(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says the 2023 legislative session has set Iowa on a new path, starting with what she calls transformational education reform. At the end of this month, low income parents of private school students can start applying for 76-hundred dollars in state money to cover tuition and other costs. House Speaker Pat Grassley says Reynolds and Republican candidates for the House promised action on this and other education-related issues.

“We’ve been in the majority now for over 10 years,” Grassley says. “We try to make commitments and follow through with those things that we tell Iowans that we’re going to do.” Another new law will ban classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary grades. Parents are to be notified if their child asks to be known by a different name or pronoun at school. And books with passages or graphic art about sex will be removed from school libraries. Representative Sharon Steckman, a Democrat from Mason City who’s a retired teacher, says educators are worried.

“I haven’t talked to one teacher that’s excited about any of it,” Steckman says. “They feel like they’re under a magnifying glass and not able to do their job.” The 2023 legislative session concluded shortly after 12:30 Thursday afternoon — a day after a property tax reform measure passed the House and Senate with just a single “no” vote. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says the bill is historic.

“It’s putting in place things legislators have looked at for decades…but a perform storm of a focus of the legislature, a desire of Iowans to see this assessment issue fixed led to some of the best policy that we’ve been able to put forward on property taxes that I believe will truly have an impact at the local level for decades to come.” Democrats say they’re thrilled property owners will see relief, but they’ll be monitoring implementation to make sure cities and counties aren’t forced to cut essential services. Another bill that won final legislative approval this week eases some current restrictions on the jobs and hours teenagers may work. Governor Reynolds plans to sign it into law.

“I think it’s wonderful if kids want to try to earn some money while they’re in high school, maybe save for college because we continue to see the cost go up or maybe get a registered apprenticeship program,” Reynolds says. “They start that opportunity in a business and maybe go on not only to be employed there, but to stay in a rural community and raise a family and support our schools.” Democrats in the legislature opposed the bill and argued relying on teenagers to fill jobs isn’t the way to address the state’s workforce crisis. The governor says she’s not hearing concerns.

“I can’t even really understand all the hoopla about it. It doesn’t seem like very much common sense and I hear that when I travel around the state,” Reynolds says. “People are perplexed, I mean literally perplexed at why we would care if kids want to work or not. It’s not a mandate.” Reynolds says the bill will expand opportunities for young Iowans looking for experience in the workforce.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has approved the property tax changes that cleared the legislature this week. “Legislation as complex and important as local property taxes only happen when policymakers are willing to dig into the weeds and get the details right,” Reynolds says. “This bill’s near unanimous passage through both chambers of the legislature is a testament to their long hours of work on behalf of the people of Iowa.”

The new law requires cities and counties to lower property tax collections based on a new formula that kicks in next year. It’s designed to limit property tax revenue growth after this spring’s assessments showed farmland and home values skyrocketing — which could lead to higher property tax bills in September of 2024. The plan includes more generous property tax benefits for veterans and elderly Iowans.

“All tolled, this bill will deliver $100 million in savings,” Reynolds said, “the most significant property tax reform in state history.” Reynolds signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon, shortly after the 2023 legislative session concluded. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says lawmakers are listening to property owners.

“This spring they were shocked, appalled and concerned with the drastic assessment increases to their property and extremely concerned about what it would mean for their property taxes,” Whitver says. “We promised on the opening day of this session that we would address this issue and today we keep that promise.” Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, led development of the bill.

“The historic building blocks being put into place here will start the long-term process of rebuilding our property tax system,” Dawson says. “Ultimately we are asking local governments to do what we have been doing at the state level: fund your priorities, but pass along some of this excess assessment valuation back to the taxpayers.” House Speaker Pat Grassley says the bill provides certainty as well as relief to property owners.

“This bill shows, as well as everything else that we’ve been able to accomplish…the ability for the governor’s office, the House and Senate to identify problems that Iowans have brought to us,” Grassley says, “and be able to take true action that provides true levels of reform.” Every Republican present and all but one Democrat in the legislature supported the bill. Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls says Democrats are thrilled middle class families are getting relief and will listen to local officials who are worried about how to implement the changes.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst says Democrats want to make sure seniors and veterans don’t get smaller property tax bills, but wind up losing local services they depend upon.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reports one person was taken into custody Wednesday evening on a charge of Indecent Exposure. The Sheriff’s Office was made aware at around 3:41-p.m., Wednesday, of a male subject possibly exposing himself in public in the area of 8th and Walnut in Harlan.

A vehicle description was given by a witness, and deputies began looking for the vehicle that had left the area upon arrival. A vehicle was located matching the description in the Northeast portion of the county. The suspect matching the description was located at approximately 5:05pm, taken into custody, and is currently being held in Shelby County Jail. According to online court records, the suspect arrested for Indecent Exposure on May 3rd, was 41-year-old Chad Ewing. A preliminary hearing in his case was set for May 23rd, in Shelby County.

An Indecent Exposure charge is a serious misdemeanor.

*All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa study finds some pregnant women in rural Iowa quit getting prenatal care when their local hospital closes its birthing center, even if prenatal care is still available. Tom Gruca, a marketing professor in the U-I’s Tippie College of Business, says they studied the impact of the recent closures of labor and delivery units at seven rural Iowa hospitals and found women seeking prenatal care fell from 83- to 79-percent.  “You might say, ‘Well, that’s only four-percent,’ but remember, every one of those is a pregnancy, and every healthy baby’s a miracle,” Gruca says, “so that’s a significant drop.”

The hospitals studied were in Clayton, Emmett, Hamilton, Hardin, Lucas, Osceola and Van Buren counties and they were the only labor and delivery unit in those counties before the closures. Gruca says prenatal care is exceptionally important. “A lot of prenatal care is preventative,” Gruca says. “We’re trying to ward off problems with the baby and with the mother. If you have inadequate prenatal care, you’re more likely to have a premature baby, low birth weight, and then there can be problems for the mother herself.”

In a worst case scenario, those problems can result in death for the baby, the mother, or both. In recent decades, Iowa has seen birthing centers close at dozens of hospitals, which Gruca calls “striking.” “We have 99 counties in Iowa, 77 counties in the year 2000 had at least one labor and delivery center. By 2020, that number had dropped to 46,” Gruca says. “So we have lost 31 counties in the last 20 years or so.”

The majority of those counties are rural, which means expectant mothers often face a long drive to get professional care. There are multiple reasons as to why a hospital may close its birthing center, but Gruca says most of them revolve around money.”Rural counties are sparsely populated, so you don’t have a lot of babies being born there, and it’s very expensive to do so,” Gruca says. “Iowa has one of the lowest proportion of OB-GYNs per capita in the entire nation. The last time I looked, we were ranked 49th in the nation.”

As for the reduction in women seeking prenatal care, Gruca says one possible solution would be to set up a central source of information those mothers-to-be could access. Ideally, it would be a place where they could find health care professionals who provide the care they need, and who also accept their insurance.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2023 Iowa legislative session has ended. The Republican majority approved a series of G-O-P priorities like state funding for private school expenses and curbs on what books are allowed in public school libraries, A bipartisan property tax relief plan cleared the legislature this week. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says those issues were at the top of the G-O-P’s list for 2023.

“We wanted to work on school choice. We wanted to work on parental empowerment,” Whitver says. “…We really wanted to work on property taxes knowing that the huge assessments were coming. I think we were able to get all of those things accomplished, so it was a very, very successful year.” House Speaker Pat Grassley began talking about school choice in 2020 and he says with 24 new Republicans in the Iowa House this year, the plan came together.

“We try to make commitments and follow through with those things that we tell Iowans we’re going to do,” Grassley says, “whether it’s on the campaign trail or whether it’s when we show up here for the first day of session,” Grassley says. Democrats say Republicans have left two BILLION dollars in the taxpayer relief fund and even more tax revenue remains unspent and House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says it could have been used on key priorities, like water quality.

“We could be investing in public schools. We could be doing more for mental health in this state. We could be doing more for the issues that Iowans can about with those resources,” Konfrst says. “Instead, they’re sitting in an account, so that the governor can brag about having a big account.” Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says the G-O-P pursued divisive policies this year.”Republican poured gasoline on the flames of the culture war by undermining and politicizing Iowa’s public schools…banning books from school libraries,” Wahls say,” and attacking the freedoms of parents and the LGBTQ community.”

This (Thursday) afternoon, Governor Kim Reynolds is signing the property tax changes that passed the legislature this week with the support of Republicans and nearly all Democrats. Lawmakers say the goal is to ensure this spring’s assessments don’t lead to massive property tax increases in September of next year.