Some questions are tough to answer. Why are we here? What does it all mean?

How did a provision get tucked into a budget bill at the Statehouse?

The provision, in this case, allows county auditors to actually audit county accounts and transactions. It adds 27 words to the Iowa Code, and hands Linn County Auditor Joel Miller a prize that he could not win through a nasty three-year court battle with the Board of Supervisors. The auditor may begin auditing July 1.

Those words were added to a roughly 40-page budget bill funding state government administration and regulation. It went through a joint House-Senate subcommittee, two appropriations committees, passed both chambers, went to a conference committee, passed both chambers again, and then on to the governor, who signed it Monday.

And yet, this week, news of auditing auditors hit these parts like a bolt from the blue. Its conception unclear, perhaps immaculate.

“Honestly, I don’t know where that came from, and I wasn’t aware of that specific change until I read about it in the paper,” said Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, when I called him Wednesday morning. He sits on the subcommittee where the bill began. And he wasn’t the only lawmaker I contacted who was unaware of the provision.

“No, I know we didn’t have a discussion in committee,” said Rep. Tyler Olson, D-Cedar Rapids, who was the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “I didn’t have anyone talk to me for or against it outside of the committee.”

By Wednesday afternoon, Staed was piecing the mystery together. He went back through the records and found that the auditor provision was added to the bill during a March 14 subcommittee meeting. The stated intent at the time, he said, was to allow auditors to keep tabs on federal social services dollars and flood relief bucks. But the Linn County power struggle never came up.

No written amendment was filed. The idea was simply added to the bill on a voice vote, Staed said.

“It was kind of a magically appeared thing,” Staed said. “Makes you want to be more cautious next time.”

Staed’s explanation fits the paper trail. On March 12, the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency issued an analysis of the administration and regulation budget bill with no mention of auditing auditors. When a new analysis arrived on March 14, the language was included. And it stayed in until it became law.

Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Robins, who co-chairs the budget subcommittee and floor managed the bill in the Senate, also checked on the history and said in an email that a subcommittee staffer noted a discussion on flood relief auditing and a voice vote.

But who proposed it? House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said it was Rep. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, a subcommittee member and chair of the Local Government Committee. “That’s my understanding,” said Paulsen, who frowns on putting non-spending policy proposals into budget bills, but supported allowing auditors to audit.

Schultz called me while he took a short break from field work on his farm. “I guess I’m kind of excited that somebody noticed I did something,” Schultz said.

Schultz said he’s been concerned about issues surrounding county mental health funding and how it’s being spent. “Who is watching the money?” Schultz said. “I asked around and found out that county auditors can’t audit.”

Surprised, Schultz offered up his simple idea to change that. He said he had no knowledge of the Linn County dispute.

So one lawmaker noticed what he saw as a problem and offered a solution. But almost no one noticed his solution until it became law. Mystery solved.

These things happen in the Legislature. Among the hundreds of bills and amendments moving around the joint, surprises are always possible, make that probable. And as surprises go, this isn’t going to jolt the course of Iowa history.

But it is a significant change, one that probably deserved additional legislative discussion and public scrutiny. I think it’s a good change. Letting auditors audit puts another set of eyes on taxpayer bucks. Now we just need sharper eyes in the Legislature.

Miller lost big in district court, and was pursuing an appeal. But he apparently fared much better in the Iowa Legislature, which ended the endless duties dispute by adding just 27 words to Iowa Code section 331.502, which lists the duties of county auditors:

 NEW SUBSECTION .41A. Have the authority to audit,at the auditor’s discretion, the financial condition and transactions of all county funds and accounts for compliance with state and federal law.

The language was tacked on to a big omnibus budget bill, HF 603, and was signed by Gov. Terry Branstad on Monday.

Auditor Miller marked the occassion with  a tweet

It looks like the auditing language was added in an amendment approved by the Senate House Appropriations Committee. HF 603 eventually ended up in a House-Senate conference committee, which kept the language in tact. Both chambers approved the conference report during the final days of the 2013 session. I’d like to know more about the legislative origins of this provision.

The first I heard of it was Monday, when WMT’s Bob Bruce brought it up to Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson. Oleson was all like, meh, noting that the county does and will continue to do professional CPA audits:

“This is more like, did you buy 10 pens? Yeah, we bought 10 pens. Here’s the receipt, here’s where it came from,” Oleson said.  ”If he wants to do that, he can knock himself out and do that. I’ve always supported that.

But I’m not going to support hiring somebody to do that for him. Certainly not going to support giving more money to him to be able to do that. In his pursuit to do this, he has really cost us a lot of time through lawsuits, through frivolous requests. It’s unfortunate. “

Oleson said he doesn’t think this will improve relations between the the auditor, board and other county officials.  I’m not sure a United Nations peacekeeping force could improve relations at this point.

Setting aside all the local drama, this seems like a good change. County auditors sign off on all sorts of purchases, so it makes sense that they should have the authority to make sure those purchases are real.

Sure, Rep. Tyler Olson may get carded if he files papers to run for governor, but that doesn’t mean the Cedar Rapids Democrat shouldn’t take the plunge.

Or maybe he’ll run for Congress, although I’m not sure why anyone would. Olson left his post as chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party to mull his plans. “I haven’t made a decision one way or the other,” he said Friday.

You may hear folks say Olson can’t beat Gov. Terry Branstad. I may be one of them. But let’s not be hasty.

We Iowans talk a lot about trying to keep smart, young professionals from leaving the state. Fearing the implications of all those draining brains, we throw all manner of enticements at them. Lofts! Amphitheaters! Brew pubs! We toss big incentives at companies that might create jobs for them. We form commissions to find out what it is exactly they want. Years ago, lawmakers even floated the idea of eliminating state income taxes for Iowans under 30.

Please stay, or at least call once in a while.

So I think we can, at the very least, take it seriously when one of these coveted citizens risks his good name and sanity to run for the state’s top job, even an applicant who looks as young as Olson does. Yeah, I joked about it a few graphs ago, but I promise I’ll stop. Probably.

Olson is now 36, about the same age Branstad was when he won his first term in 1982.

Speaking of Branstad, it’s likely that he’ll be heavily favored to carve a sixth notch into his gubernatorial gunbelt, assuming he runs for re-election next year. His job approval is high. His top priorities cleared the Legislature.

Branstad is in a strong position to become the longest-serving governor in our republic since the Articles of Confederation were the hottest trend in self-governance.

So Olson, if he chooses the gubernatorial path, and manages to get nominated by his party, would be a prohibitive non-favorite.

BOLDER CAMPAIGN?

But, on the bright side, that could free him to run a bold campaign. Instead of playing it safe with the same old Democratic talking points paying homage to this interest or that, Olson could try hitting us with some new ideas.

He could be a candidate who charts out a plan for tax reform that trades a tangle of special interest loopholes and credits for simpler, lower rates. He might show us how economic development can be accomplished without massive tax giveaways.

Maybe, instead of top-down, Statehouse-knows-best, education reforms, Olson could give schools more room and resources to innovate. Perhaps his take on mitigating and managing natural disasters, floods in particular, could offer a vision beyond declaring disasters and flying over in a helicopter. It’s possible that he could suggest, even while standing on the obligatory hay bale, that there are issues in the state’s cities that need to be addressed.

If he runs that sort of campaign, and still loses, it won’t be in vain.

I expect that Olson will stress that he’s the “new generation” guy. Aka younger than the incumbent and, so far, his potential Democratic primary opponents. But that’s pretty obvious, and only gets you so far. And being young, while clearly shaping your perspective, doesn’t automatically mean your ideas are better. They actually have to be better.

IS 6TH TERM WISE?

But I think it’s entirely appropriate to ask Iowans whether they think it’s healthy or wise for one person to control the vast powers of the governor’s office for 24 of the last 36 years. Branstad’s return to stop Bob Vander Plaats and clean up the Culver years was understandable, even commendable. But is a sixth term really necessary?

Iowans in both parties do seem to like long-serving senators and governors. A lot of Democrats hoped former Gov. Tom Vilsack would come back to run for a third term against Branstad. No thanks, said Vilsack, who got elected in 1998 by urging Iowans to “rotate the crops” after nearly 30 years of Republican governors.

“You can’t look forward by looking backward,” Vilsack told The Des Moines Register, passing the torch to that “new generation.” We’ll see if Olson takes it.

(Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Five years ago today, the Cedar River filled Sonjia Cornell’s home of 27 years at 401 G Ave. NW with murky, putrid floodwater.

It was enough to make a person feel cursed. But since then, Sonjia has been counting blessings.

I met her in the fall of 2008 after a city open house. Instead of reciting a formidable list of woes she faced, Sonjia gratefully recounted all the small but remarkable godsends that helped her keep going.

There was her cat, Harley, who found his way to the top of a china hutch and miraculously rode out floodwaters that rose to 8 inches below the ceiling. There was a diamond ring, lost years before, that, somehow, turned up in a tote of belongings covered in flood muck. At a clothing drive, Sonjia happened upon a bag of donated clothes all in her husband’s size. Some found pennies bought her a much-needed hot cup of Joe at a cold, dark moment.

As the 2009 anniversary approached, Sonjia’s family grappled with a city buyout offer that wouldn’t be enough to cover what they still owed on their flood home. The threat of bankruptcy loomed.

But big-hearted folks at her credit union heard about her plight and wrote off the unpaid portion of her loan.

“God was with me, like I told you, from the start,” Sonjia said this week, ahead of the fifth anniversary.

Sonjia, a home health care provider, lives in Shellsburg now. The trees she planted at her new home are now big enough to provide a home. “They’re just finally getting big enough for birds to make nests in them,“ she said. “It makes my heart feel good because that’s what we had at our other home.”

Sonjia occasionally goes back to her old neighborhood. The house is gone, but the vacant lot is now a community garden plot. “My yard is a garden! How wonderful,” Sonjia said. “It makes me feel good they’re doing something positive with it.”

It seems like a lot of the focus ahead of this anniversary has been on big recovery projects. But as impressive as those are, the countless individual struggles waged by people working to restore lives washed away by the river comprise another sort of monument. And the fact that people could actually emerge from the darkness of an unprecedented natural disaster with their faith and hope firmly intact is a natural wonder.

For all the scars the flood left us, that capacity for tenacity is a blessing we can count today.

Warning: Satire.

‘Welcome to this press briefing on the National Security Agency’s efforts to make the nation more secure. We know you have questions. I can’t say how, but we know.”

In recent days, we’ve seen the disclosure of NSA’s efforts to gather massive records of Americans’ phone calls and Internet activities in the name of thwarting terrorism. Is this just the tip of the iceberg?

“You could say that. And today I’ll disclose a few more programs.

“You know that tag on your mattress that the government doesn’t want you to remove? It’s actually a sophisticated sensor that gathers data on sleep patterns. Terrorists tend to stay up late plotting terror, so this is crucial.

“In addition, a sensor in your refrigerator keeps tabs on food expiration dates,. Would-be terrorists are notoriously careless when it comes to the freshness of dairy products. ID chips commonly implanted in pets provide us with a treasure trove of data on treats, tummy rubs, who is a good boy and who decidedly is not.

“Sensors in most bathroom mirrors produced after 2004 tell us much about facial hair growth patterns, critical to determining identification, radicalization and moisturization.

“Various cable and satellite TV providers have handed over reams of data on viewing habits. We’ve found that suspected terrorists often watch ‘Lifetime’ movies in an effort to harden their hatred of American culture. We tried to monitor teen text messages but were unable to crack the sophisticated code.”

“Oh, and that voice on your vehicle GPS? That’s a live NSA operative.”

This is astounding. How can you justify these constitutionally dubious activities?

“Oh, it’s all legal under the Patriot Act’s ‘This, That, Whatnot and Miscellany’ provision, approved by broad bipartisan majorities in Congress. Also, these secret programs have been cleared by a secret court. What can go wrong? After all, non-secret courts always get it right.”

