T-R FILE PHOTO Iowa House Representative Sue Cahill held a listening post at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown Monday to talk about ongoing public affairs with community members and residents at the local institution.

As the 2023 Iowa Legislative Session winds to a close, Rep. Sue Cahill (D-Marshalltown) hosted a community listening post on Monday at the Iowa Veterans Home to hear concerns and feedback from current residents and community members at the local institution.

Naturally, for some of the attendees at the IVH, the focus was on veterans issues, and Cahill, who serves on the Veterans Affairs Committee, said in particular, many residents saw the need to raise the monthly stipend they receive from the State to help cover the cost of their care at IVH.

“One of the key issues, and we had talked about this before a couple of times when I was here, is (if) there is a way to raise the stipend for residents,” Cahill said. “They’re like, ‘We’re getting hit by inflation just as much. If we only are getting 50 bucks for a month, we’ve got to stretch that.'”

With inflationary pressures impacting Iowans from all walks of life, and veterans at IVH notwithstanding, Cahill said there was certainly room for the State to increase the monthly stipend, but with a Republican dominated legislature, who have made tightening public expenditures a hallmark of their governance this past session, the possibility of an increase could become less likely.

“So that’s something that I did put forth and investigated some legislature, and we drew some up, and we’ll try and work with that next session to see if it’s something we can easily do,” she said. “One of the points is, do you do it for all veterans and care facilities across Iowa, or do you just focus on the Veterans Home?.. You open it up, and it becomes a much greater fiscal amount, which makes it much less likely to happen.”

Now, with the days in the 2023 Legislative Session dwindling, lawmaking this year at the State House has been largely overshadowed by bills concerning education in Iowa.

This includes, most recently, SF 496, which mirrors the “Don’t Say Gay” Florida law and was sent to the desk of Gov. Kim Reynolds to be signed into law last week. SF 496 would set a standard for “age appropriate” books requiring schools to remove and not teach books which contain a description or image of a sex act and apply possible penalties to those if they violate the order.

It also includes one of the most prominent bills passed in the 2023 session, the Students First Act, which makes state education funding available for K-12 students who choose to attend private schools.

Cahill has been a vocal opponent of the two bills, and on Monday in an interview with the Times-Republican, she reiterated her worries about the trajectory of public education in Iowa.

“There’s a lot of animosity toward public education, and I am concerned about how we’re going to continue to fund it and meet the needs of those kids who are left behind, for whatever reason,” Cahill said. “Those who aren’t going to go to the private schools, whether there isn’t one in their county, whether there isn’t one in their area, whether they have a disability or an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan), that requires them to have specialized services that the public’s private school does not offer.”

Cahill argued that the passing of these bills, alongside others being passed by the Iowa Senate loosening child labor restrictions, is a stark example of “hypocrisy.”

“You’re willing to pass a bill that allows our 14 and 15 year olds to work more hours at night, and our 16 and 17 year olds to serve alcohol. What happened to keeping them innocent? I just see a hypocrisy,” Cahill said. “You are saying, let these kids work in more dangerous industries. Let them work in an industrial kitchen. Let them work on a meatpacking line. Let them work till 11 at night, but yet on the other side, you’re saying protect my kids from these books.”

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.