Welcome to Iowa This Week I'm Tim Harwood.
Blackwok County Conservation is hosting a presentation on Iowa's Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.
That event is Wednesday, that's October the 14th at the Rotary Reserve Lodge on Union Road in Cedar Falls.
The speaker will be outdoor writer and photographer Dan Cohen.
He's also the retired executive director for Buchanan County's Conservation Board, and he joins us during today's program for a preview.
Thanks for being with us.
My pleasure, Tim.
So tell us about this trust fund, which people I'm sure have heard of, but might not be top of mind for them.
It's still a work in progress for Iowa legislators years after it was originally authorized by voters.
That's right.
We've basically gone 16 years now since Iowa voters went to the polls and amended their state constitution.
to include this trust fund that would protect and enhance water quality in natural areas in Iowa and would also include parks, trails, fish and wildlife habitat, and conserving agricultural soils in the state.
And this is what Iowans wanted.
They knew what they were voting on.
It was very well discussed, leading into it.
Actually, there was a four-year period of research and education.
trying to figure out the exact mechanisms and what this program could do.
But here we've been 16 years later and we still don't have the funding.
And that's because Iowans could change the Constitution and amend it to include this trust.
But in the state of Iowa, only the legislature and the governor can enact the trigger to fund the trust, which is a three-eighth cent increase of state sales tax.
Let's go back to the lead up to that 2010 vote and just remind us, Dan, amending a Constitution is not an easy process.
What went into making that change and getting this on the ballot in the first place, much less getting the voters to turn out and approve it?
Yeah, I mean, it actually started back in 2006, the Iowa legislature realized.
We haven't had really good way of funding natural resources in our state and our outdoor recreation areas.
And so they legislatively created this committee, which I was fortunate to serve on representing county conservation.
But the committee was very diverse, everything from the Iowa Farm Bureau, to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, to state
and
local governments, to other nonprofit groups.
It included two Republicans, two Democrats, two senators, two legislators.
It had the authority of the
state law so we could do research, we could bring in people to testify, we did a polling of what Iowans would be willing to pay.
This went on for years and came up with this idea of the trust fund which would be put into the Constitution so that it could not be rated, could not be used for any other purposes, and would be secure and would meet the promises that were made to Iowans.
So that's what happened.
But to change the Constitution, as you stated, is a difficult thing.
It had to pass both the House and the Senate in two different legislative sessions, which it did in 2009 and 2010.
So that was required.
And then that allowed it to go on the ballot for Iowans to vote on in the general election in November of 2010.
And then when Iowans went to the ballot box that year, more Iowans voted for the trust fund, then voted for the governor or voted for any other statewide elected leader.
It was very popular with 63% of the vote.
The idea was that then the legislature would follow through and fund the trust, but here we are again 16 years later still waiting for that to happen.
We're talking with Dan Cohen, who is an outdoor writer and photographer, as well as being the retired executive director of the Buchanan County Conservation Board.
We're talking about Iowa's Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, which was approved constitutionally in 2010, but has not ever been funded.
And there's a presentation in Blackwack County.
at the Rotary Reserve Lodge next Wednesday, the 14th at 10 o'clock, which Dan will be presenting.
What kinds of things have legislators said about this?
When you've talked to them, I'm sure you've talked to many of them.
Why has this never been funded?
Well, I will just step back with some good news.
for the first time in that 16-year history we've got two gubernatorial candidates that are actually outspoken stating that they recognize that iowans voted for this that iowans want this and that iowans should have this so both gubernatorial candidates have come forth this year saying they want to see the trust fund funded different legislators however have not
necessarily been so outspoken.
We have come close a couple times.
We had some legislative support just before COVID hit and we thought maybe we'd get funded then but then COVID came and that kind of went to the wayside and then we haven't had the governor kind of leave the charge again since then to try to get the trust fund funded.
Sometimes these legislators
kind of misrepresented the trust fund to be honest as being some kind of public lands grab or or or have some other issues with it having to do with agriculture which is something that we'll talk about during the meeting but really the trust fund is developed for agriculture it's probably the biggest partners in all of this will be farmers that will allow Iowa to invest in
the projects that farmers are doing or want to do to improve water quality.
It'll help with small rural communities to have the investments that will allow for better outdoor recreation and keep our young people in the state.
So there's so much for rural Iowa, for agriculture, but also for everybody else in the state.
It's really a leveling of the playing field for outdoor recreation and water quality, flood control across the entire state of Iowa.
When this was first passed, we would have still been in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
You alluded to COVID being another hurdle that has come up in the last 16 years.
We're still dealing with inflation on a significant level and rising prices.
Three-eighths of a cent doesn't sound like much, but is there ever a good time to add a little bit more tax?
Because it seems like there's always going to be something that is going to be top of my...
when it comes to expenses that people are having and trying to keep their costs down.
