Meeting Public Comments

Subcommittee meeting and times are as follows:
A bill for an act creating a vacant school building demolition grant program and fund and making appropriations.(See HF 778.)
Subcommittee members: Graber-CH, McConkey, Thompson
Date: Thursday, March 4, 2021
Time: 8:00 AM - 8:30 AM
Location: RM 102, Sup. Ct. Consult
Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.
Comments Submitted:

03-03-2021
Margaret Buckton [Urban Education Network of Iowa and Rural School Advocates of Iowa]
Both the Urban Education Network and the Rural School Advocates of Iowa are opposed to HF 216, although both organizations appreciate the good intention of this bill.Our opposition is to the use of SAVE funds that would otherwise fund construction, equipment or property tax relief for all 327 school districts. When the State Penny was extended in 2019, even though it added many years of revenue to the fund, the bill reduced resources in the short term by diverting some of the growth to the Career and Technical Education Grants and then more to property tax relief. School districts had earlier bonded against the SAVE revenues, based on estimates of growth. Those estimates predated the short term decreases in the SAVE extension. Taking an additional 20% of the growth for demolition would further challenge the ability of school districts to meet their current obligations. The end result might be a shift to increasing the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy or at the more extreme level of need, a bond issue, both of which are back with property taxes. We would support the bill if the demolition grant appropriation was funded with what would otherwise by the property tax reduction from SAVE. Additionally, the SAVE fund uses were expanded to include demolition, but its hard to find since its done through a cross reference. The Code references are laid out in the attachment.
Attachment