Hope is fading that the Iowa Legislature can agree on funding statewide water quality programs in the final days before the 2016 session adjourns.
An Iowa Senate subcommittee approved a bill Thursday raising the state sales tax by three-eighths of 1-cent, which would generate about $180 million starting next year. About 60 percent of that revenue would be directed to cleaning up Iowa’s polluted waters.
But Democratic and Republican Senate leaders soon after said that a tax hike has virtually no chance of winning approval this year. Time is running out for lawmakers to act, because this year’s session could end as soon as next week.
The focus on improving Iowa’s water quality sharpened in 2015 when Des Moines Water Works filed a federal lawsuit against drainage districts in three northwest Iowa counties. The lawsuit contends that the districts’ tile lines exacerbate pollution in drinking water by moving nutrients more quickly from farm fields to waterways, which cities like Des Moines must pay to remove.
State officials have said the water supplies of about 260 Iowa cities and towns are highly susceptible to being contaminated by nitrates and other pollutants
A proposal by Gov. Terry Branstad to divert a portion of future sales tax revenue growth meant for school infrastructure toward programs to curb water pollution, has already been rejected by the House.
Instead, House Republicans have passed their own plan to generate nearly half a billion dollars for water quality efforts over 13-years by shifting money from state infrastructure projects and using revenue Iowans already pay on their water bills. But Senate Democrats reject the House bill as a shell game that would reduce revenue available for education programs.
Iowa has more than 700 impaired waterways, problems with drinking water, and its polluted waters heading down the Mississippi River makes it a leading contributor to the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.
Jan Glendening, Iowa state director of The Nature Conservancy, said a sales tax increase would provide a sustainable approach to address conservation issues, reduce flooding, improve outdoor recreation and have other positive impacts.
Republican lawmakers, who represent 24 of the Iowa Senate’s 50 members, expressed little interest in endorsing a sales tax increase. Without their bipartisan support, many Senate Democrats would be hesitant to vote to raise taxes.
Said Sen. Jack Whitver a Republican representing Ankeny, Iowa:
“Water quality is an extremely important issue,””Everyone in the Capitol is willing to work on a solution that could sustain water quality for the long term. I am personally not in favor of increasing sales taxes, especially after we just increased the gas tax last year.”
But if the Senate simply sends proposals to the House that Republicans have already rejected, extending the session is unlikely. In that event, the Legislature will have to take up water quality funding issues again next year.
Critics say a half-billion-dollar water quality proposal fast-tracked by House Republicans still has problems that need to be addressed before the legislature. State officials have said water supplies of about 260 Iowa cities and towns are highly susceptible to being contaminated by nitrates and other pollutants.
After watching the Flint, Michigan disaster unfold, you would think that Republicans would want to avoid such a situation in their state,but it seems lower taxes at the expense of everything else remains their calling card.
Featured Image via Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement available under a Creative Commons Attribution – 4.0 license
