Winners

If you find yourself on the good end of the slippery slope known as a special exemption, you’re in good hands with the Iowa Legislature. Take, for example, the slippery slope Iowa lawmakers created when they banned smoking in Iowa bars and restaurants, but allowed for a special exemption for casinos that help pump millions of dollars into the state’s economy. But it takes two acts of sliding to establish a slippery slope, as our friends at the Capitol proved now that they’ve passed a bill allowing alcohol to be served at the Capitol for the World Food Prize awards ceremony. The language in the bill says that for the purpose of the ceremony the statehouse is a private place [“wine and beer may be used and consumed within the state Capitol at an awards ceremony, to be held on or around Oct. 16, 2008, hosted and organized in whole or in part by the World Food Prize Foundation.”] …. Hmmm, interesting. And if someone has too much to drink, gets in a crash and kills someone, does that mean taxpayers are off the hook for damages settled in a lawsuit? One thing is clear, though, in Iowa you can lobby your way into special exemptions for anything as long as you know how to grease politicians on that slippery slope.

Federal jurors in Davenport convicted Karen Tesdell and Jane Barto for their roles in the CIETC scandal. Tesdell, a former CIETC accountant, was found guilty of 29 charges including conspiracy and other fraud-related charges. Barto, former deputy director of Iowa Workforce Development, was cleared of serious conspiracy charges, but found guilty of trying to obstruct the investigation. Tesdell faces more than 160 years in federal prison, and Barto faces a year in prison. Meanwhile, former CIETC board of director member Dan Albritton, who dated former CIETC executive director Ramona Cunningham, was cleared of all charges, as jurors said they didn’t have enough hard evidence to link him to any wrong doing.

We’re not sure when Forbes.com became an authority on water quality [just stick to rich people], but the Web site awarded Des Moines the top spot on its list of “Best Cities for Clean Drinking Water,” in their new study conducted by using data from Consumer Confidence Reports. Now, if we could just do something about cleaning up our lakes and rivers.

Losers

Is it us, or do you find Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority’s decision to host a statewide “Bus Roadeo” on June 28 a little bit troubling, if not somewhat laughable? DART officials say the event is designed for bus drivers to demonstrate — get this — their skills. Yeah, how about this for a test: stop running over people in downtown Des Moines.

We value improvements for education, schools and children as much as the next person, but the Iowa Legislature’s decision to approve a bill that would repeal local option sales taxes and replace them with statewide sales taxes to support school infrastructure and allegedly provide property tax relief is irresponsible. The measure passed the Iowa Senate by a vote of 34-15 and the Iowa House 59-41. It awaits the signature of our governor and former schoolteacher Chet Culver, who is likely to sign it into law by time you read this. Local proponents of the bill and school officials claim it will generate more revenue for struggling public schools in Des Moines than if the local option sales tax were renewed. That might be true [and how convenient for those who want to renew the controversial local option sales tax in Des Moines that was passed in 1999 without a vote because they knew it might not pass?], but nobody is asking the important question of “At what cost?” In yet another troubling example of decisions being made by the Democrat controlled Iowa Legislature this session to tax, tax, tax Iowans to bail those out who aren’t fiscally responsible, Iowans continue to lose local control thanks to the Iowa Democrat Party — that once championed individuality — which expects taxpayers in Des Moines, for example, to bail out crumbling schools in Sioux City or Davenport or some other place where we have no say in how our money is being spent. It isn’t that Iowans shouldn’t bond together to help one another, but it should be left to local taxpayers to vote on how their money is spent as a way to keep school districts in line — not a group of bureaucrats.

If you think all this rain is ruining your parade, be thankful you’re not working in the fields. The nearly constant rain we’ve been receiving is causing concern for farmers waiting to plant corn and soybeans. Those kinds of delays can mean a decrease in yield and higher prices at the supermarket. We need some perfect weather to make up for late spring plantings. CV

Comment on this story | Return to top