(Casey, Iowa) – One person died after being pulled from a burning home in Casey, Sunday morning. Casey Fire Chief Travis Corder told KJAN News crews were dispatched to 103 W. 3rd Street in Casey, at around 7:19-a.m., Sunday.

The man was identified as Roger Draman, who lived in the home by himself.  An autopsy will be conducted by the State Medical Examiner, to determine the cause of death. An initial investigation determined nothing suspicious as a cause for the blaze, which remains under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Casey Firefighters were assisted by Adair Fire and Rescue and the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office.

(Minden, Iowa) – Authorities in western Iowa report one person died as the result of a house fire early Sunday morning. The fire happened at a residence on Park Street, in Minden. KETV in Omaha says the page went out about 4:30-a.m. It took seven different departments hours to get control of the fire. Minden’s fire chief said the family who lives there was babysitting their grandchild for the holiday. He said the grandmother ran out of the house with the child in her arms. A man inside didn’t make it out.

Authorities are not releasing the man’s name at this time. The house appears to be a total loss. Firefighters are investigating what caused the fire.

(Radio Iowa) – A week from now, the 2023 Iowa legislature will convene and Governor Kim Reynolds has made it clear she’ll ask lawmakers to pass what she calls “school choice.” “It’s critical that we have a robust and strong public school system. It’s inherent for our economy and for our future, but it’s equally as important that parents have a say in where their child should be educated,” Reynolds said during an online forum in December. Over the past two years, Reynolds has proposed a limited number of state scholarships for parents who enroll their child in a private school, but she’s now calling for EVERY parent to be able to get state money to cover private school expenses for their child.

“I made this a key priority of mine throughout the campaign,” Reynolds said, “and it will continue to be one of my top priorities as we moved into the next legislative session.” The previous proposals Reynolds made did not have enough Republican votes to pass in the Iowa House. Last June, the governor backed G-O-P primary candidates who defeated a few Republicans who were “no” votes. House Speaker Pat Grassley says he’s optimistic something will pass in 2023. “This was an issue that was a part of all of the campaigns in some form or another,” Grassley says. “Whether it was the governor’s race or every legislative race, this topic was brought up.” Grassley has created an education reform committee that will consider the governor’s new plan, whatever it may be.

“Whether it’s phased in over time, whether it’s everyone at once — there’s a lot of kind of figuring out kind of what the impacts would be of the decisions we make, ” Grassley says. “We’re kind of at the point where we know that’s what we’re going to look at, but we haven’t necessarily had a bill set in stone.” Grassley says there’s a general blueprint, though. “Ultimately the goal here is to make sure that every parent, literally every parent has that opportunity to choose where to send their kid to school,” Grassley says. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says he expects the governor to unveil a “substantial” proposal this month. “That’s something that is important to us. It’s important to the governor. She campaigned on it,” Whitver says. “It was a top priority for her and it’s time for us to deliver on it.”

Senate Republicans passed the governor’s more limited private school scholarship plans in 2021 and 2022. Democrats in the House and Senate oppose spending more state tax dollars on private schools. Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says the idea is of grave concern to rural residents. “Who have already seen the effects of cuts to school funding resulting in school consolidation and who I think are terrified that will accelerate under this voucher scheme, as families use a voucher to send their kid to a different school,” Wahls says, “and the challenge, of course, is that once you lose your school, you can lose your town.” House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says 42 of Iowa’s 99 counties do not have a private school — so most rural families wouldn’t benefit from the governor’s plan. “When I hear that the governor’s proposing school choice for every parent, there’s just simply no way that that’s possible,” Konfrst says.

Governor Reynolds will deliver the annual “Condition of the State” address on Tuesday, January 10th and she may unveil her major policy ideas during the speech.

(Radio Iowa) – Key Republican lawmakers are making it clear property tax reform will be a priority for the 2023 Iowa legislature, which starts next Monday. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver suggests it may take a while to come up with a plan, though. “All options are on the table with property taxes,” Whitver says. “It’s a really complicated issue and so we’re really taking a holistic look at it to see what is the best long-term strategy as far as property tax goes.” Whitver and other legislators say it’s among the least popular forms of taxation. “You can look back at bumper stickers from the 1950s and ’60s and see people that were concerned about property taxes and those concerns still exist today and, with how complicated our system is, it’s not something that gets fixed in one year or one session or even one decade, ” Whitver says, “but we have to try to make progress.”

In 1934, the Iowa Legislature enacted a statewide sales tax and a state income tax as a property tax relief measures. House Speaker Pat Grassley says the property tax is among the hardest taxes to cut. He cites the recent move to have the state rather than counties pay for more than 100 million dollars worth of mental health services — but property taxes didn’t get cut by the same amount. “So I think what you’re going to see in what we’re working on is a combination of making sure we can provide relief through the state mechanisms we have, putting dollars into it, but also making sure that at the local level the taxpayer is seeing that,” Grassley says. More than 40 percent of the property taxes collected in Iowa go to public schools.

State funding for schools is based on a per student formula and House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst notes state law lets schools with declining enrollment raise local property taxes to keep their budgets stable from year to year. “The continual defunding of education across the state has led to an increase of property taxes, so we want to make sure that we’re being fair to the property owners while making sure that all Iowans’ priorities are met,” Konfrst says. In 2013, Governor Branstad approved a plan primarily designed to reduce commercial property taxes. Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says Democrats favor property tax relief targeted to individuals, not corporations.

“I think that we’re ready and willing to work with Republicans to provide relief,” Wahls says. “What we don’t want is another huge tax giveaway to the ultra-rich and big corporations that leaves communities and middle class families shortchanged.” In 1992, Branstad signed a law that limited annual city and county property tax growth to the rate of inflation through 1995. Iowans for Tax Relief has called for a two-year freeze on property taxes, to give legislators time to come up with comprehensive changes to the system.

(Radio Iowa) – All six members of the leadership team for the 36 Democrats in the Iowa House this year are women. “First of all, it’s history making and I think that’s worth noting.” That’s House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst. After each election, Republicans AND Democrats in both the House and Senate meet privately to choose senators and representatives to serve in leadership positions. This is the first time one of those four partisan groups will have women in every leadership post. “We’re going to continue to make sure that the voices that need to be heard from across the state are heard, including women’s voices, which are sometimes drowned out up here, let’s be honest,” Konfrst says.

Lindsay James of Dubuque is minority whip, the number two Democrat in the Iowa House. The assistant leaders for House Democrats are Representatives Sue Cahill of Marshalltown, Heather Matson of Ankeny, Amy Nielsen of North Liberty and Sharon Steckman of Mason City. Konfrst, who has been House Minority Leader since mid-2021, posted a photo of the group on social media. “I got a letter from a little girl who’s a third grader, that said she was so excited to see all girls in charge,” Konfrst says. “What they see is what they can be and so if we can show that women can lead, I think it’s really important for future generations.”

Republican Linda Upmeyer of Clear Lake is the only women to be elected by her peers to serve as Speaker of the House, a role she held from the fall of 2015 through late 2019. Republican Mary Lundy of Marion is the only women to be elected to be a floor leader in the Iowa Senate. Lundy held the position in 2006 and 2007. After this year’s General Election, Senate Republicans chose Amy Sinclair of Allerton to be Senate President. She’s the second woman elected by her peers to that post.