Local members of the Iowa Assembly including (l-r) Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour), Sen. Annette Sweeney (R-Iowa Falls), Rep. Derek Wulf (R-Hudson), and Sen. Eric Giddens (D-Cedar Falls) pictured at Harper’s Public House last Saturday morning in Dysart during a legislative coffee hosted by the Tama County Farm Bureau. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

DYSART – Four state legislators whose districts cover a portion of Tama County sat down for some caffeine and kolaches with their constituents at Harper’s Public House in Dysart last Saturday morning as part of a legislative forum hosted by the Tama County Farm Bureau.

Legislators in attendance included Sen. Annette Sweeney (R-Iowa Falls), Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour), Sen. Eric Giddens (D-Cedar Falls), and Rep. Derek Wulf (R-Hudson).

Roughly 15 members of the public including a couple of cute babies were in attendance.

Tama County Farm Bureau president Cordt Holub provided opening remarks during which he thanked Jenna and Chad Scott, owners of Harper’s Public House, for hosting the event.

“It’s nice going by Main Street at night and seeing this town full,” Holub said of the business Harper’s has brought to the downtown area since opening more than two years ago. “This town is a destination, I think, so good job.”

Tama County Farm Bureau president Cordt Holub, right, provides opening remarks last Saturday morning at Harper’s Public House as part of a legislative coffee his organization was sponsoring. Holub said there are over 1,000 farms in Tama County, and roughly 48% of all jobs in the county are livestock based. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

After allowing all four legislators to introduce themselves – introductions which included Sweeney’s announcement that after 65 years on the family farm, she and her husband had elected to move to Iowa Falls, leaving her oldest son and his family to run things – Holub proceeded to ask the legislators a few questions before opening the floor up to the audience.

While several agriculture related topics were addressed including foreign land ownership, the expiration of a capital gains tax on breeding livestock, a veterinary immunity bill, and wind/solar legislation, the majority of the 90 minute event was taken up by proposed changes to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) which Gov. Kim Reynolds deemed a priority in her January Condition of the State Address.

The topic was first broached by Dysart resident Rochelle Richards who introduced herself as a former elementary school teacher who now works for Central Rivers AEA as a special education consultant.

Richards asked the legislative quartet what their stance was on possible changes to Iowa’s AEA system.

“I haven’t heard from a parent that wants this bill,” Richards said to the legislators. “I’m just curious why this is being pushed rather quickly.”

Buckingham Township resident Nancy Yuska, left, asks a question of her state legislators (off frame) regarding recent wind energy legislation. Yuska was one of roughly 15 people attending a Tama County Farm Bureau legislative coffee last Saturday at Harper’s Public House in Dysart. Also pictured, Dennis Yuska (center) and Dysart resident Richard Arp. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Rep. Fisher said the governor “kind of surprised all of us” with the legislation, and that her bill “created a lot of furor.”

Fisher said he’s been “filtering” all of the discussion and feedback he’s received over the last seven weeks regarding the current House bill, and that while he doesn’t support everything in it, he does support changing the mandated funding.

“I think this is kind of at the heart of the problem.”

Fisher said the Governor’s bill gave total authority over special education funds to school districts which he sees as “probably too much, too fast.”

The House’s version, he said, “stops the money at the school district and they still have to give it to the AEA … [but] now they have their hands on the lever.”

One of the youngest attendees at the most recent Tama County Farm Bureau legislative coffee – president Cordt Holub’s infant son – pictured at Harper’s Public House last Saturday morning in downtown Dysart. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

He added that he was still undecided at this point on the legislation.

Sweeney said she had received more than 1,000 emails in regard to the AEA legislation. She also said she had “met with every superintendent in my district” in addition to many school board members.

Wulf said, in part, he does not think either chamber has a bill worth passing yet.

He later addressed supplemental school aid (SSA) – the House has proposed increasing aid to public school districts by 3% next school year – and the budget deficits many districts across the state including in Tama County are facing as they work to write their FY25 budgets.

“I met with [Union Superintendent John] Howard … and I heard about their situation and they told me the heartbreaking news [of declining enrollment]. … I’m telling you we’ve got to figure out here – in our rural communities – how to get people and young families back into it.”

Tama County Farm Bureau members listen as local members of the Iowa Assembly answer questions during a legislative coffee held at Harper’s Public House Saturday morning in Dysart. Legislators include (back row, l-r) Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour), Sen. Annette Sweeney (R-Iowa Falls), Rep. Derek Wulf (R-Hudson), and Sen. Eric Giddens (D-Cedar Falls). PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Wulf then explained he was working on a bill that addresses a rural development tax credit program that could potentially invest $45 million into Iowa’s rural communities.

