Minute with Mike, Week Five

From My Desk

Week five in the Iowa House has come to a close. We spend most of our time these days in either sub committees or standing committee meetings. The first funnel date is quickly approaching-this means there is a time crunch in order for bills to pass out of the standing committee. Bills must pass out of standing committees by the funnel date in order for them to stay alive and be eligible for debate on the House floor.

Daylight Savings Time

A large number of you responded to the request in last week's Minute with Mike regarding whether you would like to keep standard time year-round or stay on the current method of switching your clocks twice a year.

As it currently stands, about 50 percent are for standard time year-round, 40 percent are for keeping things the way they are, and 10 percent are either undecided or neutral.

Thank you for your input and help. Please continue to send in your thoughts on this issue-or with any other questions or concerns you may have with other issues.

Floor Debate

We had our first debate of the session this week. Our first floor action was on Monday; it was a supplemental appropriation bill for the current fiscal year.  The major component of our supplemental bill is funding for flood recovery.

Last spring, southwest Iowa and eastern Iowa around the Quad Cities were devastated by significant flooding. The Legislature responded by passing a flood relief package that would help address immediate needs in impacted areas. We are rapidly approaching the spring flood season and we need to get this much need funding to these areas.

Education

Our second floor action came on Tuesday. The Iowa House debated the annual increase in supplemental state aid to schools. Along with increases for the school transportation equity funding and per-pupil funding equity. 

Before the House were two bills which increased state funding to Iowa schools by $108 million in the 2020-2021 school year starting in August, raising state funding for schools to $3.386 billion.

The Fiscal Year 2021 increase of $108 million means that taxpayers have invested an additional $968.1 million into Iowa schools since the start of the 2011-2012 school year, which would be a 38.54% increase over this period. 

Yet Democrats insist schools are chronically underfunded. If nearly a billion dollars over the last decade equates to chronic under funding, what dollar amount signifies adequate funding?

In addition to seeing increased dollar amounts, Iowa's commitment to education remains steady when it comes to K-12's share of the General Fund budget.

The major goal of this letter is to give you a quick update that can be read in a few minutes. If you need more in-depth information on a specific subject or a bill, please just email my clerk, Andrea, at mike.sexton@legis.iowa.gov and she can find the information you are looking for and get it back to you.

Pass It On

If you have family, friends, or co-works that you think would also enjoy MWM please forward this to them so they can read it and deicide to be on our mailing list. If you are reading this and would like to subscribe to our newsletter, "Minute with Mike," please send us an email letting us know.

We have created a Facebook page that I will be using to add comments about what is going on in the Capitol and the House floor. This page will also be used to make comments as bills are being debated on the floor.

Please go to https://www.facebook.com/citizensforsexton or search for State Representative Mike Sexton on Facebook and like it so you can stay informed about legislation we are working on.

While we are in session, please remember that I will be on the Devine Intervention Radio Show with Mike Devine on KVFD 1400 every other Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

This is a call-in show so use this opportunity to talk to both of us and let us know your feelings on the current issues facing Iowa citizens.

Please let me know what you are thinking! Feel free to contact me at my legislative email at mike.sexton@legis.iowa.gov.