Yeah, as you mentioned, it is a pretty small amount of money for people three eighths of a cent.
There is no really good time and that is one hurdle for legislators is nobody wants to be associated with raising the tax.
However, it is again, just kind of a sliver.
I was just up in Elie, Minnesota, for example, and I went to the store and I bought some stuff on the receipt.
You'll notice that their tax rate was 7.385 cents.
That .385 cents is what is 3.8 of a cent sales tax that Minnesota does.
So since Iowa came up with this idea, Minnesota has gone ahead and already done it.
And it's popular.
It's .385 cents.
So it's, you know, very little bit on top of that sales tax.
And it's funding their parks, natural resources, outdoor recreation in that state.
similar Larry Missouri has the same three-eighths of a cent they break theirs up into an eighth of a cent and a quarter of a percent that go to either parks and outdoor recreation areas or water quality so they got theirs kind of broke up
that one gets voted on every so often and it is hugely popular usually getting in the high 70s or 80s percent of the public wanting to see that continue so it is a little bit of money but it's it in the end people really want it and deserve it and again it's a promise that Iowans made to themselves and to all future Iowans to come to clean our water and improve our outdoor recreation in the state.
We're talking with Dan Cohen, retired executive director for the Buchanan County Conservation Board, as well as currently working as an outdoor writer and photographer.
He'll be making a presentation in Cedar Falls at the Rotary Reserve Lodge Wednesday, October the 14th on Iowa's Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.
So, you know, we've talked about water quality being one of the uses for this.
We've talked about different recreational opportunities.
There are a lot of different entities and organizations.
that feel like they would get a boost from having this fund actually supported by this sales tax.
Can you give us an example of one concrete project?
Water quality is a big concept, recreation is a big concept.
If you think of one thing that could benefit from this and put it in concrete terms for us, Dan, give us a good example.
Yeah, one thing is this money would be something that people can count on year to year to year Because it is a percentage of sales tax and it is protected by the Constitution So if you start on a multi-year project, you know this funds going to be there every year You know that it can't be taken away and used for something crazy in state government It has to go just for these things and you know that it has to fund these these these types of projects so with that said
you know partnerships can can really work on things for example if you're working on a watershed project locally in Black Hawk County or somewhere you can get together with there's a program that's been put forth for this trust fund called the local partnership program where maybe a county conservation board partners with the Iowa Department of Ag land stewardship
with maybe the pheasants forever chapter and nonprofit group and with maybe even a couple others and puts forth a project to get a watershed cleaned up to get the land in that watershed put into conservation practices and protect that watershed for flooding and also protect it for any contamination from nitrates or other chemical pollutants.
They could all work together with this funding in place.
Right now there's a program called Watershed Management Authorities that have no dollars, but they meet all the time thinking of these kind of projects and there's no way to fund it.
So that's one example.
There's many, many, many.
The county conservation system across the state of Iowa has hundreds of millions of dollars of backlogs of projects for their parks and trails and places for people to recreate and
what's holding the back because there's absolutely no pull of money to invest in those things.
So just there's so many that we could go on.
That could be your full radio program.
But yeah, there's many, many things that these dollars could do.
Well, last question, Dan.
You alluded to both gubernatorial candidates from the major parties voicing support for this project.
I suspect that you wouldn't count on either of them being elected, and that just being the end of the story, that there's probably a little bit more work that will have to be done.
What other things do you feel like need to be done to accomplish this goal of getting this trust fund actually up and running?
Yeah, I think the number one thing is we need Iowans to talk to other Iowans and to talk to their legislators regardless of who's elected the governor
Any legislation to fund the trust will not start at the governor's office.
It's going to start in the legislature with some representative or senator introducing a bill.
So talk to your legislators.
Let them know that the future of Iowa's water quality and parks and recreation areas are important to you.
You may have a certain.
You know favorite thing about this trust fund make sure your legislator knows that listen to what they have to say about it and thank them for Their work on this and that's where it's gonna have to go from here.
We really need that support One other thing with the three eighths of a cent.
That's a really nice thing is that this project comes with its own funding so right now you may be realized how cash strap
the state of Iowa is we've been using all our reserve dollars the last few years and we just don't have revenue for any projects.
This is one of the few times when a program or initiative in the state of Iowa comes with its own funding.
So that's something that should be a selling point actually.
Dan Cohen's presentation on Iowa's Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund will be at the Rotary Reserve Lodge in Cedar Falls on Union Road on Wednesday, October the 14th at 10 o'clock.
Dan is the retired executive director for Buchanan County Conservation, as well as an outdoor writer and photographer.
Thanks for being with us and for being our guest to talk about this topic.
Thank you very much, Tim.
I enjoyed it.
And that's all for this edition of Iowa This Week.
Thank you for listening.
I'm Tim Harwood.
