For Northey, getting to starting point on water quality would be success

DES MOINES — One of the few areas of widespread agreement in these early days of the Iowa legislative session is that the water quality bill approved by the House a year ago is a good starting point for action this year.

In fact, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Bill Northey sees that plan to spend about $475 million over 13 years by redirecting existing taxes and funds as more than a start.

'You know, I'd be perfectly happy if we ended with the House bill,' Northey said. 'I'm very happy with that being what comes out of this Legislature.'

The bill, passed with bipartisan support in the GOP-controlled House, but never taken up by the then-Democratic-controlled Senate, called for splitting the money evenly between rural Iowa water quality projects and urban water infrastructure.

And that, the third-term ag secretary said, would mean more projects and more technology to improve water quality. It also would make available more state money to leverage federal funds as well as investments by property owners and organizations interested in wildlife habitat, fishing and hunting and agriculture as well as health and recreation.

In many cases, such as the use of cover crops to reduce soil loss, the state's investment often is matched one-to-one by farmers. For edge-of-field practices, such as buffer strips, state funds cover half the cost with federal dollars and farmers putting in 40 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

As Iowa ramps up water quality efforts, Northey believes the chances of Iowa finding the next new water quality technologies and strategies improve 'because we have a lot of folks out there figuring out how we can do this less expensively, more effectively and how can we do something else that makes a difference.'

Public support for water quality initiatives is strong. A study done last year by the University of Northern Iowa for the Department of Natural Resources found Iowans say they would be willing to pay as much as $38 more per year in water bills, fees and taxes for better water quality.

In some places — Linn and Johnson counties, for example — voters have approved long-term taxes to support natural resources spending.

Many lawmakers would like to fund those efforts with a sales tax increase that would trigger three-eighths of each new cent of revenue for a natural resources trust fund. Northey doubts that will happen.

'This Legislature in these times is not interested at all in increased taxes,' he said.

That brings him back to his starting point — the funding plan the House passed a year ago.

'Iowans can have the best of both worlds,' Northey said. 'They can make the increased investment the public is calling for without raising taxes.'

It makes sense, he said, to be 'as aggressive as we can within the means we have.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com