One of the high-profile failures of the 2017 Iowa legislative session is a bill that would set up a new spending strategy for water quality projects. The House and Senate could not agree on an approach for financing the plan. Republican Senators favored relying on gambling taxes. Republicans and many Democrats in the House endorsed the idea of redirecting state sales tax revenue that’s currently reserved for school infrastructure. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Republican from Clear Lake, says there WERE “common themes” in the two bills.
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The dismissal of the Des Moines Water Works’ lawsuit challenging how fertilizer run-off was handled in northwest Iowa seemed to drain support among Republicans for a big, new state program to finance water improvement projects. Senate Democratic Leader Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids also points to the G-O-P’s decision to shut down the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
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Republicans in the legislature voted to close the research center and redirect about 400-thousand dollars to Iowa State’s Nutrient Research Center, which focuses on how best to manage manure and fertilizer applications on farmland.
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