But this president pledged more transparency, right?

“We believe our argument for secrecy is very transparent. What president in his or her right mind would curtail these activities? If terrorists attack, and the public finds out we pulled back, is Sen. Rand Paul going to rush to the White House to pin a defender of civil liberties medal on POTUS? Not likely.”

But should our leaders really use our fear as an excuse to dramatically expand government’s ability to spy on us, and keep that spying a secret?

“What a silly question. You should have gotten more sleep last night.”

Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meetings can yield some good theater.

In one respect, these are clubby affairs. Lots of lawyers, casino executives and government types in dark suits huddle in private conversations, all the while sizing up other suits huddled in other conversations. In the 18-member state-licensed casino club, everybody knows everybody.

At Thursday’s meeting at Lakeside Casino near Osceola, investors backing a proposed casino in Cedar Rapids and city leaders arrived early with high hopes of eventually joining that club. The lead local investors, executives Steve Gray and Drew Skogman, easily fit into this scene. Cedar Rapids city officials looked comfortable as well, pressing the flesh before the meeting with members of the commission. Sharing, smiling, thanking and influencing, maybe.

Two commissioners, Chairman Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny and Commissioner Rich Arnold, of Russell, served in the Legislature with Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett. If another commission member, former state Rep. Delores Mertz, hadn’t been absent Thursday, it would have been Statehouse old home week.

Commissioner Carl Heinrich, is an Air Force vet and former community college president from Council Bluffs who has been active in Republican politics. Commissioner Kris Kramer is a New Hampton car dealer now on the other side of a sales pitch for a shiny new 2014 Cedar Rapids Casino. Have we got a deal for you.

PROTECTING THE INDUSTRY

But when the gavel drops, the schmoozing stops. The commission suddenly shows its steely-eyed-defenders-of-the-realm side. And that realm is Iowa’s $1.5 billion casino industry.

Protecting the health of that big ’oil cash machine and fountain of tax revenues sometimes means being less than friendly, such as picking a new group of investors to build a land-based casino in Sioux City, while pulling the rug out from under the longtime operators of the city’s gambling boat. It’s just business.

One minute you’re schmoozing. The next you’re paying a $20,000 fine for letting a minor gamble in your joint.

There’s gaming in the name, but nobody’s playing around.

The commission did, without much fanfare, let Linn County take a small but important step toward club membership Thursday. Gray’s group must have its application for a gambling license in by Sept. 3. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re optimistic,” he said.

At the same time, the commission will hire firms to do a pair of gambling market studies, one statewide and one focused on the Linn County market. The question: What impact would a new casino have on the existing realm?

SLAM DUNK?

But surely, with a big yes-vote margin here and the personal connections we’ve obviously forged, this study will be little more than a formality of membership. It’s a slam dunk, right?

“I would strongly disagree with that,” Lamberti said. “I think, certainly give a lot of credit to the people who put together the yes vote, they certainly, I think, exceeded most people’s expectations on the margin.

“When we’re looking at a new facility, however, the overriding factor is the impact of a new facility on existing facilities. … Now, we have casinos that people have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in. A huge factor is what’s the impact? So a market study in particular in Linn County is going to be extremely important.”

I spoke with all four commissioners present, and each one said the market study will be the biggest factor in deciding whether a Cedar Rapids casino gets a state license. No other factor comes close.

“Everybody says the market’s saturated in that area,” Kramer said. “We just want to make the right decision for the state of Iowa and for Eastern Iowa.”

Riverside Casino and Golf Resort CEO Dan Kehl says he knows what that study will say.

“I believe the study will show somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 percent cannibalization,” said Kehl, who fought to beat the Linn County referendum and plans to object to the license application. “It would be really detrimental to how we operate. … We’ll be working for the banks, bottom line.”

Maybe, maybe not. Gray and his investors say a local casino’s competitive impact will be far more modest.

HAS MARKET CHANGED?

But the last statewide market study, done in 2009, left very little room for expansion.

“In summary, we believe that the opportunity for additional gaming development in Iowa is limited at this time,” wrote GVA Marquette Advisors in its 2009 study. “Based on our analysis and professional experience, we believe that most of Iowa is approaching an ‘equilibrium’ gaming market situation, whereby the supply of gaming approximately matches up with maximum demand originating from the population base.”

Not “saturated.” But close.

Back then, those words helped persuade the commission to put the lid on expansion. The question now is whether a new study will persuade this commission that it can now add to Iowa’s casino fleet.

“We’re open-minded,” Heinrich said. “I think all of us are open minded on it. I don’t think any of us feel that it’s not going to happen. But I think what I’m saying is we want to study it and feel confident that everyone can be successful.”

Cedar Rapids casino backers are optimistic. And if I had to bet today, I’d bet that Linn County gets a license.

But if those studies show a very tight gambling market with modest growth prospects, a market in which a new facility would have to make a large chunk of its money at the expense of existing operations, I think we’ll see the clubhouse doors close pretty quickly.

After all, it’s just business.

But Kamyar Enshayan finds it truly strange that so many of today’s leaders shun science and math when it comes to making big decisions on protecting Iowans and our valuable resources from floodwaters.

“The science is clear, yet there is very little action,” said Enshayan, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, at a flood symposium last week at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. The swollen Cedar River served as a backdrop. “We must be bold to implement what we know.”

Enshayan, who describes himself as a “native Iowan born in Iran,” is plenty bold. Science can be complicated, but his core message is not. And that’s why it packs such a punch.

Enshayan says science tells us that flood plains are “the home of the river,’ and that building in them is a very bad idea. He points to a Cedar Falls ordinance prohibiting new lots and subdivisions in the 500-year flood plain, along with tight restrictions for construction on existing lots. Enshayan notes that few communities have followed Cedar Falls’ lead.

Cities, he said, should be focusing flood protection efforts on “upstream solutions.”

Enshayan argues that Iowa’s current corn and soybean-dominated “cropping system,” encouraged by federal farm policies, has led to soil erosion and compaction, excessive use of farm chemicals and the development of resistant weeds. But, Enshayan said, research by Iowa State University suggests that adding a third crop to the rotation could alleviate many of those issues, improving the health of the land and cutting the use of herbicides by 88 percent

“This is a huge scientific discovery,” Enshayan said. “Why aren’t we hearing about it?”

Using our atmosphere as “a dumping ground,” as Enshayan puts it, is changing our climate, raising the risk for extreme weather events and their consequences. including more frequent flooding.

“We’re just not taking science seriously,” Enshayan said.

This sort of stuff can make government types uncomfortable. Cedar Rapids’ former flood recovery director, now executive administrator for development services, Joe O’Hern, was on the symposium panel with Enshayan. Immediately after Enshayan’s bold talk, O’Hern got a tough question from the audience.

Why has Cedar Rapids authorized building in the flood plain?

O’Hern said it’s been a balancing act for the city, trying to weigh flood risk against the need for “economic vitality” and the reality that you can’t pick up and move the core of the city to higher ground.

I understand the city’s dilemma on that. Buying out and tearing down the heart of the city wasn’t an option.

What’s much less understandable is how the city had a chance to be part of the solution by creating a stormwater fee structure that would have encouraged property owners to stop runoff. But it went with a watered-down approach. Instead of having some serious stream cred when it asks for upstream help, we proved that not even having 31 feet of stormwater come through is enough to warrant significant change.

Another member of the audience asked O’Hern why Cedar Rapids hasn’t been more active in the Cedar River Watershed Coalition. O’Hern said city officials had attended coalition meetings, but he couldn’t swear they had been to every one.

Thinking about flood mitigation and water conservation as an issue confined to the city limits or the county line or the furthest fence row isn’t going to address the real problems facing everyone who lives in the watershed. It‘s about forging upstream cooperation and taking downstream responsibility. And recognizing that learning the importance of science isn’t just for school kids.

So, as expected, all the leaning and considering has turned into a real campaign. Cedar Rapids City Council member Monica Vernon is running for Congress as a Democrat. 

So now, on the D-side, in the 1st District of Iowa, in 2014, we have Vernon and state Rep. Pat Murphy of Dubuque who are in, and former state Sen. Swati Dandekar, who represented Marion before taking a seat on the Iowa Utilities Board at the request of Gov. Terry Branstad. That move put Democrats’ Senate majority in jeopardy, but nobody remembers that.

Democratic Blogger John Deeth?

So Vernon is interesting. At the moment, and I’m not in the district, but I’d rank my choices 1) Vernon 2) Murphy 3) write in 4) cyanide capsule 5) sharp sticks in both eyes) 6) Dandekar.

So Vernon leads Murphy and sharp eye sticks in very early small-sample polling. Encouraging for her camp, I’m sure.

But then there’s the only poll that really matters. And that’s Facebook page likes and Twitter follows.

As of 2:45 p.m., Vernon has 515 Facebook likes and 65 Twitter followers. Dandekar’s exploratory committee trails with just 8 likes and 23 followers. Pat Murphy has a personal Facebook page but I can’t find any campaign page. He has 132 Twitter followers.

But these numbers may be meaningless. Instead, we should be doing some serious online polling. Much more meaningful.

And Republicans, I’m not forgetting about you. Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Rathje and Rod Blum of Dubuque are running, while House Speaker Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha is seriously considering.

To the polls.

(Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

My former colleague, Cindy Hadish, has a great gardening and food blog, HomegrownIowan.com. Over the weekend, she posted coverage of New Pioneer Food Co-op’s ongoing vote on whether to build a third store.

Cedar Rapids and Marion are possible locations, and member meetings were held in both cities. Please read the whole post, but this excerpt caught my eye:

New Pioneer Cooperative Society was founded as a natural foods cooperative grocer in Iowa City in 1971, and opened its Coralville branch in 2001. A short-lived Cedar Rapids location operated several decades ago.

Some members at Sunday’s meeting questioned whether Cedar Rapids had changed sufficiently since that time to make a location here a viable option. One woman, who lives in the Cedar Rapids area, said Cedar Rapids residents are “unsophisticated” and are either old or have never been out of this area.

Others countered that the local foods climate has changed considerably. Linn County Supervisor Lu Barron pointed out that Saturday’s Downtown Farmers Market attracted an estimated 18,000 customers; Matthew 25 operates an urban farm here and the city is a Blue Zones demonstration site, with a focus on healthy eating.

My wife works in Iowa City and signed us up for a New Pioneer membership, although we shop there only occasionally. We haven’t voted yet on this expansion issue.

But I think the way we think about food has changed considerably in the last 20 years, and not just in college towns and big cities. And I don’t think it’s really a question of “sophistication” or frequent flier miles.

It’s that consumers, for various good reasons, are demanding more choices. Lots of choices. That’s why the kooky organic and vegetarian stuff that used to be shoved off to a corner of the supermarket is now taking up an expanding share of prime time shelf space in mainstream stores such as Hy-Vee and Walmart. More and more people are thinking more and more about where their food comes from and what happens to it before it gets to their plates. Supporting local growers has also become more important.

If New Pioneer came to Marion, we’d shop there. We’d also shop at Hy-Vee and Fairway. We’d go to farmers’ markets and to New Bo. New Pioneer would not be some exotic granola novelty from Iowa City. It would be a another choice for people who eat, which is a popular pastime on this end of the corridor. With utensils, even.

My wife and I went to the newly revamped U.S. Cellular Center for some free Slap N’ Tickle. And, clearly, we weren’t alone. Slap N’ Tickle, by the way, is an ’80s heavy metal cover band. For us, the band’s short show was a nostalgic ride in a big hairy spandex time machine. With bargain beers, no less.

But there’s nothing nostalgic about the arena. It looks and feels brand new. The old concrete bunker has become a modern venue. Slap N’ Tickle’s performance was a test drive before paying customers came to see Lady Antebellum on Saturday night.

