It has taken me some time to reflect on the 2023 legislative session and how the laws passed and signed by the Governor will affect everyday Iowans. Many of the bills that become laws will

affect only a very few Iowans. The Legislature passed hundreds of these bills. These laws are important and will make things in our state run smoother and provide additional opportunities for small groups of people. But everyday Iowans will not see much effect from them. Some of these laws are:

• HF 660 — Extends the sales tax rebate for the Knoxville Raceway Facility.

• HF185 — Expands the Butchery Innovation and Revitalization program from businesses with under 50 employees to businesses with up to 75 employees.

• HF 421 — Making Waldorf students eligible for Iowa Tuition Grant.

• SF 517 — Allows for the addition of a biological parent to an adult adopted person’s birth

certificate.

• SF 317 — Allows landowners outside of city limits to kill raccoons, skunks and opossum without prior permission from the DNR.

• SF 193 — Expands the law on who can remove a dead body.

These are some laws that will affect a larger portion of our Iowa population and not always for the good:

• HF 718 – Property tax reform limits the growth of property taxes over the next 4 years, combines levies, and provides new exemptions for seniors and veterans. This should have an impact on most property owners. I appreciate the tax relief, but I am concerned that we are losing services or will have other local levy increases because we are underfunding schools, cities and counties.

• SF 494 – Restricts access to food and medical services by creating an asset test including cash, savings accounts, or a car for individuals on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The Legislative Services Agency (LSA) estimates that 8000 people will lose their medicaid benefits and 2800 recipients will lose their SNAP benefits through this program redesign. It is estimated the program will cost millions to design and implement, we will lose an estimated $42 million in federal aid – all to save an estimated $8 million per year that comes out of the mouths of families, children, veterans, disabled and seniors who may qualify, but cannot navigate the paperwork.

I volunteer at the Marshall County Emergency Foodbox a couple of times a month. We do not see people trying to scam the system, we just see people who are in need. Our food boxes and pantries will continue to be overwhelmed as people decide not to jump through the hoops of this bill. We are hurting the most vulnerable Iowans.

• SF 578 – This standing budget bill funds our school systems. This funds our public school system’s students, provides vouchers for students to attend private schools, and funds the Area Education Agencies (AEAs) who provide many services to our schools, including special education services, training, media and other support services.

The winners here are definitely our private schools and families who choose to use the vouchers for their children. The cost of $107.4 billion new dollars will go to pay for students to attend private schools, approximately 14,000 of Iowa’s students. Our public schools which teach approximately 500,000 of Iowa students will receive approximately the same amount in new dollars to fund the public school system. This funding will stretch our public schools even more as the increase does not keep up with inflation or increased student needs. This bill further stretches the services of the AEA’s who had their budgets cut by nearly $30 million dollars.

I sit on the board of the Iowa River Valley Early Childhood Area (IRVECA) for Hardin and Marshall Counties. At our board meeting this week, we discussed how many early childhood services could be impacted by these AEA cuts. AEA administrators have stated that they will not fill job vacancies and will reevaluate services to our most vulnerable students due to this decrease in funding.

• SF 496 — Bans books in public schools, no longer requires instruction in AIDS/HIV and HPV vaccines, bans any instruction in sexual orientation and gender identity until 7th grade. With this “Parents Bill of Rights” we are providing for the rights of “some” parents, but stripping the rights of others to have a choice in what their children read or learn. It was debated to “let kids be kids” and “protect the innocence of children.” A few people are inserting their moral beliefs on the whole. As a former teacher and teacher librarian, I am strongly against letting a few people decide what all students can read or what teachers can present. Our jobs are to expose children to a wide range of topics and help them understand them and learn from them.

SF 542 — Rolls back child labor laws and allows minors to serve alcohol. What happened to “letting kids be kids” and “protecting their innocence”? Instead this bill encourages longer hours in more dangerous jobs for our kids. This is not how we should address our workforce shortage.

• SF 478 — Strips power from the state Auditor to allow waste, fraud, and abuse of the state taxpayer dollars. This bill will curtail the ability of the Auditor’s office to serve as an additional check and balance in our State Government and monitor how our dollars are spent.

The budget presented this year represents 88% of the money available for services to everyday Iowans. By law, we can allocate 99% of all monies available. To keep a surplus of 12% means that we are limiting services and not funding good projects for everyday Iowans.

These budget decisions will definitely affect a large number of people in Iowa. I can almost guarantee that we will have more tax cuts and tax relief next year based on the hoarding of funds.

I am all for tax relief, but not at the expense of the needs of everyday Iowas. People will go hungry, students will not receive special education services, cases in our courts will continue to be backlogged, our water quality will deteriorate, and fraud will not be investigated by the auditor. I question whether we are putting our money in the right places. Stay tuned for next year’s version of serving everyday Iowans.

As always, you can contact me at sue.cahill@legis.iowa.gov.

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Sue Cahill, a Democrat from Marshalltown, represents District 52 in the Iowa House.