Iowa’s winter legislative dance party is coming

Winter is coming in Iowa. So, the annual legislative Winter Dance Party under the Golden Dome will begin soon.

Iowa educators feel a chill down their spines thinking about the Iowa Legislature convening on Jan. 12. What’s the next attack? How will we cope? Will they fund schools above inflation?

Like all middle school dances, they'll be a division of dancers. But this dance won't be girls on one side boys on the other. Democrats will cluster together in the hopes of a little warmth, while Republicans puff up their chests, strut around to call the tunes.

Here are a few things chaperones, also known as voters, need to monitor to keep the state safe.

It’s no secret property tax reform is a priority. It was last session too, until leadership discovered just how complicated it is. Historically Iowa has tied essential services to property tax revenue.

It’s been that way for decades because Iowa has more land than people, so it made good political sense to tie essential service funding to a consistent and predictable source. Without a reliable funding source for schools, towns and counties they’d dry up and blow away.

Republican proposals like freezing property tax increases for those 65 or older are great for stump speeches but doing that while protecting essential revenue is complicated and has stumped lawmakers so far.

Any politician who talks about cutting property taxes without talking about protecting schools, towns, and county revenue, is solving one problem and creating another.

Also, Rob Sands’ idea for charging out of state landowners more may not pass legal muster.

The DOGE recommendations also will be tempting for legislators to act on. They shouldn’t. Two of those recommendations would send educators scrambling for exits. I’m not predicting the majority party will try to totally revamp the Iowa Public Employee Retirement system (IPERS).

Even DOGE Committee members ran from their own recommendations. Terry Lutz, the Taxpayer Investment Subcommittee Chair said, “The recommendation was misrepresented and misunderstood.” But the recommendation was clear, and so was public outrage.

Instead, there may be legislative meddling around the edges of IPERS, and that could be dangerous. Right now, IPERS is managed by an investment board. There are legislators on the board as non-voting members. Any Legislative meddling with investments, number of years to vest, or the formula for full retirement could break IPERS, a system that’s not broken.

The other DOGE public education recommendation was on merit pay for teaching. Merit pay schemes have been proposed for decades and some have been implemented. They all failed because students aren’t a product and teachers aren’t assembly line workers.

Chaperones need to keep a close eye on the legislative dancers from both parties and call them out if they’re dancing dangerously. Iowa is famous for a 1959 Winter Dance Party that tragically became “The Day the Music Died.” Let’s guard against tragedy coming from this year’s legislative dance.

Bruce Lear taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until he retired. BruceLear2419@gmail.com