It came too late and is too little but at least we finally have an education funding bill to present for Gov. Kim Reynolds’s signature, allowing 2% growth for local school districts. Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, was able to bring the bill home this week — when it was supposed to be done in February. Republicans control everything but still could not meet their own deadline to determine allowable growth so school districts can figure out their budgets by April.
Two percent is not enough. The inflation rate in February was 2.8%. Tariffs suggest that inflation will inflate. Iowa public schools are losing ground. Evans noted a $238.1 million increase for K-12 schools — $126.8 million for public schools, $96.8 million for private school vouchers, and $14.5 million for charter schools. Note that vouchers take nearly half the total increase. We are not necessarily opposed to vouchers. We don’t like robbing public schools. What’s done is done. Evans had to manage a difficult proposition. It won’t help lift pay for teacher aides, and it won’t help preserve rural schools.
It might be wise to be tight with the purse strings as their fearless leader throws the economy in the trash heap. President Trump has promised pain. Education in Iowa knows it well. Academic performance has lagged since the pandemic. It seems counterintuitive to put children on an academic austerity budget.
Legislators drunk on fermented hubris are budgeting as if the Trump casino play will pay off such that we can teach our children well by slowly starving public schools. You wonder why we are not Number One in education anymore.
Thousands of people protested from Des Moines to Davenport on Saturday alongside millions nationwide. It was about Trump and Musk, for sure. It was about fear of tariffs and mass federal layoffs and uncertainty about Social Security. Civil rights, too. “Hands off!” they said.
We have no idea how many turned out. None in Storm Lake. People are either unmotivated against a cold wind or scared they will be deported. There is an angst, it is not just among the woke, and the size of the crowds should make us pause for more consideration before we jump off a cliff with Trump. Gyrating markets should make us tap the brakes. Tariffs are a tool, not a cudgel. Agriculture will suffer.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, must have been told by someone that the president had just emasculated Congress by unilaterally declaring a world trade war. Grassley said that Congress should be deciding tariffs. He is late to the action. That train is rolling down the rails. The senator also sent out an email begging for money because judges must be reined in who attempt to thwart Trump’s agenda. Grassley is a lamb. Remember when they called him a maverick?
So there were people marching in Des Moines. That is news. We normally hold protests in Iowa City. When they show up in Davenport, you have trouble. This is how the Tea Party thing started. Grassley should remember it well. It was the 2010 midterm elections. The GOP picked up 63 seats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, R-NY, said this week, following the protests, that he is confident the Democrats will win a comfortable majority in the 2026 midterms. Winning the House can give Democrats at least a chance of halting the Trump train. Democrats intend to target Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, a popular former TV news anchor. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, also is on the ballot along with Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds.
People in Storm Lake will show up with their walkers and pitchforks if anybody messes with their Social Security or Medicare, or if they can’t get their farm payment. We’re not there yet, it does not appear. Musk might be growing disenchanted with his time in government, not being a huge fan of tariffs.
We suspect that a majority of people who are paying attention to government at all levels are anxious, which is unlikely to subside before November 2026. That has to alarm a lot of incumbent majority Republicans up for re-election. They can rest on the notion that the D in Democrat stands for Disorganized.
IT HAS BEEN HARD TO keep up with the flow of tariff-related news so critical to export-sensitive rural Iowa. The US and China are locked in a saber rattling contest that could result in a 100% tariff on US ag exports. It will choke off soybean and pork exports.
Iowa cannot afford that fight, and neither can China. It may sate its soy appetite in South America but China still needs our pork. We are permanently losing ag export markets in Asia. China must believe it can supply its huge population that increasingly demands protein in the form of pork. At the same time we are alienating neighbors like Vietnam with which we are finally reconciling our past. It is counter-productive, but the war is on. Our trade relationship with China already is permanently altered, which could have deep reverberations going forward. Such as: What shall we do with all these soybeans?
The Buena Vista County Supervisors should tread carefully as it considers issuing $11 million in bonds through tax increment financing to pay for road paving around the new Platinum Crush plant west of Storm Lake. We are certain the county can manage the engineering and construction but we are not confident it can manage the TIF payments. Look at the running and costly court battle with the City of Storm Lake.
Then there is the whole business about the soybean trade and demand for soy-based fuels in a world enflamed by a trade war that chokes off Iowa soy markets. Who can say where jet fuel may or may not be going forward?
Paving and dust control are necessary. Under TIF financing, the property tax base ultimately is responsible for the bonds if the project heads south. The Iowa Department of Transportation at least can help pay for this. The soy crush plant is a regional benefit that is imposing a local cost. That is how our system is set up. The company does not bear the development costs, that is not how it works in Iowa. The public bears development costs. Cherokee County economic development director Bill Anderson sits on the Iowa Transportation Commission.
It might not be worrisome were it not for the politics in Washington that douses soy oil and meal markets. It might not be of any interest if the county demonstrated competence in managing big TIF programs. Because the county was so eager to accommodate initially we probably gave away the farm already. The county engineer has the unenviable task of figuring out a way to get the roads paved. This might be our only answer, unsatisfactory as it is.
Speaker Pat Grassley declared an ag chemical immunity bill dead in the Iowa House last week, after it passed narrowly in the Senate. Grassley said his Republican caucus had concerns about “public perceptions” of the legislation, which it should. Multinational conglomerates sought protection from lawsuits over safety labeling on herbicides and pesticides. Nobody endures more exposure to glyphosate than Iowans.
Bayer faces 167,000 lawsuits, at last count, over cancer claims. It insists that glyphosate and cancer are not linked. Juries find otherwise. Grassley found he didn’t have the votes. This is the second year that the effort has failed in a legislature with a super-majority of Republicans. Chemical companies should be concerned.
Iowans should be relieved that the House called a halt. It would have been an affront to our rights. The public senses that there’s a problem with the flood of chemicals we bathe in and breathe. The split between the House and Senate may say something about the split in the Republican Party between the corporate wing and the populist wing. In a one-party state, it is noteworthy but not the final word. The courts are aligned to protect the status quo. Litigation against chemical conglomerates in Iowa will never be easy.
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