Senate Journal: Page 45: Tuesday, January 13, 1998

  pension tax exemption.  I am also recommending we direct all revenues above
  expectations toward eliminating the tax on pensions altogether.

  Iowa taxpayers deserve constitutional protection from high taxes and
  excessive
  government spending.  We should adopt the Taxpayers Rights Amendment and
  give
  them that protection.

  The State of Iowa should encourage, not discourage, its people to have
  access to the
  information superhighway.  That's why I am recommending we eliminate the
  sales tax
  on Internet services.

  Our elimination of the inheritance tax for family members will allow
  hundreds of
  Iowa families to pass on their farm or business to the next generation.  But
  I think we
  should ask ourselves if it is really fair to make families wait until a
  death to transfer
  their assets without the burden of excessive taxation.  The current capital
  gains tax
  exclusion should be increased to 100 percent and expanded to include the
  assets of
  family farms and businesses sold or transferred to lineal descendents.

  We can also make our state safer.  The opening of the Clarinda, Newton and
  Fort
  Dodge prisons gives us greatly needed prison space to keep dangerous
  criminals where
  they should be - behind bars.

  The budget I am recommending will continue to increase our prison capacity
  by
  adding 500 beds at our existing prisons in Mitchellville, Mount Pleasant and
  Fort
  Madison.

  The shocking rise in crimes by sexual predators is of grave concern to me
  and all
  Iowans.  Let us have the courage this year to take steps to prevent these
  crimes by
  authorizing the use of temporary hormonal treatment of sex offenders,
  something that
  has been proven effective in those places bold enough to take this action.
  We must also
  improve the monitoring of sexual offenders as well as make it easier for
  Iowans to
  know if one is living in their midst.

  A few years ago, most Iowans had no idea what methamphetamines were.  All
  too
  quickly that has changed because too many lives have been lost to this
  horrible drug.
  In just four years, we have seen a twelve-fold increase in the number of
  Iowans seeking
  treatment for addiction to methamphetamine.

  With tougher penalties, a strong anti-drug education campaign and a
  coordinated
  enforcement effort, we are determined to win the war against this deadly
  killer.

  Drug use in the workplace is a great concern of Iowa workers, who are put at
  risk
  everyday because we have one of the weakest drug testing laws in the
  country.  Iowans
  seeking treatment for drug abuse tell us that workplace drug testing would
  have
  helped them avoid drugs.

  As I travel the state, I sense there is a growing consensus that drugs are
  definitely
  affecting the quality of Iowa's workforce.  We cannot afford to wait any
  longer.  This
  year, we must strengthen our workplace drug testing law.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: Senate Journal (77th General Assembly: Session 2)

© 1998 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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