Branstad: Iowa Legislature won’t back sales tax increase for trust fund

ANAMOSA - Gov. Terry Branstad said Wednesday that neither body of the Iowa Legislature supports a sales tax increase to fund the Natural Resources and Recreation Trust Fund.

'Politics is the art of the possible. The question is, what will the Legislature approve?” Branstad said during a visit to the Doug Fairbanks dairy farm southwest of Anamosa, one of several stops Wednesday and Thursday on his Water Quality Discussion and Watershed Tour.

'We want to pay another 3/8 cent to generate $150 million a year for clean water,” said Dean Zimmerman of Monticello.

That sentiment was echoed by John Hanson of Marion and his son Owen, who held placards urging 'clean water now.”

Approved by 63 percent of Iowa voters in 2010, the trust fund is widely considered - outside of the Legislature, at least - to be the most promising means to fund conservation practices required to meet the goals in the state's nutrient reduction strategy. It would generate more than $150 million per year for projects that would improve water quality, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.

'I've made improving water quality an issue, and I am not going to let it go away,” Branstad said.

Branstad praised the House for passing a bill during the last session that would have combined funding from the state's infrastructure fund with a water-metering tax. The Senate did not consider the House-passed bill or offer its own proposal.

Branstad said he still finds merit in his plan to fund water quality improvements with a portion of the 1-cent sales tax for school infrastructure improvements.

Branstad said he and Lt. Gov Kim Reynolds undertook their tour this week to learn more about conservation practices farmers are adopting to improve water quality and to find out how the state can help them.

At the rural Anamosa dairy farm they learned how the Fairbanks family raises cover crops to protect their soil from erosion and improve its fertility and how the manure from 300 cows is safely stored and used to fertilize more than 300 acres of crops.

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