I’m not a professional crowd-counter, but several hundred people, at least, took advantage of the free show to check out the joint, as well as the connected convention complex and remodeled DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids. More than a few of us made it to the 16th floor restaurant and bar, where the views of the city on a beautiful spring night were totally awesome, as we used to say in the ’80s.

And although this was a test, and only a test, the scene was real and really encouraging.

The leaders who shoveled quite a pile of public dough into this project did so based on a prediction that activity at the complex, arena and hotel would spill over into economic benefits for the surrounding core and community. It was a big risk, and remains a big risk even now as plans and promises have turned into steel, stone and glass. Lots of glass.

But on Friday night, at least, outdoor tables at nearby restaurants were packed. Sidewalks were filled with folks enjoying the evening. Bars looked busy. We walked over to Cobble Hill, the newish restaurant on Second Street SE near Third Avenue, and we found plenty of other patrons enjoying dinner.

Some folks, like us, came for the show. Some probably stuck around after work, or after the weekly Uptown Friday Nights concert event in Greene Square Park. I’m sure others were downtown for various reasons. But the combination was striking, and defied the persistent pessimistic pronouncements that nobody wants to be down here. Then, 18,000 came to the farmers market on Saturday morning.

I’m not declaring the complex’s opening a sure or permanent success. Who knows what issues and pitfalls may await us as these facilities sail into the highly competitive waters and their newness fades?

But lots of our money is tied up in these venues, so we should hope for success. Friday night was a good start.

The legislation encourages school districts to adopt new career ladders and evaluations for teachers by giving districts that chose to do so roughly $300 more per student to help pay for the costs of implementing the new programs.

The bill was the governor’s top priority this legislative session after a reform bill from the previous year didn’t address teacher and administrator career paths.

“This is a key turning point in Iowa history,” Branstad said. “Having good schools is no longer good enough.”

Now, see, why is it that politicians always have to serve one double shot of hyperbole too many?

I’m not saying that the governor is absolutely wrong. But we really don’t know, yet, how historic this is or is not.

The career ladder, improving pay and encouraging top teachers to mentor others, while attempting to build a more robust atmosphere of professional collaboration, could be historic. If school districts embrace it. If future Legislatures don’t shortchange it, as they did the last time we got historic reform. If a commission and lawmakers and education interests can agree on a new framework for teacher evaluations. And if a new student testing regime truly provides a clearer picture of performance, as advertised.

The Statehouse spirit may be willing, but too often, the follow-through is weak. And the ed dept. director who launched this is headed for Colorado.

My colleague, Jennifer Hemmingsen, says be skeptical of the hype:

But despite the superlatives his staff has been piling on in praise of the bill (Transformational! Comprehensive!), it’s a partial victory for the governor, who started reform talks with a clean chalkboard and an ambitious take-it-or-leave it plan to reclaim Iowa’s seat at the head of the class when it comes to public education.

Many of the bolder ideas from those early days have been relegated to study groups or the recycling bin.

Some, such as expanding competency-based learning opportunities, still might become a reality. Others, such as loosening tight restrictions on charter schools, were DOA.

By political necessity, the compromise package had to be a little less bold, and more flexible. That’s how the Statehouse works. But Jennifer doesn’t mind, and neither do I, because real educational transformation isn’t coming from the Golden Dome. Improvement maybe. Much needed bucks, definitely. But not fundamental transformation. We’re actually better off with more flexibility, so that schools have room to try new approaches.

But folks are still on the job, looking for transformation:

Former educators Shawn Cornally (left) and Trace Pickering are bringing students back into the classroom for the summer with their latest “big idea,” aptly named The Big Ideas School.

Set to begin its first session June 24, the program promises an alternative approach to traditional education systems by getting students in grades 7-12 engaged with interdisciplinary projects that interest them.

Cornally said his previous role as a community builder in the Creative Corridor—a seven-county area in northeast Iowa—inspired him to start the school. In that role, he worked on a program that placed community members in schools for a day and then recorded what those individuals wanted schools to look like. The Big Ideas School is the manifestation of what the group envisioned.

Little Bohemia on Friday

(Sunday’s print column, delayed due to a technical glitch. The crest didn’t turn out to be as high as expected, so this may be a little stale, but I think the points I make about the flood protection conversation are still valid.)

In retrospect, I regret cracking wise.

During the drought, I joked more than once about the Cedar River being so shallow that we could probably stroll across to commemorate the fifth anniversary of 2008’s mega flood. Oh the irony.

Instead, the river rose to the occasion and crashed our anniversary. Oh, the humanity.

How high did it go? I’m writing this on Friday, when a 19.9-foot crest was forecast to arrive sometime today. If that changed, please grab a red pen and make a quick edit.

When the Cedar River’s muddy onslaught started tickling the bellies of our bridges once again, among the first places that floated to mind was Little Bohemia, the historic tavern on the south end of the thriving New Bohemia neighborhood. The 2008 flood knocked it out of commission for a couple of years. But it came back, better than ever.

Little Bo in 2008

DIFFICULT SCENE

So I drove down there Thursday night. The scene was difficult to digest.

The bar was sandbagged, along with most of the buildings and businesses in the neighborhood, including Parlor City, another great joint, the New Bo City Market, open not even a year, and others. Volunteers had filled many of those bags during the day.

Heavy equipment with flood lights and yellow flashers moved sand and big concrete covers to block storm sewer intakes and manholes. City workers were all over the place.

Inside the bar, folks talking were saying what I was thinking.

“I can’t believe we have to do this again,” said Jeff Melsha, who runs the bar. For 25 years, the only water he had to handle was from the tap. Now, two floods in five years. One epic, one now dredging up bad memories. Glance up from your stool toward the ceiling, and you’ll see the 2008 flood line. Look around the joint, and you’ll see the hard work of recovery.

On Friday, preparations continued in the New Bohemia neighborhood. But there was cautious optimism with each hour that the crest prediction didn’t rise and the sky remained blue.

I’ve heard a lot of talk in the last few days about people being very apprehensive and worried about what might happen. It’s entirely natural and to be expected.

But I also think this is a smarter, tougher city than it was five years ago. From City Hall on down to the corner tavern, nobody was getting caught flat-footed this time. River forecasts are a valuable and increasingly accurate guide, but our instincts tell us forecasts can change in a hurry. Thanks to 2008, the unbelievable is believable and the unthinkable is something to think about.

Call it alarmist or an overreaction, but I can’t blame anyone for being unwilling to take risks after seeing up close how much you can lose. If it turns out to be unnecessary, say a prayer of thanks.

RESET BUTTON

Regardless of how this turned out (again, I’m writing on Friday), we were basically a deluge or two away from a disaster. More heavy rain to our north in the watershed, and it could have been really bad. It wouldn’t have been 2008, but there’s a lot of waterlogged misery between here and 31 feet. And that misery was entirely possible, which is entirely sobering.

I’ve heard some people refer to this as a wake-up call. But I actually see it as a reset button.

We’ve had a long rancorous debate about permanent flood protection. Two tax measures to help pay for it on both banks were defeated. East-side protection is subject to the whims of Congress and the bureaucracy. And now, we’ve seen the Cedar River swell into a powerful, daunting threat once again and too soon.

How do we live with that threat? It’s a conversation that I think the community still hasn’t finished. And I think we need to reset that conversation, move past all the wreckage, rhetoric and recriminations left from past fights and renew our best effort to protect what we value. We may need to think beyond flood walls and levees, and beyond the city itself. Flooding is a regional issue. And it’s not just about how we stop water, but also how we use land.

Clean slate. Get creative, Creative Corridor.

We can wait for the feds or somebody else to do it, or this community can rise to the occasion.

Photo taken around noon. The lion refused to comment.

So no big rains in Cedar River watershed, knock on wood, and the National Weather Service flood forecast is holding steady:

…FLOOD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL WEDNESDAY MORNING…

 THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR

THE CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR RAPIDS.

* UNTIL WEDNESDAY MORNING.

* AT 10:00 AM FRIDAY THE STAGE WAS 17.1 FEET…AND RISING.

* FLOOD STAGE IS 12 FEET.

* MAJOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND IS FORECAST TO CONTINUE.

* FORECAST…RISE TO 19.9 FEET SUNDAY. FALL BELOW FLOOD STAGE

WEDNESDAY MORNING.

* IMPACT…AT 20 FEET…WATER REACHES THE BOTTOM OF THE BLAIRS FERRY

ROAD BRIDGE DECK.

Thunderstorms are still possible in the watershed today and tonight. But at this point, the ominous words “heavy rain” are not in the forecast. Although a flash flood watch remains in effect.

And now, in honor of these cautiously optimistic developments, and because it’s Friday, please welcome The Hold Steady:

…FLOOD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE…

 THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR

THE CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR RAPIDS.

* UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

* AT 11:00 AM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 15.6 FEET…AND RISING.

* FLOOD STAGE IS 12 FEET.

* MODERATE FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MAJOR FLOODING IS FORECAST.

* FORECAST…RISE TO 19.8 FEET SATURDAY…THEN BEGIN FALLING.

* IMPACT…AT 20 FEET…WATER REACHES THE BOTTOM OF THE BLAIRS FERRY

ROAD BRIDGE DECK.

And the city is on the job. Here’s the press release that arrived in my inbox just after 1 p.m.:

City Responding to Rising River level

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – May 30, 2013 – The City of Cedar Rapids is responding to the current rising river levels. Cedar Rapids City Manager, Jeff Pomeranz said, “We are aggressively addressing the current rising river levels. City staff is working throughout the community, implementing the city’s flood response plan.”

 The National Weather Service has increased the prediction for the Cedar River crest to reach 19.8 feet, which is 4 feet higher than its current level, by this Saturday at 11:00am. Citizens should stay out of closed areas and away from standing or flowing water.

 City staff is fully engaged in flood response activities to help mitigate potential flooding at a 20 foot river level. City staff is deploying pumps, plugs, sandbags, barricades, etc., and closing valves at preplanned locations adjacent to the river. Staff continues to monitor forecast river levels, as well as actual river levels, and additional response actions will be taken as necessary to address changes as they occur.

 The City of Cedar Rapids has materials available for residents to create sandbags at Bowling St. and C St. SW.

 Cedar Rapids residents who live in low-lying areas next to the river can prepare by:

• For those properties with sanitary sewer backwater valves, ensure they are closed

• Ensure sump pumps are operable

• Remove cars from underground parking areas

• Avoid parking cars on streets in low-lying areas near the river

Updated information will be provided as it becomes available.

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR

THE CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR RAPIDS.

* UNTIL WEDNESDAY MORNING.

* AT 5:00 AM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 14.0 FEET…AND RISING.

* FLOOD STAGE IS 12 FEET.

* MODERATE FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MAJOR FLOODING IS FORECAST.

* FORECAST…RISE TO 18.1 FEET SATURDAY. FALL BELOW FLOOD STAGE

WEDNESDAY MORNING.

* IMPACT…AT 18 FEET…WATER REACHES THE BOTTOM OF THE RAILROAD

BRIDGE ALONG 8TH AVENUE IN CEDAR RAPIDS.

(Updated forecasts are at the end of the post)

So what’s 18.1 feet look like? I plugged it into the flood inundation maps created by the Iowa Flood Center. The maps measure flooding in half-foot increments, so here’s what 18.5 looks like:

As the article linked above mentions, 18.1 is nothing the city can’t handle. Some problems, but manageable ones.

But thunderstorms are forecast for the next couple of days or so in the Cedar watershed. So what happens if things change? Unlikely, but what if?

Here’s 21.5 feet:

Water gets into the New Bohemia neighborhood at around 21 feet. Which is probably why New Bo Market is doing some preventative sandbagging today.

And because this is only harmless computer-generated water, here’s 24.5:

And things get scary. Sorry. But remember, it’s just pixels. As we all know, Cedar River floodwater is not a delightful blue.

