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No ‘level of comfort’ yet from House GOP over mental health funding shift
Pat Grassley
House Speaker Pat Grassley says House Republicans aren’t philosophically opposed to getting rid of a property tax levy that funds mental health services, they just have unanswered “technical questions” about how the state would manage the system once it’s solely financed with state tax dollars.
There’s been no debate on the House or Senate floor this week as GOP leaders and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds negotiate in private. “We’re just having those conversations and working through seeing if there is a way to get a level of comfort where we can all be in agreement,” Grassley said early this afternoon in an online news conference.
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Democrat wishes GOP luck in ending ‘family feud’ over tax policy
Republicans on two Senate committees have approved what’s described as a “proposed compromise” on tax policy, but Republicans in the Iowa House have their own alternative. Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs who is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, spoke before the panel voted on the Senate GOP’s bill.
“I have higher hopes for more tax policy reforms next year, but I can certainly say this today…if this was the only piece of policy that we did in the entire two years here in this chamber, it would be a hell of a bill,” Dawson said. “It’s something we can take back to all of our constituents and say: ‘We did a damned good thing. ”
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Legislature votes for alcohol sales to begin at 6 a.m. on Sunday
Craig Johnson
The Iowa House and Senate have voted to let alcohol sales start two hours earlier on Sunday mornings, “creating uniformity across each of the days of the week,” Senator Craig Johnson of Independence said.
Under current law, a business has to get a special permit to sell alcohol on Sundays, and can’t sell booze before 8 a.m. The bill that passed the House and Senate last week would let Sunday sales begin at 6 a.m. Before 1973, alcohol sales were not allowed in Iowa on Sundays. It wasn’t until 1992 that beer, wine and liquor could be sold before noon on Sundays.
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House speaker says process working, but no deal yet on tax plan
Pat Grassley. (file photo)
House Speaker Pat Grassley says the stalemate among Republicans over state tax policy is the way the legislative process should work.
“Iowans, if they thought we just came down here and we were in lockstep on every single issue through every step of the process, I don’t think they would think that was good government,” Grassley told reporters early Thursday evening.
Republicans in the Senate and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds have unified behind a plan to trigger another round of income tax cuts, get rid of the state inheritance tax and have the state take over paying for the mental health system. That last one would eliminate a property tax levee and it is the sticking point with House Republicans. Grassley said more time is needed to analyze the consequences of ending county oversight and having the state manage the mental health system.
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