Iowa water fund likely staying dry

Will this be the year our state lawmakers finally take the plunge for clean water? Don't hold your breath.

Folks from the Nature Conservancy, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and several other groups are preparing to lobby legislators in January with hopes of finally filling the state's Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund. Iowans voted overwhelmingly in 2010 for a constitutional amendment creating the fund. It got 63 percent of the vote.

So the fund exists, but it's empty. And, under the amendment, it will stay that way until the next time Iowa raises its state sales tax. The trust fund would get a three-eights-of-a-cent share of any sales tax increase, or roughly $150 million annually. Soil and water conservation projects would be at the top of the list for trust fund dollars. And the fund is constitutionally protected against legislative scooping for other uses.

'Iowans want to see this funded,” Jan Glendening, the Nature Conservancy's Iowa State director, told our editorial board last week. The groups plan to roll out polling data soon they contend underscores that point.

Perhaps it is what Iowans want, but the Legislature is another story.

'There's still quite a bit of work to do on that. And, so far, it hasn't happened,” said House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha. 'And I don't know of anything right now that's going to change that. Maybe something will.”

'No. I think it's a struggle,” said state Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, when I asked him if funding had any chance of moving forward in 2015. He chairs the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and offered legislation last session to fill the trust fund while also reducing income taxes as an offset. His bill went nowhere.

'We're really unwilling to invest in our future,” Bolkcom said. 'Forty percent of the money goes to keeping the soil on the land. What could be more important to Iowa's future than that?”

There are lots of reasons why trust fund action is unlikely. Other pressing issues, such as the gas tax, are going to get a lot more attention. It's a Statehouse tradition to shortchange environmental protection, and there's been virtually no political penalty for it.

Also, we're talking about a tax increase, which is kryptonite. A straight up-or-down vote on such a sales tax increase isn't going to happen. So any move to fill the trust fund would have to come as part of a major tax reduction or reform effort, offering some sort of tax cuts to offset the costs to taxpayers of raising the sales tax for conservation.

Trouble is, the last big tax reform measure aimed at commercial property taxes and other large long-term spending commitments approved by lawmakers in recent years have tightened the state's budget. So there's very little of the spare revenue needed to grease the wheels for tax reforms.

And filling the fund in a legislature controlled by Democrats and Republicans would take bipartisan leadership. Although some Democrats, such as Bolkcom, are interested, no Republican lawmakers, as of yet, have come out in favor of providing trust fund bucks.

So 2015 may not be their year, for many reasons. But there's one good reason to believe that it will happen, eventually. It's the right thing to do. And Iowans of all political stripes know it.

We've put our faith in largely voluntary measures aimed at reducing the level of nitrates and other pollutants washed into our rivers, streams and lakes. Boosting water quality goes hand-in-hand with curtailing soil erosion, which is joined at the hip with reducing flooding. All very important issues that touch the lives of every Iowan, and beyond.

But we haven't put our money where our faith is. Without enough bucks to encourage and partner with Iowa's landowners on conservation measures, voluntary efforts we've embraced will fail. It's that simple.

It has been estimated that meeting pollution reduction goals set out in the state's Nutrient Reduction Strategy could cost billions of dollars. And so far, we've thrown a handful of peanuts at that elephant. The funding we do provide is inconsistent and unpredictable. Just when we think we're making progress, the governor wields his veto pen.

It's past time to dedicate a permanent stream of dollars to this critical effort, a flow large enough to pay for actual progress. Not only is the fate of the state's soil and water riding on this, but our economic future also is at stake. Cleaning up water and safeguarding soil is vastly more vital and beneficial to Iowa's economy than a thousand fertilizer factories. Not to mention also providing money for our parks, lake restoration and other economically important recreational opportunities.

Iowans understand this. And it's not just lefty tree-huggers. The trust fund amendment received 63 percent of the vote in the midst of a Republican wave with turnout stoked by a fight over judicial retention.

Call me overly optimistic, but I'm betting it won't be long before our leaders finally recognize the serious challenges we face - and their responsibility to meet them for our future generations.

Even if 2015 isn't the year, the push toward the plunge has to start now.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452' todd.dorman@thegazette.com