That 18.1 forecast is significant enough to make me a little apprehensive. I’m betting I’m not alone. No reason for undue alarm, certainly, but after what this community went through, it’s tough for your mind to not go there. Let’s just hope the river doesn’t.

UPDATE — The NWS is now forecasting a 19.8-foot crest on Saturday.

UPDATE II — Here’s the 3:35 p.m. NWS flood warning update:

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR

THE CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR RAPIDS.

* UNTIL WEDNESDAY MORNING.

* AT 3:00 PM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 16.5 FEET…AND RISING.

* FLOOD STAGE IS 12 FEET.

* MAJOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND IS FORECAST TO CONTINUE.

* FORECAST…RISE TO 19.9 FEET SATURDAY EVENING. FALL BELOW FLOOD

STAGE WEDNESDAY MORNING.

* IMPACT…AT 20 FEET…WATER REACHES THE BOTTOM OF THE BLAIRS FERRY

ROAD BRIDGE DECK.

So the cold weekend rain was lousy. But the fire could have been worse.

On Saturday, my wife and a visiting friend from her balmy Southern Illinois homeland were feeling chilly, thanks to late May in Iowa being interrupted by a bonus shot of March. She decided to turn on the gas fireplace, but only after checking the vent outside for any bird-nest-related obstruction. Seeing none, she flipped the switch.

Standing in my kitchen, enjoying a liquid tribute to America, I saw smoke billowing into the back yard. Hey, that’s not right, I thought.

I went outside. Flames in the vent. Apparently, her visual spot check was an inadequate assessment of the nest threat.

Seconds later, my quick thinking mate was on the scene, fire extinguisher in hand. Instantly, the vent,  siding, a flower bed and the patio were coated in a white dusting of  fire suppression powder. We suppressed the heck out of that fire. I followed up with the garden hose. No damage.

On the bright side, nothing warms you up like crisis management.

Otherwise, we had a great Memorial Day weekend. How about you?

At first sight, a property tax reform deal is like a unicorn.

It’s astounding, really. You figured you might not live to see one. But there it is, with enough votes to actually pass the Iowa Senate and House. A strong gust of bipartisan compromise ripples dramatically through its snowy mane.

Then, you note its razor-sharp horn. And you worry that someone may get gored.

Turns out it’s local governments.

The bill approved as the Legislature adjourned Thursday contains $3.87 billion worth of property tax relief over the next 10 years, according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency. Commercial property owners, homeowners, farmers and the owners of “multi-residential” properties, such as apartments and nursing homes, all get potential tax benefits. State leaders get to campaign on the remarkable compromise they crafted after decades of futility.

Local governments, still dependent on property taxes, get a very big state I.O.U., and likely will lose revenues.

IS PROMISE GOOD?

Lawmakers are promising to “backfill” $3.13 billion of that tax relief over the next decade using state dollars, offsetting some of local government revenue losses. Even if that promise is kept, cities, counties and schools would still lose $741 million, with roughly half of that loss absorbed by cities and urban counties, according to the LSA.

But a promise is a promise, right?

“I just don’t believe it will be backfilled,” said Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, a former top legislative staffer who has seen plenty of previous state promises broken.

“I just think that property taxes are not going to get reduced. And there’s not going to be any backfill. And I just think it’s a bunch of empty promises going forward,” Oleson said. “But that’s just me being either cynical or realistic, as I like to say.”

Oleson points out that although the bill limits the growth of property value assessments to 3 percent annually, it doesn’t limit tax rates. It also doesn’t cancel any of a myriad state-mandated duties and services performed by local governments.

So while state leaders tout tax relief, they’ll be leaving local officials in a position where they might actually have to raise tax rates. “So where’s the real relief?” Oleson said.

The limit on assessment growth could penalize growing cities. On WMT radio, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett pointed to Westdale Mall, which plunged in value but is now poised for major redevelopment.

“The way we’re interpreting the bill, its (taxable) value can only grow at 3 percent. We don’t think that’s right,” Corbett said.

Lawmakers looked at raising the state’s gas tax, which would have provided more money to local governments for road projects now being paid for with property taxes. Fuel prices rose and skittish lawmakers dumped the idea.

But look on the bright side, it could have been worse.

Gov. Terry Branstad’s original property tax plan called for a massive series of property tax reductions and tight local budget limits. In fact, in this compromise, the governor gave up three-quarters of the commercial tax relief he wanted.

“Clearly, it’s come a long way from initial discussions,” said Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz. He acknowledges the challenges posed by lost revenue, but also understands why lawmakers tried to fix the system.

FAIRER, NOT BETTER

“There’s no question that the commercial property tax system in Iowa is unfair,” Pomeranz said.

Lawmakers, to their credit, did make the property tax system somewhat fairer. The problem is, they didn’t make it better.

Making it better would have meant taking a hard look at state mandates on local governments. It would have meant rethinking the way local governments are funded, trading property taxes for other sources of revenue while giving local officials and voters the freedom to choose other options. It would have meant realizing that although tax relief can be an economic help, job growth also relies on healthy cities and counties with the resources to provide basic services and maintain critical infrastructure.

It would have required Statehouse leaders to think more like partners and less like parents when it comes to dealing with the needs of local governments. The tax deal is an impressive work of political negotiation, but it could have been a lot better.

Maybe future legislatures will tackle those fundamental issues. Once you’ve seen a unicorn, anything’s possible.

The Iowa State Memorial at Vicksburg (National Park Service)

Our governor will be spending part of his Memorial Day weekend in Mississippi:

Ceremonies in Mississippi this weekend mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Vicksburg and a monument to Iowa soldiers who died there will be rededicated.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is on his way there this morning.

“That was a very key turning point in the Great Civil War,” Branstad said earlier this week. “It happened at almost the same time as Gettysburg was happening in the east…Up to that time it looked like the Confederacy could win that war. (The Battle of Vicksburg) around and it led to the Union victory and to the preservation of our nation as one nation.

Iowa had 28 infantry regiments, two batteries and two cavalry units involved in the Vicksburg campaign, not to mention Iowans serving on ships and gun boats on the Mississippi river. So scores of of Iowa soldiers and sailors were in Mississippi in May of 1863, when control of the river, and the fate of the union, still hung in the balance.

One sign of Iowa’s significance at that key turning point of the Civil War is the fact that there are dozens of monuments connected to the state’s units, soldiers and leaders at Vicksburg. The grandest of all is the Iowa State Memorial:

This spectacular monument in the Vicksburg National Park was dedicated on November 15, 1906. Governor Albert B. Cummins, General Grenville Dodge and a delegation of 150 Iowans were present for the dedication. The cost to the State of Iowa was $150,000. It is 64 feet wide and 29 feet high in the center portion. There are 6 bronze relief sculptures (4 are shown below) and a large equestrian statue. The reliefs, which depict different scenes from the Vicksburg Campaign, were done by Henry H. Kitson The equestrian statue was done by Kitson and his wife, Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson. There is also a bronze plaque listing the 28 Iowa infantry regiments, 2 cavalry regiments and 2 batteries present at the seige of Vicksburg.

The location is also near the positions of the Iowa 21st and Iowa 22nd which led the heroic charge on May 22, 1863.

Retired Army Col. Robert Pitts writes an account of that day posted at iowavalor.com:

On May 22, 1863, MG Ulysses S. Grant had hoped to avoid a long siege by assaulting the strong Confederate defense works along a 3 ½ mile front. An assault might save lives in the long run. But the Confederate defensive works were formidable. Confederate engineers started constructing these fortifications in September 1862. They consisted of forts with overlapping fire and they used the terrain’s ridges and ravines to great advantage. Each fort had a steep front slope with obstacles such as a deep ditch at the bottom of the slope. Union soldiers assaulting these forts would have to crawl up the steep slope and under a hail storm of minie balls.

At one of the forts, the Railroad Redoubt, a bugler sounded the charge at 10 o’clock on May 22nd and the attack was under way led on the right by the 22nd Iowa Infantry Regiment and supported by the 21st Iowa Infantry Regiment. There, Iowa soldiers of the 22nd Iowa , Sergeant Joseph Griffith and Sergeant Nicholas Messenger encountered fierce Confederate resistance, clambered and clawed up the steep slope with fixed bayonets and through a gap in the fort’s very thick wall made possible, with compliments, by the XIII Corps cannonade earlier that morning. They led a small band of brave and daring Iowans into the Railroad Redoubt where fierce fighting was hand-to-hand, planted the regimental flag, drove out the defenders, captured others and held that fort for several hours. Of all the forts along that 3 ½ mile front, only the Railroad Redoubt saw Yanks (Iowans) inside the works.

But it was, at best, a toe hold. Skepticism, mistrust misunderstanding and mismanagement reigned among the three corps commanders on this day, as well as their commander, General Grant. Not all the regiments in General McPherson’s XVII Corps were actively engaged. General Sherman’s XV Corps was conducting disjointed and piecemeal attacks. The reported successes of General McClernand’s XIII Corps were received with skepticism by General Grant. Grant didn’t trust McClernand and later replaced him. The Confederates later in the afternoon on the 22nd counterattacked and regained possession of the Railroad Redoubt. Thus, the forces on both sides settled down into siege operations with only a couple of minor Federal excursions.

Then came a 47-day siege, described by Samuel Marshall Hawkins Byers in his 1888 book “Iowa in War Times:”

Now commenced a kind of conflict unique in the history of warfare. Every man in the investing line became an army engineer. Day and night the soldiers worked at digging narrow, zigzag approaches to the rebel works. Intrenchments, rifle pits, and dirt covers were made in every conceivable direction. When intrenchments were safe and finished, still others, yet farther in advance, were made, as if by magic, in a single night. Other zigzag, underground lines were made, and saps and mines for explosion under forts.

Every day the regiments, foot by foot, yard by yard, approached nearer the frowning, strong-armed rebel works. The soldiers burrowed like gophers and beavers— a spade in one hand and a musket in the other. The pickets were not squads of soldiers only; whole regiments filled the extremely advanced trenches all the time, being relieved only in the night. These regiments poured a constant fire of musketry into the embrasures and over the parapets of the forts. Day and night were heard the ceaseless firing and roar of musketry, whole batteries of artillery often joining in the midnight chorus, while the shells from the gunboats rose into the air like burning comets and fell into the devoted city. It was a wonderful spectacle.

The rifle pits of the two armies were now so close that the pickets talked with each other and nightly traded tobacco for coffee. Sometimes, as if by sudden impulse, a fierce bombardment with all the artillery would take place—or a mine beneath a fort explode, throwing its occupants into the air, while whole regiments would dash into the fearful crater only to be driven out. Forty-two days and forty-two nights the singular siege went on, and they were bold Rebels who dared to show their heads in all that time above the parapets of their forts, or over the sand bags of which they made little breastworks outside the ditch.

Inside the city, the rebels lived in caves and holes in the ground. No other life was possible, so frequent were the storms of shot and shell from the gunboats and the batteries, and the musketry from the rifle pits now right under the slopes of the forts. The history of one regiment during that historic siege was almost the history of all. In front of each the same perpetual skirmishing by day and by night went on—the same sapping and mining, the same slow advancing on the enemy’s works, the same dangers that were scarcely second to battle. It was hard work for the union soldiers there, digging under the almost tropical sun of Mississippi. They lived in the deep ravines back of their lines, or in their rifle pits, forever loading and firing their muskets.

Once Gov. Kirkwood and his adjutant general. with Surgeon General Hughes, came down to visit the boys, and were serenaded by a storm of rebel cannon balls. They made speeches to the brave boys— the boys cheered a little, and, divining what was going on, the Rebels turned their batteries on the scene.

