Government : Hello, Iowa House District 84 from the State Capitol!

Col. Gerald Berry, formerly of Des Moines, is the Keynote Speaker at the Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day Ceremony at the Capitol on May 14th.

The Iowa Legislature passed the budget bills along with others and adjourned Sine Die for the year on May 15th at 6:30 am, about 22 hours after gaveling in on May 14th at 8:30am. We passed many important bills that will help just about every Iowan!

On May 14th, both the house and senate passed Senate File 607, which will be a boost for employers by reducing the taxable wages for the unemployment fund. Iowa currently has almost $2 billion in the unemployment trust fund. This ranks 9th highest in the country, even though our state population ranks 32nd. Iowa taxes up to $39,500 in wages, which is the 2nd highest in the Midwest states. In comparison, Illinois taxes up to $13,000, Missouri up to $9,500, Nebraska up to $9,000, Wisconsin up to $14,000, and South Dakota up to $15,000. SF 607 intends to reduce Iowa's taxable wages to $19,500.

The bill has safeguards if the fund falls below $941 million threshold and will increase the tax rate that businesses and employers would pay to get it above the threshold. Iowans looking for a job takes on average about 9 weeks, while the national average is almost 23 weeks. There will be NO reductions in unemployment benefits.

On May 12th, the house finally passed SF 383, the Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBM) reform bill with strong bipartisan support. This bill intends to reverse or at least slow down the closings of hard-hit rural pharmacies due to abusive and anti-competitive practices by PBMs.

Some of the regulations in the bill are that it prohibits a PBM or insurer from discriminating against a pharmacy, prohibits the removal of pharmacy choice, prohibits additional cost-sharing of the insured based on where they choose to have their prescription filled, and requires all rebates to be returned to the employee plan sponsor. The bill has many other regulations. I've talked to several pharmacists, and none of them were against the bill. It now goes to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her consideration.

There were several great features in the FY 26 Education budget, and among them are $1 million for cancer research at the University of Iowa investigating the high rates of new cancer in Iowans, $1 million for the UNI Center for Civic Education, and $7.5 million increase in State General Aid (SGA) for Iowa's community colleges.

A huge personal disappointment this year was the absence of property tax reform. As you know, these taxes are very complex and any attempt to make improvements MUST NOT be rushed into. There were about five bills drafted that I'm aware of, but none of them had sufficient support in the house or senate Ways & Means committees. I'm confident that Senator Dan Dawson and Representative Bobby Kaufmann will make this their top priority in next year's session.

I intend to work on property tax reform in the interim. A retired person or couple on a fixed income should not face the possibility of losing their home that they've worked hard all their lives and potentially lose it because they were unable to pay property taxes. If you have an opinion on this or any other subject, please let me know! The best way would be to send me an email to Thomas.gerhold@legis.iowa.gov, as I check them weekly, even though we're not in session the rest of this year.

On May 14th at 11a.m., the 2025 Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day Ceremony was held at the Vietnam War Memorial on the Iowa State Capitol Grounds, which is just south of the Capitol

building. The ceremony honored 23 deceased veterans from across Iowa, and among them was Darwin Kent Cohrt. Darwin was born in Belle Plaine and attended Benton Community High School. He served his country in the United States Marine Corps and passed away in January 2013.

The Honored Keynote Speaker was Col. Gerald "Gerry" Berry, USMC (Ret.), Vietnam Veteran helicopter pilot. Col. Berry was the pilot who in 1975 carried U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin from the embassy rooftop to a U.S. ship off the Vietnamese coast, which formally ended the Vietnam War. Berry grew up in Des Moines and attended the former Des Moines Tech High School and says, "I guess my claim to fame is I tell everybody I ended the Vietnam War when I brought the ambassador home." You can go to https://cmfmedia.org/2013/11/saigon-last-chopper-out/ for more info on Col. Berry.

The house and senate were able to get HF 639, the eminent domain bill passed the senate on May 12th and goes to the governor's desk. The bottom line is the bill protects landowners from the use of eminent domain by private companies for private gain.

Have a safe and healthy summer, please support our local businesses, and watch out for farmers with ag machinery on the roads. Send me an email if you would like to get my newsletter via email. Please go to a Memorial Day service on this coming Monday to honor all the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces!