February 10, 2005

HIGHLITES FROM THE SENATE

SENATOR MARK ZIEMAN

NEWSLETTER

Surprisingly, the pace of the Iowa Legislature seems to be moving swiftly for the moment. Discussion continues on a wide range of issues, but centered this week on meth, property taxes and cigarettes.

I am sure that if legislation is passed to restrict access to pseudoephedrine, some will feel they will be inconvenienced because of it. The bottom line is that we have to get these products off the shelves and shut down the meth cookers. Even though this is a small source of the meth supply in the state, it will be a start to addressing the other 80%.

Thursday I listened to a property tax presentation that was completely different from any I’ve heard before. Senator Miller’s proposal would use a percent of the fair market value of any property. An individual could figure out their own tax if they knew the approximate value of their property. As with all proposals, there would be some issues to resolve. It is my hope that a combination of all the plans would yield a fair and simple property tax system.

As for the cigarette tax, the only reason it is being considered is that the public was told that Medicaid has been under funded. This is completely untrue, as Medicaid has always been fully funded, even if it had to be done with a supplemental appropriation. That is the case this year, partially because funds were transferred out of the fund. The real issue is about the ever increasing provider fees. If the tobacco tax is increased, the revenue generated needs to go to funding the escalating provider fees Medicaid is faced with.

Our next town meeting will be at the Country Express in Burr Oak on Saturday, February 19th. We will get started at 9:00 a.m. Hope you can join Representative Gipp and me for a discussion of the issues in the legislature.