Minute with Mike, Week One

From My Desk

Welcome to the first Minute with Mike of the first session of the 89th General Assembly. First of all, I want to want to thank the voters of House District 10 for this unbelievable opportunity to serve you in this beautiful building. I also want to deeply thank all of you that do not live in my district but support my campaign and believe in my ability to keep Iowa moving in the right direction.

I want to thank my family, especially my wife Becky. You cannot do this job without unwavering support back home.

As hard as this job sometimes is, it's twice as hard being the one left at home to keep things on track. The 2020 campaign season was unlike any I have ever seen and I hope to never see again. There were not very many parades or community events, but I still want to thank all of you that have helped Becky and me campaign and put up signs during this election cycle. I cannot express how grateful I am to have all of you involved in our lives.

I am always so humbled by the sense of community and support that has afforded me this privilege to serve as I walk up the Capitol steps on the first day of session.

As a State Representative, I was elected to represent the whole of my district-including those of you that do not agree with me on issues. Please do not let this stop you from reaching out to me on topics that are important or a concern to you. Unlike Washington DC, I believe it is my responsibility to listen to you and understand your point of view.

We may not always agree, but I will work to understand the way you feel. My goal with this newsletter is twofold-mixing some specifics of how the legislature works as well as addressing some of the bills and issues we present in the legislature.

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. She can find the information you are looking for and get it back to you.

This is the start of my 11th year in the legislature-having served for four years in the Senate from 1999-2002. I am now starting my seventh year in the House. For those of you that are not aware, I served one term in the Senate and chose to not seek re-election due to the fact that my family was just too young and I decided it was more important to be a dad than to be a legislator.

It was the right decision for my family and I do not regret making it. After the election, at our first caucus in November, I was re-elected by my colleagues to be one of their leaders retaining the position of Majority Whip.

We elect new leadership after each election or when one of the leaders decides to step down. I will also share a little civics lesson in my newsletter each week such as: There is a new General Assembly every two years which coincides with the elections every two years in even number years.

We are starting the first session of the 89th General Assembly. I have only had one committee change from last year.

I have been moved from the Appropriations committee to Administrative Rules Review. Here are my committee assignments for the next two years: Administrative Rules Review, Agriculture, Environmental Protection, State Government, Administration and Rules and the Judicial Budget Sub-Committee.

We serve at the pleasure of the Speaker of the House, as he is the one that places us on committees and puts us where our strengths lie as well as where we are needed.

For those of you that are regular readers, I apologize as some of this may be a little redundant. The first week mainly consists of speeches and the first committee meetings.

Here's and overview of the first week of session:

Tuesday - Governor Reynolds gave the Condition of the State.

Wednesday - Chief Justice Christensen presented the Condition of the Judiciary. 

Thursday - Major General Corell gave the Condition of the Iowa National Guard.

In addition to the speeches, each of the committees met for an organizational meeting which consists of introductions and short speeches from the chairs and ranking members. It is here where they share their thoughts on what their respective committees can achieve over the course of the session.

We then adopt the rules for the committee and are ready to get to work the next week.

Highlights from Governor Reynolds Speech

The Governor's Condition of the State address to Iowan's and the legislature on Tuesday was excellent. She started her speech by laying out her agenda for this legislative session, challenging the legislature to get a bill on her desk that gets all of our students back in school ASAP. She has put on hold her new program called "Invest in Iowa Act."

This would raise the sales tax so we can fund the Natural Resource and Outdoor Trust Fund, which was voted in by the citizens of Iowa in 2010. 

This means that 3/8 cents of every penny will go to this program with the remainder being used to move the cost of mental heath from property tax to the state general fund. The Governor also once again emphasized the need for high speed broadband across the state.

This issue is one I have talked about for years, saying that if we are to keep and expand small businesses in our rural communities we must absolutely have high speed broadband in every corner of the state.

This year, she is committing additional money to get it done. She also talked about the mental health crisis we have in Iowa.

It is a tough issue, but we have several bills I hope will address some of these needs. Many of us that support agriculture were hoping she was going to talk about the ethanol industry but unfortunately, she did not.

Personally, I will share with you my concern for the future of the ethanol industry in Iowa. If it goes down it will have an enormous impact on the Iowa economy for years. 

Pass It On

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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 as well as on bills that 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 the legislation we are working on.

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