Kirkwood honored and loved the soldiers. He knew what their sacrifices meant. He knew that they stood between the state and destruction—that there would be no state, no governor, no liberty, no life, but for these men in the ditches at Vicksburg. “The heroism of our soldiers has made it a high privilege to be a citizen of Iowa,” said he. So it had. The forty-two days of fighting, burrowing and besieging, were drawing to a close. Meantime, other troops were added to Grant’s investing army. With them, came more from Iowa, until at last the proud state had thirty regiments besieging Vicksburg, or helping to keep back Joe Johnston’s army in the rear.

Then came that memorable day, that fete day of a nation, that victory day— Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Helena,—that dawning of new light all over the North, that ringing of bells from sea to sea. With the joyous clangor of those bells, the knell of the rebel confederacy was sounded. From that 4th of July, the fate of the lost cause was sealed. Invasion of the North was a thing no more to be thought of—the confederacy was in twain. The men came out of the trenches that day, for Vicksburg had fallen, and the waters of the great river towed unvexed to the sea.”

That may have been the most dangerous Iowa gubernatorial speech ever delivered. I read another account claiming that Kirkwood also took a few shots at the enemy lines.

Our current governor will face a much less hazardous assignment, rededicating the Iowa monument after the Iowa Legislature put $320,000 toward its much-needed restoration. Civil War re-enactors in Company A of the 49th Iowa Volunteer Regiment, and others lobbied hard to have the monument restored, including Pitts, who wrote the Vicksburg account excerpted above. Well done, and a fitting way to mark Memorial Day weekend.

The didn’t list is always longer. And I think, for the most part, aside from some disappointments, that’s a good thing.

When I was at the Statehouse, The Gazette’s Rod Boshart was the did/didn’t list guru. No matter how good you thought your list was, his was always better.

And here’s his 2013 edition:

DID

Reform/reduce property/income taxes

Reform education to boost teacher pay, leadership and career ladders

Expand health-care coverage for low-income Iowans

Increase the earned income tax credit from 7 percent to 14 percent

Bolster liability protections for farm owners

Increase funding to address skilled worker shortage

Raise judges’ pay by 4.5 percent

Boost REAP environmental funding to $16 million

Devote more funds to close worker “skills gap”

Boost state aid to K-12 schools by 4 percent

Fund universities so tuition is frozen next year

Extend tax break for ethanol-blended fuels

Expand teen driver training and limit passengers in vehicle

Allow electronic driver’s license renewals

Change state regulations for “mothballed” livestock buildings

Expand renewal of Iowa driver’s license to eight years from current five

Allow home-school parent to teach child driver’s education

Require background checks for school employees

Require background checks for vendors catering to children

Prohibit sale/operation/possession of radar-jamming device

Create criminal offense for removing police communication devices

Require DNA samples for aggravated misdemeanor convictions

Extend school sharing incentives

Exempt reconstruction of the Lake Delhi dam from certain DNR requirements

Create free-standing Iowa Department of Homeland Security

Relocate James Harlan statue to Mount Pleasant

Further refine regional mental health service delivery approach

Raise economic development tax credit cap to $170 million

Require newborn critical congenital heart disease screening

Expand definition of “sex act” in Iowa criminal code

Require vision screening for school children

Allow police outdoor shooting range in proximity to homes and businesses

Establish new assessment process for child abuse reports

Exempt home school students from annual assessments

Extend early education block grant program by five years

Prevent/control invasive species in public waterways

Bar seed distribution of certain invasive plants

Equalize E911 surcharge for wire-line and wireless services

Take steps to improve government efficiency

Authorize tribal governments to have reserve police force

Exempt savannahs and bengal cats from dangerous wild animal list

Establish lifetime fur harvester license for residents aged 65 or older

Address city of Des Moines franchise fee issue

DIDN’T

Raise the state gas tax

Expand anti-bullying measures in public/private schools

Reinstate limited death penalty

Ban use of hand-held cell phones while driving

Increase state minimum hourly wage

Ban smoking in gaming areas of state-licensed casinos

Legalize Internet poker via state-licensed casinos

Ban use of traffic enforcement cameras on state and local highways

Require public safety officials to keep firearm permit holders’ names confidential

Amend Iowa constitution to define marriage as only one man and one woman

Authorize schools to adopt mandatory uniform policy/dress codes

Amend Iowa constitution to establish spending/taxing limitations

Protect against taking land via eminent domain for recreation

Create a missing children safety fund

Keep gun permit issuance information confidential

Modify definition of obscene materials to exclude live acts

Mothers whose babies test positive for drugs could face criminal charges

Prohibit use of unmanned drone aircraft by state or local law enforcement

Authorize limited gambling on fantasy sports games

Ban minors under age 18 from tanning salons

Legalize medical marijuana

Raise speed limit to 60 mph on two-lane primary and hard-surface roads

Bar underage sale/ consumption/possession of energy drinks

Allow all-terrain vehicles (ATV) to operate on hard-surface roads

Raise elected officials’ salaries

Fund expanded passenger rail in Iowa

Expand transparency/accountability for state Board of Regents

Require proof of identification/residence to vote in Iowa elections

Upgrade dietary guidelines for public cafeterias

Expand campaign finance laws related to independent expenditures

Require school districts to develop/implement school safety/emergency plan

Provide suicide-prevention training for teachers

Modify definition of obscene materials to exclude live acts

Make service station gas pumps more accessible to handicapped

Require radon testing/mitigation in schools and new homes

Require installation of window fall prevention devices in large dwellings

Provide $8 million to upgrade Iowa Speedway in Newton

Require headlights on when windshield wipers operating

Make permanent the early education block grant program

Curb food waste/bolster recovery of excess food items

Allow limited issuance of Iowa driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants

Issue special electric vehicle registration plates

Allow parole for juvenile murderers after 45 years in prison

Shield cities from liability for sledding-accident injuries on public property

Expand bonding options for county buildings

Implement “Iowa first” provisions in state government purchasing procedures

Restrict donations/charitable contributions in criminal proceedings

Eliminate smart planning principles and other development guidelines

Eliminate straight-ticket voting option on Iowa election ballots

Modify/change criminal laws on intentional transmission of infectious diseases

Raise penalties for illegal use of handicapped parking permit

Create criminal offense for mothers whose babies test positive for drugs

Expand training for child-abuse reporters

Continue Iowa mortgage hotline

Expand support for English language learners

Establish Iowa health benefit marketplace

Bar body piercing for minors; require state permits for body piercing businesses

Allow the sale of raw milk

Restrict county-issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples

Bar abortion-causing medication via telemedicine video conferencing

Exclude “poppers” and snappers” from fireworks ban

Create income tax exemption credit for unborn children; increase overall credits

Impose moratorium on issuance of state gambling licenses

Abolish no-fault divorce for Iowa couples with children

Amend Iowa constitution to impose term limits on elected officials

Classify marijuana a schedule 1 controlled substance

Strike mourning dove hunting season

Require safety helmets for motorized bike operators under age 18 years

Recognize gold/silver as legal tender

Require state lawmakers to pay at least 20 percent of health insurance premium

Create office of chancellor to guide state universities under Board of Regents

Require hormonal intervention therapy for convicted sex offenders

Legalize sale and use of consumer fireworks in Iowa

Prohibit permits to drill oil/gas well using hydraulic fracturing

Require drug testing for recipients of state assistance

Allow eligible employee leave to attend parent-teacher conferences

Prohibit nuclear plans from reprocessing spent fuel into weapons-grade material

Impose sanctions against parents if their children engage in harassment/ bullying

Require labeling to identified genetically engineered food

Include pets under domestic violence protective order

Authorize possession of offensive weapons like machine guns or sawed-off shotguns

Abolish Iowa Department of Education and state Board of Education

Bar regulation of firearms/ammunition during state of public emergency

Provide wage protections for workers

Establish cause of civil action for woman who underwent an abortion

Set five-year repeal for all state rule

Permit parking on left side of roadways in winter weather

Require pawn shops to return stolen merchandise

Create taxpayer-funded education savings vouchers for public and private schools

Bar bonus pay for state employees effective July 1 — excluding regent employees

Abolish county compensation boards

Modify conditions for use of justifiable/reasonable force

Require population impact statements on all legislation

Ban use of false/secret compartment in motor vehicle

Exempt state income tax on active military/reserve/National Guard pay

Expand domestic abuse laws to cover intimidate relationships

Ban minors under age 18 from tanning salons

Make mental health professionals mandatory reporters of potential serious harm

Establish facility to house sex offenders needing medical/personal care

Create mandatory life prison term for killing first responder

Conduct cost-benefit analysis for new highway rest areas

Allow person with permit to carry gun on school grounds

Allow school employees to get permit to carry gun in school

Strike tiered corporate income tax and set 6 percent uniform rate

Exempt some bars from smoke-free air requirements

Amend Iowa constitution to provide home rule for school districts

Amend Iowa Constitution to make House term lengths staggered, four years

Allow bigger motors on boats operating on Lake Macbride

Amend Iowa constitution to hold biennial, not annual legislative sessions

Create passing distances for motor vehicles overtaking bicycles

Bar opening vehicle door into moving traffic if not safe

Amend Iowa constitution to remove age restriction on state militia

Set criteria for bass fishing tournaments in public waters

Amend Iowa constitution to protect right of citizens to bear arms

Create state lottery game with proceeds benefitting people with multiple sclerosis

Prohibit late-term abortions with certain exceptions

Allow state to opt out of unfunded federal health care mandates

Authorize interim study of eliminating the Iowa income tax

Nullify federal Patient Protection/Affordable Care Act

Verify Social Security numbers for applicants for public funded programs

Amend Iowa constitution to establish spending/taxing limitations

Use revenue from traffic cameras to create uninsured vehicle coverage trust fund

Waive tuition and fees at state universities for Iowa National Guard members

Expand private-sector employee drug testing law

Impose constitutional limits on Legislature’s spending/taxing authority

Require electronic monitoring of all juvenile and adult registered sex offenders

Eliminate “good time” sentence reductions for inmates convicted of serious sex offense

Place moratorium on regulations affecting sale of unprocessed food

Protect Iowans from application of foreign laws

Bar employers/schools from seeking access to personal Internet accounts

Bar labor unions from knowingly collecting dues from illegal immigrants

Commit share of state surplus to road/bridge construction

Prohibit U.N. “Agenda 21” environmental action plan for sustainable development in Iowa

Amend Iowa constitution with “right to life” protection

Require helmets for all motorcycle/motorized bike operators/passengers

Create individual/corporate tax credit for contribution to home school grant group

Require Board of Regents to publish annual report on overtime pay

Establish world language education pilot project

Study creation of fourth regent university in Iowa or “regents outpost”

Adopt abortion restrictions to define a “person” at conception; bar some contraception

Bar Iowans from buying foreign-made U.S. flags

Create Iowa State Board for Blind and Deaf Education to oversee state’s two special schools

Eliminate state authority to waive school start date before Sept. 1

Bar city parking citations for Purple Heart recipients

Prohibit employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants

Require disclosure of gifts/bequests/honoraria to state executive-branch personnel

Require government/businesses provide “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant workers

Create state tax credit on qualified student debt for technology workers

Upgrade dietary guidelines for public cafeterias

Limit use of restraints for pregnant prison inmates

Restrict donations/charitable contributions in criminal proceedings

Eliminate straight-ticket voting option on Iowa election ballots

Increase corn check-off maximum rate to five cents per bushel

Expand/fund state oversight of water usage

Curb food waste/bolster recovery of excess food items

Make service station gas pumps more accessible to handicapped

Expand campaign finance laws related to independent expenditures

Authorize state lottery games to benefit Special Olympics program

Require school districts to develop/implement school safety/emergency plan

Expand domestic abuse laws to cover intimidate relationships

Require headlights on when windshield wipers operating

Study elderly aggressive behavior in long-term care facilities

Modify/change criminal laws on intentional transmission of infectious diseases

Permit parking on left side of roadways in winter weather

Require disclosure of gifts/bequests/honoraria to state executive-branch personnel

Allow limited issuance of Iowa driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants

Require medical malpractice lawsuits to be reviewed by special panels

Issue special electric vehicle registration plates

Amend Iowa constitution to establish spending/taxing limitations

Increase monetary limits on motor-vehicle transactions to protect consumers

Made sex offender changes for “Romeo and Juliet” relationships

Require pawn shops to return stolen merchandise

Raise penalties for illegal use of handicapped parking permit

Expand transparency/accountability for state Board of Regents

Prohibit placement of sexually violent predators in nursing homes

Require proof of identification/residence to vote in Iowa elections

Eliminate smart planning principles and other development guidelines

Shield cities from liability for sledding-accident injuries on public property

Implement “Iowa first” provisions in state government purchasing procedures

Allow flat-rate option for Iowa income taxpayers

Raise sales tax 3/8 of 1 percent for natural resources

Create specialty license plate with space for not-for-profit group decal

Require American products to be used in public improvements

Change collective bargaining rules

Expand school bus inspections

Create state tax credit on qualified student debt for technology workers

Allow electronic absentee voting by military and overseas voters

(Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Tom Walsh said he used to live on an Iowa acreage with 20 acres of hardwood timber. In the spring, when conditions were right, those woods yielded morel mushrooms.

