First 2019 Legislative Luncheon

State Senator Rich Taylor (D) and Representative Jeff Kurtz (D) were in Keokuk on Friday afternoon for the first of four Legistlative Luncheons at the Hawkeye Restaurant.

Each began by giving a presentation of what they were working on in Des Moines.

Kurtz said he has spent the last few weeks getting organized at the State House as this is his first legislative session.

One thing the House is currently working on is moving away from privatized medicaid and giving it back to the state.

“Mainly it’s about protecting our most vulnerable citizens,” Kurtz said.

Other topics Kurtz spoke on include the probability of a one cent sales tax moving through and the District 55 election.

In this election, 29 votes were not counted because of certain circumstances and there will be a vote coming up to decide if the election will stand, the victor of the election won by just nine votes.

Kurtz said he thought the votes would count as they were marked as being sent in on a correct date.

“That is our basis for contesting this. I thought we had a fairly good case, but it appears the majority doesn’t think so,” Kurtz said.

During Taylor’s presentation, he spoke about the changes to many subcommittees with rules on posting public meetings.

The rule has been that committees had to post notice 24 hours prior to hosting the meeting, allowing the public to come in and voice opinions, but many committees have voted to remove this rule.

Meetings will be able to be held now without giving the public notice, something that did not sit well with Taylor.

“That, to me, is probably one of the biggest violations of faith to the public that we could possibly have done,” Taylor said.

Taylor has spent some time recently helping newer members of both the House and Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, getting used to the speed and atmosphere of state government.

He said there has been a lot of agreement on the education spending in Gov. Kim Reynolds’ budget in both political parties.

While he is hoping to get even more funding, he said they are at a great starting point.

Another key point for him is more funding for rural hospitals and nursing homes, stating that if funding cuts for nursing homes continue the way they are, they may not be around for much longer.

He said there are some important things that absolutely need to be funded.

“I think, probably everyone in this room knows that I say education, our corrections, our highway patrol and healthcare are probably the four biggest items on the plate,” Taylor said.

When asked questions from those in attendance, one topic was revenue projection. Taylor said it is affected by the increase in tax credits given out. These credits have gone from $250 million when he began in 2013 to $600 million now.

Kurtz said a bill is expected to be put forward that could negatively effect the time period of unemployment and how long people can get paid.

The final topics centered around privatizing prisons, which Taylor said could happen to two prisons in Iowa in the near future, and childcare.

Taylor and Kurtz were both in agreement that things do not look good on getting more funding for childcare.

The next Legislative Luncheon will be held Feb. 22.