GOP water quality funding plan gets enthusiastic support

DES MOINES - A Republicans proposal to fully fund a voter-approved water quality and outdoor recreation plan received high marks Tuesday from groups that have been backing the effort for a decade.

The plan introduced by a dozen House Republicans would finance the Iowa Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Fund with a three-year phase-in of a three-eighths-cent increase in the sales tax - or one-eighth of a cent each year - and offset the effect with changes to the state income tax.

In overwhelmingly approving the Iowa Water and Land Legacy in 2006, voters earmarked three-eighths of a cent of the next sales tax increase for the fund. But the sales tax has not increased since then.

The Water, Infrastructure, Soil for our Economy plan is a 'sensible, balanced approach to finally combat Iowa's pervasive water quality issues while not raising the overall tax pie for Iowans,” said Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton.

Kaufmann and Rep. Andy McKean, R-Anamosa, said the plan is in the spirit of the 26th president, Republican Teddy Roosevelt, who has been called 'the conservation president.”

'It's high time Republicans start taking the lead on some of these environmental and conservation issues,” McKean said. 'After all, we're the party of Teddy Roosevelt and I'd like to think he would be proud of this effort.”

The dozen Republicans spearheading the initiative have support from several groups that have championed the outdoor fund.

'I can tell you Ducks Unlimited is extremely excited about this,” Iowa Chairwoman Tammi Kircher of Keokuk said. 'We have huge water quality issues in Iowa, but we have more than water quality issues. We have issues with conservation and outdoors, we have tourism issues and economic development issues.”

Like Kircher and Ducks Unlimited, Jan Glendening, state director of the Iowa Nature Conservancy, has been working on filling the outdoor fund since voters approved it. The benefits of the plan, however, go beyond outdoor recreation, she said.

'Water quality, our soil, our natural resources are a huge part of the infrastructure of our economy,” Glendening said. 'A bill like this that invests in water quality, nutrient reduction, improving the soil health and helping with flood reduction is a great way to grow the economy of this state.”

When she was campaigning last year, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, heard from voters who want the state to tackle water quality and outdoor recreation.

'People move to Linn County because they want to have it all - they want to be able to have a job, have a family and still have a place to play, so water quality is imperative,” she said.

When fully implemented, the plan would generate $180 million a year with 60 percent of that going to 'proven water quality solutions outlined in Iowa's Nutrient Reduction Strategy.”

Like HF 538, a water quality bill already approved by the House Agriculture Committee, it also would convert the sales tax on pressurized water to an excise tax to be used for water quality.

'I like to characterize that bill as sort of the skeleton and this is the muscles that would be added on to it,” Kaufmann said.

Rep. Lee Hein, R-Monticello, predicted that would be difficult to do, given the bleak revenue forecast lawmakers received Tuesday. Being revenue neutral, he said, means the sales tax increase would be offset by general fund cuts.

'Everything deserves some discussion,” he said. 'But no matter what we do, we're going to offset a cut someplace else to make up for the amount of money going into the water quality fund.”

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How it works:

--- Phases in funding for the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation over three years with a sales tax increase of one-eighth of a cent each year.

--- Reduces individual income taxes for all Iowans by zeroing out the lowest tax brackets proportionally to the increase in sales tax.

--- Converts the sales tax on pressurized water into a water excise tax and creates a drinking water treatment financial assistance program for installing or upgrading drinking water infrastructure and source water protection projects. This program functions independently of the Trust Fund and is managed by the Iowa Finance Authority.

--- Clarifies the trust fund formula to ensure at least 60 percent of the funding goes to water quality practices outlined in the Nutrient Reduction Strategy