House Journal: Page 16: Monday, January 11, 1999

	Many issues will be addressed by this House during the next 100 days.  All of them are important, but our ultimate goal must be to make Iowa a place where our 

citizens, both young and old, want to live.  There is a song by John Mellencamp called Jack and Diane that has a line "Well, you know Diane, we oughtta run off to 
the city.  Diane says 'Baby, you ain't missin' a thing'".  It is our job to make sure that our citizens don't leave for Houston, Phoenix, Denver, or even Minneapolis.  It 
is our job to work to improve the overall quality of life in Iowa so that our citizens aren't missing a thing and want to stay here, and other people want to come here.
In an effort to accomplish that, the Majority Party will specifically focus on five goals for the upcoming session:
Education
Tax Cuts
Methamphetamine
Recreation and Tourism
Workforce Development
Iowa has a great education system and great teachers.  We are still leading the nation in educational excellence, but some disturbing trends require action.  It is 
our intent to work closely with the Minority Party and Governor Vilsack to focus on several areas in education.  
It is the intention of the Majority Party to test our children's reading skills in the first and second grade and provide resources for after-school reading programs 
and summer reading academies for those children who need additional help learning to read.
Reducing class size is also an important goal, and while we all agree on the goal, implementation will require some consensus.  It is very easy to campaign on 
reducing class size.  Even Jesse Ventura had a commercial about it.  But different districts have different problems.  We intend to approach this problem with open 
minds and we will work with Governor Vilsack, but we still believe, as we did last year, that block grants of $10 million to local school districts would be the most 
flexible way to make sure that the class-size problem is addressed.
Secondly, I think everyone ran on cutting taxes.  It is the intention of the Majority Party to fashion a package of property and income tax cuts to send to the 
Governor.  We have cut taxes four years in a row and in each of those years, some group of people always cried out "No.  We can't do that.  That is too much.  We 
don't know what the future holds."  Yet for four years in a row, we have aggressively cut taxes.  And for four years in a row, the economy has grown and today, we 
have a record budget surplus.  I think most incumbents in here bragged about tax cuts in their brochures last campaign.  While the details need to be worked out, we 
feel that taxes need to be cut between $100 - $200 million.  I am sure voices will be raised to say we can't do that.  But we can.  
We need to have the state reduce property taxes by picking up a greater share of the funding for education in Iowa.  We need to target income tax relief to the 
elderly and the middle-class in our state.  Among other things, we need to remove the tax on social security, increase the exemption on pension income, and look at 
doubling the dependent child tax credit.
We can.  We must.  And we will cut taxes.

© 1999 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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