Snow was falling as the Wilton Chamber of Commerce held its annual political forum downtown in the Wilton Community Room March 14. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton) and Sen. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) were on hand and the new novel coronavirus COVID-19 was on their minds.
Wahls said the public should be concerned with COVID-19 and that he was impressed with the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and its continued information during the crisis, which was recently labeled a global pandemic. President Trump also declared a national state of emergency with regard to the virus, which will free up more federal funding in or to help combat the epidemic.
Kaufmann concurred, saying state government was following the lead of IDPH. He said he was working a lot on getting legislation passed to make EMS services an essential service, in order to secure funding. He is also advancing an animal torture bill which would increase severity of charges to offenders.
Wahls said he continues to work on legislation to curtail companies from drastically raising affordable housing rent, primarily in mobile home parks.
Moderated by Mike Shuger, the nearly 90-minute forum operated on a Q&A format. The first question dealt with Gov. Kim Reynolds’ plan of using sales tax (raising it one cent) to help fund mental health services. Kaufmann said the plan “is on life support” and that he didn’t expect that proposal to be final. Wahls said a potential sales tax increase should only be in addition to any other funding, not a sole source.
Wilton and Durant shared Superintendent Joe Burnett was in attendance. He asked about particular school districts that have diversity plans, namely in Davenport, which prohibits students living in the western edge of the district from open enrolling to smaller surrounding districts like Durant or Wilton.
Wahls said he understood the frustration but that several districts that have diversity plans evolve from original desegregation plans. “I support open enrollment but understand situations where that’s a bit harder,” he said.
Kaufmann pledged to look into the issue. Burnett noted that only seven of 326 districts in Iowa have diversity plans and joked, why wouldn’t they all adopt them if it meant keeping kids from leaving their districts?
Burnett also said he’d like to see a funding plan for providing student resource officers (SRO) in schools. Durant began providing a SRO this year. “With the issues we face today, it’s good to have them in school,” said Burnett.
Kaufmann said SRO funding was “on the radar” of the legislature.
Next there was a comment on infrastructure, mainly how several area highways were in poor shape. Kaufmann said a lot of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) focus seems to be on Intestate 80 lane expansion yet agreed “there are roads deteriorating.” He said there’s a new DOT director, “so maybe there’s a new way forward … With all this gridlock in D.C., if they wanted to do one thing, pass an infrastructure bill.”
Next there was a comment from someone in attendance on the proposed Iowa constitutional amendment that would note the state’s constitution does not protect abortion rights. Kaufmann and Wahls both noted that any amendment language would have to pass two separate legislatures before eventually being voted on by the public, which would be 2022 at the earliest. Wahls said he voted “No” on it in the Senate, saying he felt it would give legislative ability to severely limit abortions.
Kaufmann said he voted “Yes” for it within his judiciary committee. “It does not stop one abortion, about one thing. It’s about letting Iowans have their voice heard on the abortion issue,” he said. Kaufmann also noted he felt Iowans are split 50/50 on the abortion issue, but, he felt, many “are not on board with Roe vs. Wade extremes.”
Conversation switched to daylight savings time, and a bill to make it permanent in Iowa. “The fact we have to set our clocks back is stupid,” said Kaufmann. He said the federal government makes it difficult to proceed but that in passing a committee in the House and Senate, it would make 34 states in the U.S. that have done it.
“When I ran for the Senate, I didn’t think this would be on my radar,” said Wahls.
They both mentioned that any kind of future legislation would only be enacted when surrounding states would do the same, in order that Iowa wouldn’t become an island.
One of the last questions dealt with stopping the use of traffic cameras, which Kaufmann called a dead issue. “They are unconstitutional. You have a right to face your accuser. And they don’t involve an investigation,” said Kaufmann. “Plus someone can drive my car and then I get the ticket.”
He said the problem was that it was a very partisan issue, with support seeming to only come from Republicans.
As questions from the crowd began to die down, both Kaufmann and Wahls stressed that work is being done on reducing prescription drug costs, namely putting a cap on insulin prices