Now, the former Johnson County bureau chief for the Gazette lives in Maine, where he writes for the Bangor Daily News. Beautiful place, Maine, but something is missing.

“Where I live now is heaven,” Walsh said. “But we don’t have morels.”

Recently, he saw a friend’s photo of an enormous tray of our curiously elusive and delicious mushrooms. That was it. He can’t take it anymore.

So he’s open to negotiating a simple trade. For a pound of morel mushrooms, he’ll trade you two pounds of Maine lobster. He called me, hoping I’d put the word out. Apparently, I’m a sucker for displaced Iowans with mushroom cravings.

Iowa mushroom hunters are having mixed success, or so I’ve heard. And lobster prices remain low*. Let the hard bargaining begin.

If you’re interested, you can contact Walsh by email at iowadruid@aol.com

* Walsh emailed me to say that although lobster prices in Maine are low, relatively speaking, the cost of overnight shipping live lobster is very high. In fact, the shipping will likely cost more than the lobster. But he says, for morels, it will be worth it.

(Reuters photo)

The smashed houses now on an endless cable TV loop are a lot like the ones that line my neighborhood streets in north Marion. The flattened schools look a lot like the one my kids attend. It would be just as heartbreaking and awful anywhere, but the familiarity of both the setting and the risk give it an added sharpness.

What if, on some mean spring day, all hell busts loose over our corner of the world? Heavens forbid.

We know full well it is an exceedingly remote possibility, although it’s tough to tell that to residents of shattered Moore, Okla., where and even stronger killer storm tore through in 1999. But of all the cities, towns, additions, subdivisions, glens, ridges, townes, prairies and villas in the wide expanses of middle America, the chances of mine or yours getting hit is downright microscopic. Oklahoma and Iowa are not the same, tornado-wise. At least that’s what I’ve been telling my kids, repeatedly, since Monday afternoon.

(Although our violent tornado tally is closer to Oklahoma than I thought. A striking map tracking U.S. tornadoes over time can be found here.)

I’ve also been telling them that when the sky darkens, the sirens blow and your teachers tell you to take shelter, you do so quickly and without a word. No questions. No complaining. No hesitation. You just fall in line and do what you’re told as fast as you can.

Monday’s disaster puts a fresh coat of relevance on Erin Jordan’s Sunday “Shelter from the Storm” project:

Federal, state and local governments are spending $855,000 this year to add to Iowa’s network of outdoor warning sirens.

But as fewer Iowans work outside and nearly 90 percent of homes have central air, sealing up windows in the summer, some emergency managers wonder whether outdoor sirens are a relic of Iowa’s rural past.

“Our homes and our lifestyles have changed,” said Mike Ryan, emergency management agency coordinator for Delaware County. “The sirens are costly to install and maintain. It’s kind of a feel-good measure.”

Emergency managers have long preached that sirens are not intended for indoor warning. Weather radios, television and the Internet provide better protection inside. More people are signing up for text or email weather alerts, but the future may be cellphone broadcasts using GPS to locate people in the path of the storm.

The Oklahoma City metro, including Moore, have an extensive system of outdoor sirens:

The Oklahoma City siren system, a network of 181 emergency warning sirens, was state-of-the-art when it went online in April, 2002. It cost $4.5 million to install the new system, which replaced the cold war-era sirens that covered only the most densely populated parts of the city.

The sirens sound once the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, and they serve as a signal to turn on a television or radio to get more detailed information about the storm and instructions on how to seek shelter.

The sirens are spread across three counties around Oklahoma City, including the county Moore is located in, according to the city’s website. Moore itself has 36 sirens in its Outdoor Warning System, many of them near schools:

Moore residents got about 16 minutes’ warning before the tornado hit, which undoubtedly saved lives. I think sirens are still an important piece of a good, broader warning system, alongside media alerts, weather radios, text messaging, phone calls and whatever else you can come up with.

Multiple warning methods increase the chances that people get warned. Then they have to know what those warnings actually mean.

That’s one of the issues Jordan highlights in her report, inconsistent policies on when to blow sirens:

Among the 29 counties surveyed by The Gazette, 25 explained what criteria they use for sounding the alarm. Ten counties sound sirens for spotted tornadoes or NWS tornado warnings. Nine other counties – including Linn, Blackhawk, Scott and Johnson – also trigger sirens for winds over 70 mph.

A subset of the second group also sounds sirens for golf ball-sized hail.

Winneshiek County sounds sirens for 50 mph or stronger winds. Fayette, Mahaska, Henry, Jackson and Wapello counties don’t have countywide policies.

Grundy County, which has a mix of city and county control of sirens, sounds an “all clear” when the tornado event is passed, officials said. Bremer County officials issue an “all clear” recorded message in Waverly, but do not sound the sirens at that time.

Inconsistent policies statewide can be risky, weather experts said.

It seems like it would be a good idea to bring some consistency to these decisions, maybe at the state level, maybe regionally, and then get the message out loud and clear on what it means, exactly, when you hear a storm siren. A low-threat threshold, like a 50 mph wind, sounds like a bad idea. So do confusing “all clear” blasts. When sirens blow, they should blow because a very serious threat exists. Find shelter and more information.

Personally, I think it should be a real tornado warning or no siren, but I also understand the threat posed by high winds to people caught outside.

Tragedies like the one Monday remind me to be less complacent about this stuff. Like any typical heartlander, I tend to take weather warnings with a grain of salt. Many of us roll our eyes at the dire hyperbole that sometimes gets slung around severe weather coverage. Ooh, the sky is dark, it’s windy, how unusual. My inclination is to go outside and watch instead of going inside to hide.

I caught plenty of heck from readers a few years back when I chided folks for getting so upset about having TV shows interrupted by weather warnings.

My dad talks about a guy he knew who used to dismiss warnings by saying, “If God wants to get me, he’ll know where to find me.” One night, as a roaring tornado passed close to his house, he nearly knocked his wife down as he shoved past her scrambling down the basement stairs.

Sure, it’s unlikely. But, someday, it could get real in a hurry. Do you know exactly what you’ll do when it happens? Exactly what you’ll grab and where you’ll go?

I’ve given it some thought. I have some ideas. But I have to admit, upon further review, that I do not know, exactly, what we’ll do when all we have are a few minutes to do it. So that’s got to change.

Here are some links to preparedness ideas for homes and schools.

So the final campaign spending numbers are in on the March 5 Linn County gambling referendum. Thanks to our quirky campaign finance system, we don’t get a complete picture of who was spending how much on what until more than two months after the vote. Helpful.

Turns out it was a $3.4 million battle to win the hearts and minds of we the voters. And that battle was fought by outside casino interests and local investors interested in becoming casino interests. As casino opponent David Osterberg described it, it was indeed their rich guys versus our rich guys.

First, the out-of-towners. Riverside Resort and Casino pumped another $757,000 into the the Just Say No Casino campaign in late February, on top of the $600,000 it had already contributed in January. After the vote, Riverside got $106,000 refunded.

Isle of Capri stayed on its original $150,000 ante. The Sac and Fox Tribe, operators of Meskwaki Casino in Tama, chipped in $104,000 on Feb. 27.

So, subtracting the Riverside refund, casino interests sank $1.5 million into Just Say No, with hopes of fighting off more competition.

Local investors under the title Cedar Rapids Development Group, sank a total of $1.92 million into Vote Yes Linn County. 

Just Say No may have ended up with just 39 percent of the vote, but it certainly wasn’t for a lack of strategy.

During the final days of the campaign, Just Say No cut checks to Link Strategies, a Des Moines-based political consulting firm, adding up to roughly $90,000, Landmark Strategies, specializing in telephone voter contact, for $31,000 and The Strategy Group, which handles direct mail, for $300,000 and change. A Polling firm, David Binder Research in San Francisco, made $51,000. And Internet advertising firm, Precision Network, took in $107,000 in early March.

The disclosure report does not say which strategists came up with the idea of promising Cedar Rapids a water park in exchange for a no vote. Too bad.

Vote Yes Linn County spent $182,000 in the final days on TV ads through Alfano Communications, a Virginia-based political media company that counts Gov. Terry Branstad among its previous clients.

Big money and big time strategery. I doubt we’ll see a local ballot issue quite like this one again anytime soon.

The Floridian who won that $590 million Powerball prize is going to get a lot of attention.

But I find myself wondering about folks who were one number away.

Three such tickets were sold in Iowa:

A total of 77,640 tickets purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes ranging from $4 up to $40,000. Two tickets purchased at Iowa locations in Fort Dodge and Aurelia matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win prizes of $10,000 each. One more also matched those same numbers, but had the Power Play option added to it, so that ticket purchased in Dubuque won a prize of $40,000.

Real money, to be sure. Congrats.

But what sort of Monday morning did those folks have? They’re probably going through their typical routine. Maybe they’re heading off to the work site or the plant or the cubicle. Except that, on this Monday, they’re grooving through the usual grind with the unusual knowledge that they were one good old Arabic numeral away from sharing a fortune.

I hope they’re saying, “Hey! Ten grand (or 40 grand)! Not too shabby,” with a song in their optimistic heart and spring in their step. The sun is shining. The glass is half full. Better than a swift kick in the pants, eh? That’s the spirit.

Man, I wish I were one of those people.

I have a feeling my own internal dialogue would be less uplifting. A speculative sampling:

“Oh, it’s fine. It’s fine. Typical, but fine. Just how things always seem to work out for me, but, still, fine.

“What would I do with some gargantuan pile of money anyway? I’d probably just blow it on making beer runs to Belgium, developing a powerful atomic laser inside a dormant volcano on an isolated island or forming a Super PAC to fight for universal lawn care. I’m better off without it, right? Clearly. Dodged a golden bullet.

“I picked my numbers. No regrets. So what if this means that the date of my birth has now been transformed into a poignant reminder of the fateful fortune that eluded my grasp by mere inches? Adding that plot twist to the normal birthday realization of precious sand slipping swiftly through the hourglass of life isn’t going to bother me one bit. No sir.

“Sure, I might think about it from time to time. Maybe when the credit card bills come, or when the van makes a horrible noise or when my employer wises up and realizes that hackneyed opinions are everywhere and free, I’ll recall this close shave with infinite financial security. And I’ll chuckle, knowingly.

“But, really, this as a chance to count my blessings. Family and health and happiness are what matter. When you have it all, who needs a Powerball? Not this guy. It’s only money. Granted, potentially more than the GDP of Palau, but still just money. Just a number. One number. One stinking number…”

I’m honored and humbled to have been invited to speak to you, the graduating class of 2013 here at the Iowa Institute for Reverse Psychology. I think reverse psychology is a very important but little understood and appreciated discipline. And it’s so thoughtful that you’ve bestowed on me this honorary doctorate in reverse psychology. I will treasure it.