“We don’t have families here. We don’t have kids going into the schools. Well, the schools get paid for bodies in the seats, and we’ve got to get more bodies in seats here somehow.”

Fisher also weighed in on declining enrollment – an issue the South Tama County Community School District in Tama-Toledo faces this year as well.

“I don’t understand it – that packing plant [in Tama], the enrollment should be growing. What we’ve got to do is get some housing in the Tama-Toledo area and give those families that are driving from Waterloo and Cedar Rapids and wherever to the packing plant, the opportunity to live there in the community close to their jobs. … I just heard about the enrollment drop … and I thought, what the heck is going on, that shouldn’t be happening.”

For his part, Sen. Giddens – the only Democrat at the table – shared that he was in opposition to the AEA legislation. He said he has received over 2,000 emails on the topic.

Harper’s Public House owner Jenna Scott, right, introduces her daughter Olivia Scott, left, while speaking about the profound effect Iowa’s AEA services have had on her daughter during a legislative coffee sponsored by the Tama County Farm Bureau and held at her downtown Dysart restaurant on Saturday. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

“I haven’t had a single person that’s said they’re in support of the bill,” Giddens said. He added that the Senate’s version of the bill “isn’t, in my view, substantially different from the Governor’s bill.”

He also acknowledged that “every organization, every institution has room for improvement” but that he doesn’t think “this was the way to try to do that.”

Giddens said he was in favor of a review process to hold the AEAs accountable but that such a process should have started last year rather than as “a surprise” this term.

Raccoons, road graders, and one final request

While the AEA discussion seemed to suck most of the oxygen out of the room, several more issues were addressed by the legislators before wrapping up including legislation sponsored by Fisher that would increase the bounty on raccoon tails.

“I’m just going to bring up the war on raccoons,” Fisher said – a comment which drew a hearty round of laughter.

He said farmers across the state have been losing 10-15 acres of crop annually to raccoon predation in recent years, but by increasing the per tail bounty, more hunters might be motivated “enough to keep the population down.”

“A racoon tail will now be worth more than a bushel of corn,” Tama Co. Farm Bureau president Cordt Holub joked before adding, in all seriousness, “We’re at historic levels for how little a bushel of corn is worth.”

Wulf then addressed recent legislation he filed which came directly out of Tama County citizens’ concerns.

“I’ve become the road grader champion.”

Holub then explained that right now, county engineers “can literally hand the key [to a road maintainer] to a new hire [on their] first day, and [they can] go grade roads.”

Wulf’s legislation would require those who operate maintainers to have some sort of training.

The bill made it through committee “very easily” but hit a patch of compacted gravel in debate last week.

“It was one of the hottest contested discussions this year,” Wulf said before quipping, “The wheels fell off the road grader on Thursday”

He explained there was pushback from county engineers and county supervisors on the “unfunded mandate” aspect of the legislation.

“We’ll keep revisiting it. We’ll keep working through the process. … There’s 65,000 miles of gravel roads in this state, it’s probably a focus we should have.”

In the final moments of the forum, the AEA legislation was brought up one last time in the form of a heartfelt entreaty from Harper’s owner Jenna Scott.

In addition to being a small business owner, Scott is the mother of four adult children including her daughter Olivia who was standing next to her at the back of the room while she spoke.

“She literally would not be the person she is today without the AEA,” Scott said of Olivia who graduated from Central Rivers AEA’s River Hills School in Cedar Falls. River Hills is described on its website as “a publicly sponsored special school for students with moderate, severe, and profound developmental disabilities” that “serves students from kindergarten through age 21.”

As she wiped away tears, Scott implored the legislators to continue to support Iowa’s AEAs.

“She is a functioning member of society. She lives in a house. She pays rent. She works at HyVee. She works here. She pays bills. She pays taxes. She does what she’s supposed to do. She would have never gotten there if she hadn’t gone to River Hills. If the AEA would not have been a part of her life, she wouldn’t be where she is today. And if you get rid of that, for a lot of the rural families, everybody misses out. I mean everybody does. She’s a good kid.”

“If you take people like [Olivia] away, it’s not good for anybody. … So just think of those kids when you’re talking about the bills.”

News Chronicle note: Since this story went to press, the Iowa House passed its version of the AEA modification bill, 53-41, with all Democrats and nine Republicans voting against. Rep. Fisher and Rep. Wulf both voted in favor of the legislation.