Debate on Education, TIF, Commercial Property Tax, and Mental Health Reform Coming up at State Level

This week we featured one issue being debated at the state level that will affect Iowa Citians -- the potential raise of the .

But what are some other debates to watch for? Well, there are plenty, but here are the main debates of interest that arose with our conversation with State Representative Mary Mascher, (D- Iowa City.)

Education Reform

This is timely, as it hit the news this week that Iowa schools ranked low on one national ranking, dropping from a C grade to a C-, a ranking that state teachers disputed.

Nontheless, there is broad agreement that the Iowa school system can certainly be improved, and to that end Gov. Terry Branstad and his Department of Education head Jason Glass, have proposed an education reform plan.

The plan includes such suggested changes such as requiring a 3.0 GPA for college student to enroll education studies at Universities in Iowa, holding students back at 3rd grade if they are unable to read at grade level, yearly teacher evaluations, requiring the passage of a test to graduate high school, and requiring all juniors to take a college entrance exam.

The plan has already received at education panels held across Iowa last fall. One controversial element, changing the structure of teacher pay, has been tabled until next year.

Rep. Mascher, a member of the House Education committee, said she and her committee mates have been working through the bill line by line, trying to pass a bill out of their committee that their counter parts in the senate will agree with enough to pass.

One part of the plan that Mascher expects to be dead on arrival is the part that requires 3rd graders be held back.

"There are many parts that will just get left at the wayside," Mascher said. "The Senate isn't interested right now in retaining third grades, and they've said that point blank."

Other elements have some wiggle room for debate, such as yearly teacher evaluations. Mascher said there is broad agreement that evalutions are valuable, and in a perfect situation should be done yearly. However, she said teachers are concerned that if yearly evaluations are mandated without additional resources this will take away from both the evaluations and professional development time.

"There's a big fear that they'll put the requirements forward but not put forward the resources that will allow them to do a good job," Mascher said.

Tax Increment Financing and Commercial Property Tax Reform

These will be two big issues for Iowa City, and Mascher said they are tied into one another.

Tax Increment Financing is a issue of big local interest in the Iowa City area, for many different reasons, but largely due to Coralville's use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to to move from Sycamore Mall to the Iowa River landing.

A local TIF forum hosted by state legislators brought several people out to express their concerns about the issue. Some were critical that with Coralville's avid use of the frozen tax revenue from TIF districts, this leads to other parts of Johnson County to have to pick up their tax slack.

Mascher said the TIF rules will certainly be looked at, although the main dispute will likely be how to modify the rules while not damaging an effective tool for economic development.

"We're going to try to determine whether the TIF rules are meeting the needs, or whether that needs to be changed," Mascher said.

The TIF is tied to commercial property taxes, as Gov. Terry Branstad appears ready to deny TIF reform if no commercial tax reform can be reached, Mascher said.

"He is really determined to getting a commercial property tax relief through," Mascher said.

The Governor has argued in the past that lowering commercial property taxes would allow communities to build their economies without using as much TIF.

Lowering the commercial property tax rate would affect the budget of local municipalities, which rely on property taxes on commercial properties to operate. The Branstad plan calls for backfilling this gap with state funding, but Mascher said some city administrators are dubious that the state will come through on this, especially in the case of an unexpected economic downturn.

"Unfortunately, the state has a reputation for not being able to keep those commitments locally," Mascher said.

Mascher said the main ideological divide on commercial property tax right now is that the House plan, favored by Gov. Branstad, offers the tax breaks to businesses large and small. The Senate plan instead limits these tax breaks to "Mainstreet" small businesses, not giving lower taxes to out of state corporations such as Walmart.

"There in lies the debate and the struggle," Mascher said.

Mental Health Reform

The sate of Iowa has been criticized for not providing enough funding to its county programs.

Mascher said that this will hopefully improve with some changes being considered by the legislature this session.

Mascher said this is because while federal money to states is becoming scarce in other areas, in the area of mental health it may actually be increasing in the near future. The state government is going to try to secure $11 million in designated federal funding to help reform the state system.

Also, with the Affordable Healthcare Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) provisions coming up, Mascher said more mental health conditions will be covered by medicare.

"We've got to coordinate what we're doing with what the federal government is doing," Mascher said.

Mascher said legislators are also working on an idea where different counties will share mental health resources. She said the main goal of this strategy is to provide as close to equal treatment as possible across the state.

"Some counties may have to pay more, some counties will have to pay less, but the main idea is to try to provide a base line of mental services based on state recommendations," she said.