(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, says the Republican State Auditor in Mississippi has adopted his program for finding efficiencies and creating innovation in government. Sand says the Public Inefficiencies and Equity, or PIE program it was created in 2019. “It’s a program that essentially collects money-saving practices that government entities can use to protect taxpayer dollars and use them more efficiently. And then also rewards folks for doing well by putting a lot of those practices in place,” Sand says.

He says the program allows for new ideas to be added. “We also collect ideas — so if someone has got what we could call a PIE recipe…we would add that to the list and spread it around the state so these good ideas could get put into place in multiple locations more quickly,” Sand says.

Sand is taking the PIE program a step further by proposing a bill that would require the Iowa Auditor to distribute the PIE recommendations to public entities and prepare an annual report on the program. Sand is running for a second term as State Auditor. Republican Mary Ann Hanusa, of Council Bluffs recently announced she is running as well.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report the Dairy Queen property sustained about $150 damage, but there were no injuries, following an accident at around 3:37-p.m., Tuesday. Authorities say a 1997 Ford driven by 18-year-old Nathaniel Flowers, of Decatur, was exiting the Casey’s General Store parking lot at 102 W. Taylor St. in Creston, and attempting to head west on Highway 34, when the right rear tire blew out.

The car left the road and struck a curb before continuing onto the Dairy Queen property at 201 W. Taylor and hitting various poles and brush. The vehicle came to rest facing east on a retaining wall. The vehicle sustained an estimated $2,000 damage.

Creston Police cited Flowers for Failure to Maintain Control.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is proposing an end to state income taxes on pensions and retirement accounts — and lowering the state income tax to a single rate of just four percent within four years. “Flat and fair,” Reynolds said. The governor unveiled her plan last (Tuesday) night during the annual “Condition of the State” address to legislators. When fully implemented in 2026, Reynolds says a four percent flat tax would save an average Iowa family about 13-hundred dollars a year.

“Yes, we’ll have less to spend once a year at the Capitol,” Reynolds said, “but we’ll see it spent every single day on Main Streets, in grocery stores and at restaurants all across Iowa.” Reynolds proposes that retired farmers no longer be taxed on cash rent for their farmland AND she says Iowans who’ve earned stock in the company where they work should no longer be taxed when they sell shares.

“This will be a game changer that will incentivize employers to share ownership with their employees,” she said, “and send a message to the rest of the country: ‘Come, move to Iowa. Work here and become an owner in a company and grow your investment tax free.'” Democrats like House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst say tax cuts should be targeted to the middle class. “Flat taxes are notoriously beneficial to wealthy Americans and that would be true in Iowa as well,” Konfrst says. “I think it’s great that Iowans in the middle would get a $1300 reduction in their taxes, but we didn’t hear what’s going to happen to the folks at the top. They’re going to get a much more significant cut.”

Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says some Iowans, like part-time workers, will wind up paying more in taxes under a four-percent flat tax. “When Republicans talk about cutting income taxes for millionaires and billionaires, that often results in a property tax increase on the backside,” Wahls says. Reynolds says bold action isn’t always government action and her tax plan lets Iowans decide where and how to spend more of their own money. “All of these tax cuts have one thing in common: they reward work,” she said. “Work to be done and a lifetime of work to be proud of and that’s never been more important as the country is facing an unprecedented worker shortage.”

Reynolds is also asking legislators to reduce the number of weeks Iowans may receive unemployment benefits, from the current 26 weeks down to 16 weeks. “There are so many reasons for the worker shortage, but we need to recognize that in some cases it’s because government has taken away the need or desire to work,” Reynold said. “The safety net has become a hammock.” House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says it will take more affordable child care and housing — and a welcoming state to solve the state’s workforce shortage.

Reynolds told lawmakers she will use federal pandemic relief money to provide one-time bonuses to law enforcement, correctional officers and teachers. Reynolds got her biggest burst of cheers, though, when she pledged the legislature would respond to parents raising complaints about books in schools that have sexual content. “We live in a free country with free expression, but there’s a difference between shouting vulgarities from a street corner and assigning them as classroom reading,” Reynolds said. “…Parents matter and we’re making sure that you stay in charge of your child’s education.”

Reynolds also unveiled a plan to let lower income parents get state money to cover private school tuition. Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls say public tax dollars shouldn’t be used for private schools and there’s already a process for reviewing objectionable school material. “The bigger problem that we have in our system is that we can’t get enough bus drivers to get kids in Davenport to school, class sizes in Mason City are getting bigger and there are going to be a lot of schools in Iowa in August that aren’t able to open because they don’t have enough teachers,” Wahls says, “and when that happens, thank Governor Reynolds.”

Republican legislative leaders say the governor has made reasonable proposals that will bring meaningful change. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver of Ankeny says the Senate G-O-P might even propose a flat tax that’s lower than four percent. “We want to start the march to zero,” Whitver says. “A big part of that march to zero is getting to a flat rate.”

Ten other states currently have a flat tax. Iowa’s income tax is the 16th highest in the country according to the governor’s staff and a four percent flat tax would move Iowa’s tax rate into the fifth lowest spot.

(Radio Iowa) – The State of Iowa has agreed to pay nearly a million dollars to settle a lawsuit filed by an Iowa Department of Human Services social worker who says her complaints about a hostile work environment weren’t taken seriously. Jennifer Jackson says her female supervisor created a hostile work environment by making vulgar comments and grabbing the breasts of female employees. The State Appeal Board approved the settlement. State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a member of the board, cast a frustrated yes.

“It’s something you’d think every second grader would know, how to behave, but we continually get these cases where we’re paying out a half million to a million dollars or more,” Fitzgerald says. “I just have this frustration that we’re not getting through to these employees.” State Auditor Rob Sand, another member of the board, voted no because the state isn’t seeking any kind of restitution from the supervisor at fault.

The Appeals Board approved a separate, 25-thousand dollar settlement with an employee who says two women in his Polk County District Court office inappropriately touched him and made repeated sexual comments.