I took some time of my “busy” big city Seattle schedule to look in on the election process back home in Iowa. The Gazette Online held a brief online forum for the Linn County Supervisors candidates for District 2 this morning. In that district we have incumbent Linda Langston being challenged by John Erceg (Navy, Ret.).

I posed a question regarding the $1bn flood protection plan put forth by some high priced consultants hired by the City of Cedar Rapids (they like consultants… a LOT). I got a non-answer from both candidates which I can actually let slide for now because the plan is BS and not well understood by anyone other than the high priced consultants. However, one quetsion from Iowa GOP State Central Commitee member David Chung (Dist 2):

David Chung:
Q: How are you qualified to help lead Linn County through the lengthy process of flood recovery?

Candidate John Erceg:
A: Yes I am. I first was involved with disaster recovery after the largest volcano explosion in the last century Mt. Pinatubo the Philippines. I finished my Navy career as head of Safety and Health for the Submarine Force Pearl Harbor a position that needs no mistakes. I was Environmental Health Supervisor for Linn County Public Health which included caring for Jones County . I have a bachelors in Safety and Health and a Masters in systems management.

Candidate Linda Langston:
A: One thing that I think has been useful was my experience at the Kennedy School of Government. I spent three weeks in their state and local official program. The training has been really useful and allowed me to access assistance thru Harvard and KSG. Also, I am working closely with the Iowa Association of Counties and the National Association of counties. I appreciate the assistance of colleagues from around the country.

[via Gazette Online]

Now, to be completely honest I had a chance to hear Mr. Erceg speak several times during my stint on the Linn County Republican Central Committee as he was kind enough to come to our meetings and take questions and explain his positions. This is the first time, however, that I have had any insight as to what Mrs. Langstons background is and might I say it is … enlightening. There appears to me to be a wide gap in relevant experience between these two candidates and I would be more than willing to suggest that the incumbent be tossed out on Nov. 4th in favor of some fresh perspective. I think Linn County needs some of that right now.

Consider also that Linda Langston played a central part in the controversy over Supervisor salaries earlier this year.

I wrote here regarding the current attempt in Des Moines to move the SILO tax into the state sales tax and the lack of guarantees for where the money will be used as well as the destruction of the ‘local option.’ It appears that Iowa Senate GOP members have come up with an alternative which would provide the people a voice in the sales tax as well as a constitutional amendment which would specifically state that the money was to be spent on schools.

The Senate GOP alternative would seek to place a floor of $575 per student and a rolling average to be recalculated annually in distributing tax proceeds. It also would encourage a constitutional amendment to protect the school infrastructure and property tax relief money from being “scooped” for other purposes and preserve the current system of allowing voters to reaffirm the local option tax every 10 years.

This alternative is built on something that is very hard to find in Des Moines this session.. Common Sense. There is no reason there shouldn’t guarantees put on the money and the citizens of Iowa have every right to vote on local option sales taxation. Apparently these concepts escape some folks..

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he was “disappointed” Senate Republicans are choosing to abandon the bipartisan path taken in the House to do what’s right for students and property taxpayers in favor of “election-year posturing” and “pandering” to special-interest groups like Iowans for Tax Relief.

First of all, Sentor Gronstal, “bipartisanship” should be broken off when something this atrocious comes along. Second of all the Iowans for Tax Relief is a group that works to lower the tax burden Des Moines places on the citizens of this great state. Would that not then be “pandering” to the citizens?

I believe that Senator Gronstal is just a bit worried that the Democrats in Des Moines might get schooled come November. After all, who wants to keep a party in power that has increased spending more in the first two years of their run than the GOP did for their entire eight year run.

[via Gazette Online]

Not to long ago we went through the annoying process of voting for a local option sales tax known as the SILO tax which was meant to be used for school infrastructure funding. Linn and Johnson counties were the last two in the state to pass this new tax after it was generally approved by the state. Funny thing is now that everyone has passed it the yokels at the statehouse in Des Moines want to pull it all back in. Afterall, if everyone said yes to it.. why not just have it at the state level? Take a drive on an Iowa road and you’ll know why.

Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he won’t allow debate on the measure, which would increase the statewide sales tax by one cent to replace local option sales taxes approved in all Iowa counties that benefit school districts.

There are number of problems with this idea. First of all the whole idea of a LOCAL OPTION sales tax is that we have the OPTION… LOCALLY to regulate our taxation. If this power gets moved to Des Moines thats just another government power grab. Second of all we know how well the state manages money. They cant seem to figure out how to do anythign without raising some sort of fee or tax. So, how do we know that the money from this sales tax increase will be guaranteed to go to schools? ALL OF IT.

Republicans said they won’t support the measure without assurances the money raised won’t be used for purposes other than school repairs and property tax relief. So far, they said they haven’t received such guarantees.

“There are a lot of concerns about the money not being properly protected,” said Senate Minority Leader Ron Wieck, R-Sioux City. “I think the attitude in our caucus could be changed if there was some constitutional protection for the money.”

The measure would do away with current elections that are needed to renew the local option taxes.

If those local elections are no longer held, Republicans questioned whether use of the money would change in future years.

“The concern is we could move forward and in a year, or two years, or three years, the money could be scooped and used for other purposes,” said Wieck.

Uh.. Yeah! There’s no way they will keep that money secured for school use only. Why can’t these guarantees be made? We need this power on the local level and thats the bottom line. Des Moines… BUG OFF!

[via - QCTimes]