And I hope to put it to good use today as I give you a little advice on navigating the real world.

APATHY IS OK

First, don’t get involved in your community. You’re going to be very busy and really tired, so the last thing you need to do is pitch in on some worthwhile effort or important cause. Somebody else is probably going to do it. Problems will probably get solved, and if they don’t, it most likely won’t affect you anyway. As far as you know.

Skip running for office. You don’t have the connections or bucks to do it anyway. And chances are nobody’s going to listen to your good ideas. You’re just one person against the massive, glacial gears of government. What can you do? Nothing, that’s what. It’s really best to leave this stuff to the strategists, consultants and lobbyists, the big donors and professional politicos. They’re already doing a bang-up job. Stay out of the way.

Voting is also overrated. After all, we have lots of pollsters and pundits to tell us who is going to win. That saves us loads of time that we might otherwise waste digging into candidates’ positions on issues. The political media has painstakingly built its campaign narratives to make things simple and entertaining. Admire them, and their snarky tweets.

Don’t let anyone tell you that apathy is not OK. You tell them that the government doesn’t have any real power anyway. Unless you’re in a Tea Party group, or work for the Associated Press or happen to be one of the very few people in this country who use phones and computers, you’ve got absolutely nothing to fear. The Justice Department has got this.

Give up on your local newspaper. If it goes away, no biggie. Rest assured that, any day now, a legion of unpaid bloggers will march into town to begin closely watching your city council, courts, county government and other important institutions.

COMPLAIN A LOT

So don’t get involved. But do complain.

Complain incessantly. Always, always use ALL CAPS and lots of !!!! to give your well-crafted arguments more gravity and intellectual oomph. Lambaste, dismiss, repeat.

Make snap judgments before you get weighed down by all the facts.

Never challenge your own assumptions. They’re yours, and nobody is going to take them away. Steer clear of anyone who might. And if you accidentally come across an argument that threatens to transform your worldview, quickly find someone or something that will confirm it again. That’s why we have Google and cable news.

Ideals are for the uninformed. Ditto with optimism. Things have never been worse than they are right now, thanks entirely to the people with whom you disagree. We’re totally screwed. So self-interest is entirely appropriate.

Don’t root for underdogs. They usually lose.

Dance like everyone is watching and thinks you look stupid. Drive like you’re the only vehicle in North America. Eat like you’re a Saharan marathoner. And please post pictures of all your meals on Facebook.

Live like you’re afraid the pharmaceutical industry might go out of business without you. And if this speech lasts longer than four hours, please call a doctor.

And do me a favor, check your email and text while I’m speaking to you. Thanks.

So bad luck, Class of 2013. May all your epic fails go viral.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement says vote it down:

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund (CCI Action Fund) members blasted a tentative legislative deal to cut corporate property taxes after a confidential memo was leaked Thursday, saying the deal will severely limit the ability of state and local governments to provide basic public services without raising taxes on everyday Iowans.

The confidential conference committee report on Senate File 295 shows state government stands to lose $383.6 million in annual revenue by 2024, while local governments would lose $115.7 million by 2024.

CCI Action Fund members also say the bad deal allows current and future budget surpluses – created by spending cuts years ago – to be squandered in the form of a small income tax credit rather than being reinvested in state programs that have faced cuts.

“Iowa CCI Action Fund members support expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for working families, but not as a horse-trade for a bad deal on income and corporate property taxes,” said CCI Action Fund member Larry Ginter, an independent family farmer from Rhodes.

“If this bad deal goes through, we will either see cuts to vital public services or more taxes on family farmers and everyday people, or both. Shame on any legislator that votes for this thing. Bipartisanship should not come at the expense of good policy that puts people first.”

The Iowa Policy Project wants to deck its halls:

It’s Christmas for Walmart and McDonald’s, which will happily receive property-tax breaks that they don’t need, while their low-wage employees receive a better Earned Income Tax Credit.

This Christmas tree will grow bigger with each passing year, leaving less room in local budgets to respond to needs. The EITC expansion is important to working families — including 37 percent of all Iowa kids — but in the balance of who benefits from this package, it is a very small ornament.

If there is any question as to who benefits, Iowans should note that the EITC boost will be $35 million when fully phased in, compared to about 10 times that for property owners.

As we noted last month, the only justification for dealing with commercial property taxes was a political one. It has never been based on either an economic or competitive need to cut commercial property taxes in Iowa. So we have a politically derived package that will meet the demonstrated need to improve the EITC but leaves open new challenges to the support of critical public services in our state.

Over at Bleeding Heartland, desmoinesdem, points out multiple flaws in the “raw deal,” including the fact that business owners who rent space likely won’t benefit from property tax relief.

I understand all these concerns, and agree with some of them. And if you had your bleeding heart set on nothing big happening on taxes this year, I can see how this deal would be disappointing.

But we have a governor and a lot of legislators who got elected promising to do something on taxes, commercial property taxes in particular. That’s not meaningless. So there was always at least a small chance a deal would happen. Turns out it was a better chance than many of us thought.

And in a world where a tax deal actually exists, I think Democrats drove a decent bargain.

Think about where Gov. Terry Branstad started this tax conversation. He wanted to roll the taxable value of commercial property back from 100 percent to 60 percent, while pushing the laughable notion that the state would be able to backfill lost local revenues. He also wanted to cut corporate income taxes in half.

Earlier this year, majority House Republicans signed off on a $570 million income tax credit,  giving back a big chunk of the state surplus in $369-per-taxpayer bites.

Instead, on Thursday, we got a deal that rolls commercial valuation back to 90 percent over two years. That’s a long way from 60. A  lot of the property tax relief in the bill comes through state-funded tax credits very similar to the ones originally championed by Democrats.

That huge surplus-draining income tax credit is now bite-sized in comparison. All talk of corporate income tax cuts has vanished.

And Democrats get $35 million in tax relief for low-income families through an doubling of the Earned Income Tax Credit. A significant victory.

Local governments will take a revenue hit, which is a serious problem. It would be nice if this deal also gave local governments more options for raising revenue with voter approval. Unfortunately, the parental Statehouse doesn’t trust the kids in the courthouses and city halls to handle new taxes. It’s a conversation that should happen. Maybe the prospects for lost local revenues will spark that debate.

But the revenue hit is more manageable than it might have been. Republicans once talked about a huge commercial cut coupled with 2 percent limits on taxes and spending growth. This week’s deal has only a 3 percent cap on local tax increases.

It’s not perfect. Divided government is messy. It’s not Democrats’ dream tax deal, but neither is it the GOP’s. It’s a compromise. Half-loaves, disappointment, bright sides. You know, governing.

Lawmakers come now to grace us with details of the big ‘ol tax deal:

In the property tax area, the compromise calls for commercial and Industrial properties to be assessed at 95 percent of valuation retroactive to Jan., then at 90 percent starting on Jan. 1, 2014, and then at 90 percent thereafter. Currently, those properties are taxed at 100 percent of valuation. The phase-down falls short of the 20 percent cut Branstad-led GOP forces wanted.

To accomplishment that reduction, negotiators agreed that the state would appropriate money for replacement of the lost revenue to local governments. The payments would total $78.8 million in fiscal 2015, $162.8 million in fiscal 2016 and $154.1 million for fiscal 2017 and each fiscal year thereafter.

Also included is a Business Property Tax Credit for property taxes due and payable in fiscal year 2015 that Senate Democrats championed. Under that portion of the agreement, the state would appropriate $50 million in fiscal 2015 to cover the new tax credit, with the amount growing to $100 million in fiscal 2016, $125 million in fiscal 2017 and $125 million each year thereafter.

Sounds like the business tax credit would basically mean that the first $145,000 in property value is taxed at the residential rate, and that means that two-thirds of all businesses would be taxed entirely at the residential rate.

On the income tax side, the legislative compromise stipulates that beginning July 1, 2014, a tax credit will be issued to Iowans with tax liabilities when the balance of the Taxpayers Trust Fund exceeds $30 million. The new tax credit pushed by legislative Republicans is not refundable and cannot be carried forward or carried back.

 Individual credits will range from $30 to $60 and will be claimed on the state income tax form.

 The overall tax relief plan also proposes to double the earned income tax credit for lower-income working families – a priority of legislative Democrats — from the current 7 percent to 14 percent in tax year 2013 and then to 15 percent in tax year 2014. The state’s fiscal impact for the refundable credit will be $30.8 million in fiscal 2014 and $34.5 million in fiscal 2015.

At first glance, this seems like a decent compromise. Everybody gives and gets something. The governor and Republicans don’t get the full scope of permanent commercial property tax relief they sought, but they do get some, while accepting the credit model pushed by Dems. One big question going forward, will the state live up to its promise to fund that credit over time? The track record is mixed.

Republicans get a cap on property tax growth, at 3 percent, but not as tight as the 2 percent limit they hoped to get.

Republicans do get to send some of the big surplus back to taxpayers, although the credits look pretty modest. Democrats get a bigger Earned Income Tax Credit, although not as big as the increase approved by the Senate.

I’ll be interested to see how local governments react. They could have been hit with a much bigger revenue cut. Most of this tax relief is state-funded.

If this deal holds up, it’s a significant accomplishment, especially considering how remarkably far apart the parties are on tax policy. The property tax issue didn’t move an inch for months, and I figured they’d throw it overboard and adjourn. But they stuck with it and reached a deal.

It’s possible this could get voted on later today. As I said in an earlier post, I’m not keen on ramming stuff like this through before Iowans get a closer look. But there’s no stopping a Legislature roaring toward adjournment. They say it sounds like a freight train.

More coverage can be found here and here.

The Gazette’s Rod Boshart provides a detailed breakout summary of the deal:

Conference Committee Report for Senate File 295 (Property Tax Reform)

Division I—Business Property Tax Credit (Based on Senate Democrats plan)

• Focuses the benefit on smaller main street businesses

• Creates a Business Property Tax Credit for property taxes due and payable in fiscal year 2015.

• $50 million is appropriated in fiscal year 2015 to the Business Property Tax Credit Fund

• $100 million is appropriated in fiscal year 2016

• $125 million is appropriated in fiscal year 2017

• $125 million every year thereafter

• Each person who wishes to file a claim will obtain a form from the County Assessor. The form does not have to be filed again until the property is sold or transferred.

• Counties will submit lists of properties that are eligible for the credit and the Department of Revenue will determine the amount of value of the property that is subject to the credit. That amount is called the “credit base.”

• The credit base amount of the value of the property will be subject to a rollback that is equal to the Residential Rollback in that year.

• The state will use the money appropriated into the Business Property Tax Credit Fund to reimburse local governments the amount of credits issued.

• When fully phased in at least $145,000 of property value on every business will be taxed at the Residential rate; Almost two-thirds will have their entire property value taxed at the Residential rate.

Division II —Property Tax Assessment Limitation and Replacement (Based on Republican plans)

• Changes the property tax assessment growth limitation for residential and agricultural property to 3 percent instead of 4 percent for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2013.

• Commercial and Industrial will assessed at 95% of valuation starting January 1, 2013; at 90% starting January 1, 2014; and at 90% thereafter.

