’…then it becomes something that’s not helpful.” Grand View president Kent Henning says even though legislators haven’t approved the plan yet, the University of Iowa is already reacting.

“It’s now financial aid season and we are getting reports of students receiving very generous financial aid packages from the University of Iowa, almost free rides,” he says. “And while that’s wonderful for those students…I think the state’s taxpayers should be wondering and asking: ‘What’s going on? How is that possible?’ if the state universities keep coming back to the legislature pleading poverty.” University of Dubuque president Jeffrey Bullock says it is “ludicrous” for the public universities, especially the University of Iowa, to start adjusting enrollment policy to more strongly favor in-state rather than out-of-state students.

“Right now over 90 percent of the college-going population of this state stays in the state anyway,” Bullock says. “Why would we want to erect a wall…that effectively keeps potential not just students out — higher net paying students, by the way — but also future employees that help grow the economy and fill the gap, the employment gap that we all know exists in this state?” The three private college presidents discussed the issue during a joint appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program this past weekend. Gary Steinke, the executive director of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, says “every other state” that has tied state tax dollar support to in-state student enrollment has abandoned the effort.

Tennessee was the first to try it in 2009 and it doesn’t work and they don’t do it any more. They have taken the enrollment weighting out of their performance-based funding plan and so so has Indiana and so has Virginia and so has Maine,” Steinke says. “I mean, they don’t use it any more because it doesn’t work.” Steinke says the proposal has sparked a “sector war” in Iowa’s high education community — for an idea that research shows ultimately makes no improvement in student performance.

The Board of Regents — the nine-member panel that governs the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa — has proposed a change in the formula that distributes state tax dollars to the three public universities. Regents officials say it’s designed, in large part, to reward U-N-I which has gotten the smallest share of state support in the past and where over 90 percent of students are Iowa residents. The loser in the change would be the University of Iowa, where nearly half of the students come from out-of-state.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic School Board will hold a work session Monday evening at the high school. During their 7:30-p.m. meeting in the high school Media Center, the Board will hear from the high school Building Leadership Team (BLT), and discuss the district’s 5-year Capital Improvement Projects Plan (CIP). No action is expected to be taken on the plan during the meeting.