Area legislators in Des Moines for first weeks of the new session

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

It was a big week for Charles City’s state legislators as State Senator Sandy Salmon and State Representative Charley Thomson went to Des Moines to kick off the new legislative session.

“It’s kind of a big ceremonial week,” said Salmon, who is starting her first term as an Iowa State Senator for District 29 after spending 10 years in the Iowa House of representatives representing Bremer and part of Black Hawk counties.

Senate District 29 includes most of Floyd County and all of Chickasaw, Butler and Bremer counties. The northwest two Floyd County townships, Rock Grove and Rockford, are part of Iowa Senate District 30 with Mitchell, Worth and Cerro Gordo counties.

After getting sworn into office, much of the legislators’ time has been spent in speeches and ceremonies, hearing condition of the state speeches from the governor to the Supreme Court chief justice to the Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard.

“It’s just been a busy week with hearing from everybody and getting committees organized and set up,” said Salmon.

As things settle down and regular business starts, Salmon will be working on the education committee, the health and human services committee, the state government committee and she is the vice chair of the veterans affairs committee. She’ll also be working on the justice systems appropriations subcommittee, which appropriates money for the state’s prison system and courts.

After a decade in the House, Salmon said she is getting used to being on the other side of the Legislature and working with a new group of people.

“The Senate is half the people so it’s a lot quieter over there in the Senate and easier to work,” said Salmon. “That’s a nice surprise.”

Back over on the House side of the Legislature, Thomson is starting his first term in office as the representative for Iowa District 58.

“It’s very interesting,” said Thomson. “I’m learning a lot and meeting a lot of interesting people.”

Iowa House District 58 includes most of Floyd County, all of Chickasaw County and most of Bremer County except for the eastern part of the county that includes Waverly.

Rockford and Rock Grove townships in Floyd County are part of Iowa House District 60, which also includes all of Mitchell and Worth counties and the western part of Cerro Gordo County.

After getting sworn in on a 200-year-old family Bible, Thomson said he spent his week getting to know his way around the Capitol building and learning the workflow of the Legislature and the various traditions and practices that make the legislative machine run.

As a practicing attorney, Thomson said he already has a familiarity with the law and expects that experience will help reduce the learning curve.

“My years in private practice have been helpful in getting a leg up on how this stuff works,” said Thomson, who was surprised to realize that there are relatively few attorneys in the Legislature. “I can bring a different perspective to things, being an in-house attorney.”

Helping Thomson become acclimated to the Capitol is Rep. Phil Thompson (R-Jefferson), who is one of three “Thompsons” of various spellings in the House.

“It is a challenge to the clerks, the pages, and the staff to keep us all straight,” said Thomson.

Sen. Salmon said she has also been helping her new House counterpart learn the ins-and-outs of the Capitol, drawing on her experience as a representative to literally teach him how to navigate the chambers.

“She’s pointed me to the secret passageways that make the trip to caucus much faster,” said Thomson. “I’m very grateful for her assistance.”

Thomson said he is eager to get to work in Des Moines, having been assigned to all of the House subcommittees he was hoping for. He will be serving on the committees for commerce, transportation, judiciary and was made vice-chair of the economic appropriations subcommittee.

“Personally, I think these committees I’m on will really help the district advance our goals,” said Thomson.

The headline issue in the statehouse right now is on Gov. Kim Reynolds’ legislative agenda. Most notably, her proposal for a “school choice” plan would allow parents to redirect a school district’s per-pupil funding for their child into an “education savings account” that could be used to pay for private tuition and other education-related expenses.

All public school students, including incoming kindergartners, would be eligible for the program immediately if they switch to private schools, while the families of students that already attend private schools would be phased in.

The per-pupil funding the first year would be set at $7,598, and could be adjusted in future years.

The program would be phased in over three years, with priority going to kindergarten and low-income students in the first two years. In the third year, all Iowa families would be eligible for the savings accounts for their children who go to private schools.

Although public schools would lose that $7,598 per-student state funding for any students who left for private schools, they would receive $1,205 in categorical funding each student in their districts, regardless of where that student attends school.

“It’s a pretty big bill, but I think we can get it done,” said Salmon. “I think there will be a number of families helped by this.”

School choice has been one of Gov. Reynolds’ centerpiece agenda items for some time now. Efforts to pass similar proposals failed in the last two legislative sessions, but a newly inaugurated Legislature brings a new opportunity for the bill to pass.

“Our district voted very heavily in favor of school choice,” said Thomson. “I think what everyone wants is a really good system of public education. The way people do that, I think people agree, is to have a robust series of choices.”

While both Thomson and Salmon are on the same page with the governor on school choice, they seem to have a difference of opinion on the matter of carbon pipelines, which both oppose, when it comes to utilizing eminent domain in their development.

“There’s a lot of controversy over the carbon dioxide pipeline,” said Thomson. “It was not listed among the governor’s priorities because I think the governor supports it and expects it to go through.”

“I don’t think eminent domain should be used for that purpose,” said Salmon, who is committed to supporting restrictions on eminent domain use. “It’s going to take quite a bit of activism.”

Outside of school choice and pipelines, Salmon said she will be working on curbing the use of “ESG scores,” which is a metric used by investment firms to rate a company’s exposure to environmental, social and governance risks as part of a financial analysis.

Salmon will also be working closely with the newly created Health and Human Services Department, which was created last year as a merger between the Department of Human Services and Department of Public Health. There are plans in the works this year to make similar mergers in other state departments, bringing 37 agencies down to 16.

Thomson, meanwhile, is looking forward to addressing tort reform and working on implementing a regular “zero-based budgeting” analysis on state agencies.

“You start with their budget at zero and you say to that agency, ‘What do you actually need?’“ said Thomson. “It can result in huge savings.”

Tax reform is also on the agenda as Thomson hopes the state can provide continued relief to the state’s property owners.

“Real estate taxes have gotten out of control, particularly in our district,” said Thomson.

At the same time, Thomson said he is aware that the consequences of tax cuts and budget reductions in Des Moines tend to fall on local governments, forcing counties and cities to figure out how to make up the difference.

The city of Charles City is in the midst of this issue right now as changes to state tax credit policy have resulted in a drop of $3.5 million in taxable valuation in spite of property values in the city actually going up. Thomson said he’s been in communication with the city about finding the balance between taxes and the needed services they finance.

“They are not happy about having less to work with and they have things they have to provide,” said Thomson. “We’re alert to that.”

With a number of controversial items on the legislative agenda, Thomson hopes that all of his constituents, including those who disagree with him politically, will feel free to contact him to voice their opinions, and he encourages them to get in touch.

“The election is over. Right now I’m a public servant and I’m here for everybody. Just because I’m in a different party doesn’t mean I can’t articulate what their position is to my fellow legislators,” said Thomson, who said he has already received a number of emails, particularly about school choice.

“I’m going to try to respond to every single person that’s written in. I read every one of them. … It’s very humbling work to realize that you’re there for everybody in that territory and trying to be their voice.”