(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Assessor’s Office will be closed Friday, March 31. Assessor Mary Anstey reports the office will be closed from 8-a.m. until 7-p.m., so her staff may attend training.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University study shows inflation is hitting rural residents harder that those in urban areas. Professor David Peters, a rural sociologist for I-S-U Extension and Outreach, says inflation took a bigger bite of rural household budgets throughout much of last year, but its effects were similar in rural and urban areas by year’s end. “Over the past 10 years, inflation costs that we’re all familiar with, gas and food and everything else, has cut rural discretionary incomes by over a third,” Peters says. “What’s the discretionary income? Well, the discretionary income is essentially the money you have leftover at the end of the year after you pay your taxes and pay all your expenses.”

That discretionary income is critical, he says, for handling unexpected or emergency expenses. In the past two years, Peters says inflation has cost the average rural household a total of more than eight-thousand dollars.  “And that just means rural households have less money for unexpected health care costs,” Peters says. “A lot of rural people have their own health insurance, less money for unexpected home repairs, the furnace goes out, you need a new roof, unexpected car repairs, or even just for rural people to save for their own retirement or their kids’ future education.”

Peters says he doesn’t foresee inflation letting up anytime soon. “I would say likely not in the next two to three years,” Peters says. “I would say that the price increases we’ve seen are going to stay. They might not be increasing as much as they have been in the last two years, but all indications would be those inflation rates are here to stay.” The Federal Reserve recently raised interest rates in an effort to stave off further inflation, which Peters says raises the risk of the economy falling into a recession. “People grumble about inflation and people grumble about paying more for the groceries and their gas,” Peters says, “but that’s a far less major problem than a recession where people would lose their jobs and lose their businesses.”

Peters says rural households paid an extra 300-dollars per month because of inflation in 2021, but the urban-rural gap in additional expenses was modest, around 15-dollars a month. When transportation costs shot up in early 2022, largely due to higher gas prices, he says rural households felt it more. For the first two-thirds of the year, inflation cost rural households at least an extra 450-dollars per month, which is 60-to-90 dollars more than urban households.

See the full report online:
https://smalltowns.soc.iastate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/163/2023/02/SOC-3106.pdf

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law that’s designed to establish data privacy rights for Iowans. The bill first passed the Iowa House last year and it cleared both the House and Senate unanimously this year. Representative Ray Sorensen of Greenfield is chairman of the Economic Growth and Technology Committee in the House.

“While everyone involved acknowledges that a federal law would be preferable, it is generally understood that it is unlikely congress will act anytime soon,” Sorenson says, “and so we are taking the first step ourselves.” Senator Chris Cournoyer of Le Claire says it’s a strong starting point.

“A data privacy bill that is designed to increase protections for consumers’ personal data, provide consumers with certain rights and regulate businesses’ use of consumers’ personal data,” Cournoyer says. Five other states have similar laws, but Cournoyer says Iowa is the first state in the Midwest to make this move. “This bill becomes effective January 1, 2025,” Cournoyer says, “giving time for implementation, compliance and enhancements as new innovations in consumer data protection become known.”

Governor Reynolds says it’s never been more important to clearly and unmistakably say that consumers deserve a reasonable level of transparency and control over their personal data and she says this bill does that. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia have passed similar laws. The laws generally require most websites to let consumers click a box saying they do not want their personal information captured on the website sold elsewhere. California requires so called data brokers to register with the state.

(Radio Iowa)- A Michigan based health care provider has purchased the Keokuk hospital that closed on October 1st and may reopen the facility as a Rural Emergency Hospital. Governor Reynolds signed a bill into law yesterday (Tuesday) that sets up the state licensing process for Rural Emergency Hospitals. These hospitals will be eligible for higher reimbursement rates for treatment of Medicare patients along with a monthly payment from the federal government.

Rural Emergency Hospitals must keep an emergency room open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and may provide outpatient services, but they must discontinue in-patient care. Insight is the name of the Flint, Michigan, company that bought Keokuk’s closed down hospital. Insight’s chief strategy officer says with the necessary regulatory and financial support, the company aims to begin providing medical services in Keokuk later this year.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, a sponsor of the bill that created the Rural Emergency Hospital framework, says it’s a reform that will be a lifeline for rural communities. Governor Reynolds says the concept will help ensure Iowans, no matter where they live, can access emergency care. State Senator Jeff Reichman, a Republican from Montour, says the new Rural Emergency Hospital designation will help rural communities and struggling hospitals. Reichman was in the governor’s office yesterday when she signed the bill into law.