• The State will appropriate money for replacement of the lost revenue. Payments will be made by IDR to county treasurers:

o FY 15 $78.8 million

o FY 16 $162.8 million

o FY 17 $154.1 million

o $154.1 million — Same amount as fiscal year 17 thereafter

Division III—Multiresidential Property Classification

• Creates a new property classification: Multiresidential

• Multiresidential will include apartments, nursing homes, assisted living facilities , and certain other rental property

• The existing classifications are Residential, Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial

• Multiresidential properties will eventually be taxed at the Residential rate. This will be phased in over 10 years. Total fiscal impact to local governments is $85.3 million when fully phased in.

o Assessment Year 2013 95%

o Assessment Year 2014 90%

o Assessment Year 2015 86%

o Assessment Year 2016 82%

o Assessment Year 2017 78%

o Assessment Year 2018 75%

o Assessment Year 2019 71%

o Assessment year 2020 67%

o Assessment year 2021 63%

o Assessment year 2022 and thereafter: Residential rate

Division IV —Telecommunications Property

• Each telephone company will receive a partial exemption from taxation on the value of the company’s property. This is phased in, with half in assessment year 2013 (FY 15), and the remainder being added in assessment year 2014 (FY 16)

• When fully phased in:

o 40% on the first $20 million

o 35% on $20 to $55 million

o 25% on $55 to $500 million

o 20% over $500 million

• Fully phased in fiscal impact to local governments: $16 million

• Department of Revenue is directed to complete a comprehensive study of the telecommunications industry and report recommendations for change to the General Assembly

Division V – Iowa Taxpayers Trust Fund Tax Credit

• Each year, beginning July 1, 2014, the balance of the Taxpayers Trust Fund exceeds $30 million a tax credit will be issued to Iowa taxpayers

• The tax credit will be issued to Iowans with a tax liability

• It is not refundable and cannot be carried forward or carried back

• The amount in the Taxpayers Trust Fund will be divided by taxpayers and the credit will be claimed on the tax form

• Individual credits will range from $30 to $60

Division XX — Property Assessment Appeal Board

• Five year sunset – July 1, 2018

• Lower salaries

• Adding another appraiser to the board (replacing the finance profession with state and local tax policy experience)

• Allowing for a speedier hearing process.

Division XX—Earned Income Tax Credit

• Increases the Earned Income Tax Credit from 7% to 14% in tax year 2013; 15% in tax year 2014

• The credit remains refundable.

• The increase is effective retroactively to January 1, 2013.

• Fiscal impact: $30.8 million in FY 14 , increasing to $34.5 in FY 15

The governor’s state salary bill is out, including some proposed raises for elected officials.

The Gazette’s Rod Boshart sent us the numbers:

These don’t seem like freak-out level raises, in my view. Although it sounds like legislative leaders in both parties are cool to the idea of passing them. Iowa Democrats are making some hay out of the governor’s raise. But Branstad’s office deftly volleys that shot by pointing out that these raises wouldn’t take affect until after the 2014 election. Are Democrats suggesting that Terry’s sixth term is a given? Surely not.

Some background from The Gazette’s Statehouse bureau (Sorry, don’t have a link yet):

Salaries for Iowa legislators and top statewide elected officials were last raised in 2005. At that time, the 17.3 percent increased vaulted Iowa’s gubernatorial salary to 16th highest nationwide, but the $130,000 yearly pay has since slipped into a tie for 26th place nationally with Louisiana.

Annual salaries paid to U.S. governors range from $179,000 in New York to $70,000 in Maine, according to the latest data compiled by the Council on State Governments. Some governors’ salaries include travel allowances, official residences, chauffeured automobiles and access to airplanes, helicopters or other perks.

Iowa’s part-time legislators currently are paid $25,000 a year, with top leaders getting $37,000 in the House and Senate, and pro temp leaders in each chamber paid $27,000. Lawmakers also receive $135 a day ($101.25 in Polk County) in expense money when the General Assembly is in regular session (110 days first year, 100 days second year) along with mileage, IPERS retirement, other benefits, and access to state health insurance at no premium cost if they so choose.

Of course, you say the words “pay raise” to my ears, and thoughts drift immediately to Linn County. where, earlier this year, the supervisors voted to boost their pay by more than 25 percent. And unlike the state’s salary boost, supervisor raises take effect July 1. No pesky election required.

For fun, and for comparison, here are those FY 2014 county salaries, once again, with feeling.

Linn County Elected Officials Salaries for FY14

Board of Supervisors $95,760

Auditor $95,760

Recorder $95,760

Treasurer $95,760

Sheriff $125,478

Attorney $152,298

So as of July 1, being an elected official here is a pretty good gig, even compared to statewide electeds. Interesting.

But if they really want big bucks, they need to figure out how to get a team to a good bowl game. 

According to various reports, the property tax plan, which may be as large as $400 million, if approved by the split-control Legislature, will provide tax relief to commercial property owners and offer some protection – but not necessarily lower taxes — to residential property owners.

“Property tax is the biggest and most significant part of it, but there are priorities for both the House Republicans and Senate Democrats,” Gov. Terry Branstad said Wednesday at a bill signing.

However, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, wouldn’t confirm that – or much of anything else.

“I’m not sure what’s in it,” Bolkcom said when asked about the income tax part and an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit that he has insisted on. People are working on property tax relief, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, agreed the parties are close, but declined to talk about what was in the bill.

“We need to finish our discussion in caucus,” Gronstal said, referring to his 26 Senate Democrats. “Until we do that we’re not going to talk about it.”

Lawmakers “have the right to hear this from us before it gets rolled out,” added Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines.

Indeed, the right of legislators to hear legislative details in a closed party caucus is sacred.  I think it’s on the Iowa flag or in the Constitution or something like that. It would be a real shame if taxpayers knew something about the big tax deal before lawmakers. 

I know this is how things work in the final days/hours of a legislative session. Deals get done and they move quickly, for fear that they may spoil quickly in the sunshine. Shoot first and deal with the unintended consequences later.

And I agree that, by now, everyone has had plenty of time to weigh in on tax issues.

It’s tradition. But that’s weak justification for playing coy on major legislation affecting hundreds of thousands of Iowans. We may know what the big pieces will be, property taxes, income taxes, the Earned Income Tax Credit, etc. But the details matter. I hope we get them sooner than later.

On the plus side of transparency, lawmakers provided $275,000 for the Iowa Public Information Board. Not the $400,000 that the governor wanted, but better than the paltry $100,000 offered by House Republicans.

Monica Vernon (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

The mayor poured cold water on congressional rumors. But the mayor pro tem  just might be in.

Cedar Rapids City Council member Monica Vernon says she’s getting a lot of encouragement to run for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley is leaving the seat to run for the U.S. Senate.

Vernon said she’s still thinking it over. She’ll make her final call soon. But her family has been supportive. Her friends are egging her on.

I say if your friends urge you to run for Congress, you need new friends. But that’s just me.

“This is a challenge. You don’t take it lightly,” Vernon said. “I think I’m up to it.”

Vernon built a successful business, Vernon Research, and has been active in local government, serving on several boards and commissions before running for City Council in 2007. She was easily re-elected to her District 2 seat in 2011, representing a wide swath of the biggest city in the 1st District. She can try this congressional thing without giving up her council seat.

Vernon’s experience with the flood of 2008 and the recovery that followed gives her more experience dealing with the federal government and federal issues than your garden variety city council member in Iowa.

“I’m looking at Congress as quite a dysfunctional creature right now,” Vernon said. So her vision is OK.

But running for Congress is a far cry from winning a council district. She’s an unknown to most Democratic primary voters in a congressional district that stretches from the Mississippi northwestward to the Minnesota border. That’s 20 counties, and includes Dubuque, Marshalltown and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro.

Vernon switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat four years ago, with the fight over same-sex marriage serving as her tipping point. Although they welcome converts with open arms, partisans always seem a little wary of side-switchers.

“I grew up as a Republican, but I feel like the party left me,” said Vernon, whose husband, Bill, is a former state GOP central committee member and national convention delegate. (An archive story I referenced was referring to another Bill Vernon, from Newton, who attended the 1992 convention).

She’s running as a “moderate,” fiscally cautious and committed to “human and civil rights.” She’s concerned about jobs, health care, education and ag issues, but insists it’s too soon for any specifics. Vernon said she doesn’t appreciate the “polar” ideological reaches of either party. Although, usually, a candidate does need some of those polar votes to win a primary. And in a midterm election, when fewer independents show up, turning out the party’s base will be critical in the general election.

Former House Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque is in the primary race, and former state Sen. Swati Dandekar of Marion, another pro-business moderate, is exploring a bid. It’s no secret that a lot of Democrats who are less-than-excited with their early choices are still waiting for a “wow” contender to emerge.

Vernon isn’t that candidate. But that doesn’t mean she can’t win. It just means it’s going to take a lot of hard work. And some help from those so-called friends.

We still don’t know all there is to know about the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to secretly grab piles of phone records from the Associated Press.

We know it was done as part of an investigation into leaks regarding a foiled terror plot, but we don’t know exactly how it was done, when, or why. I’ll leave reporting on the intricacies to folks who know what they’re talking about. (I’m also trying to get up to speed on the evolving, troubling IRS saga. )

What we do know, or should know, regardless of the legalities and spin, is that this is not how our government should operate.

The justice department, operating in a nation where a free press is guaranteed in our very First Amendment, decided to dig through a news organization’s phone records on a remarkably broad scale. The AP called it a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” I think they got it right. The phone lines targeted were used by more than 100 journalists over a two-month period.

Attorney General Eric Holder likely will insist that national security is at stake. Which is what they always say, right after they’ve gone fishing through your phone calls and personal data. The White House is claiming ignorance. Which is unbelievable. When AG’s do massive, unprecedented things, I’d like to think they at least send a note up the chain.

What we really need to ask ourselves is if we’re truly being made safer by a government, more precisely, by an administration, that’s willing to go to these extreme lengths to intimidate government officials into not telling journalists what’s really going on. Not to mention sending a chilling message to the journalists.

I concede, sometimes, there are leaks that need plugging. And then there is unnecessary, excessive secrecy, intended not to protect the public, but to shield bureaucrats and politicians from being held accountable.

And when news organizations have shown ample willingness to consider the national security implications of their work, even holding stories to avoid compromising security, as AP did, why would this administration compromise their freedom and independence even more with this overreach? At a time when Americans are already troubled by the power of technology to diminish privacy, their government fans the flames.

A president who got elected talking a good game about transparency has shown it was pretty much all talk. As evidence by the fact that the AP disclosure wasn’t a huge surprise.

I don’t know what Holder’s folks found in those records, but I hope it was worth the further erosion of trust and credibility in a justice department already bruised and dented. There were already plenty of reasons to wonder whether President Obama should fold on Holder. Could this, finally, be it?

And, yes, maybe news organizations should have cared a whole lot more before about all the secret data mining, warrantless wiretapping, surveillance and other dark arts being done in the name of our security. I hope this gets our attention.

E. Wayne Cooley (Buzz Orr photo)

My dad was teaching my daughter to pitch Saturday as news of E. Wayne Cooley’s death made its way around Iowa.

I guess that’s a fitting tribute to the man who led the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union from 1954 to 2002.

In fact, every time an Iowa girl fires a fastball, sinks a shot, spikes a volleyball or competes in any of nine high school girls sports programs, they’re paying a tribute to Cooley. Correction, Mr. Cooley.

I didn’t know him personally. But I felt as though I did. My dad began coaching girls’ softball and basketball at Woden-Crystal Lake in 1958. He coached softball until 2007.

So Mr. Cooley was a presence, someone my father deeply admires and talks of often. He was both a commanding figure and a man possessing great warmth and generosity. One of my favorite stories is about the time Mr. Cooley showed up at one of my dad’s softball tournaments. After the game, he told dad it was the first time in a long time that he had to pay admission to get in.

The girl working the gate told Mr. Cooley, “I don’t care who you are, Mr. Dorman says everybody pays.”

“Do you want your money back?” my dad asked, astounded.

“No,” Mr. Cooley said. “I want to know when she’s graduating so I can hire her.”

It wasn’t just that Mr. Cooley expanded opportunities for girls to play sports, which he did. It wasn’t just about equal access to athletic competition, as important as that is. What’s remarkable is how he built girls’ sports into a premium brand in Iowa, a product that became culturally important, magnetic and wildly popular. So much so that everybody wanted to be a part of it. The thousands of girls who played. Longtime coaches such as my dad and so many others who proudly stuck by it for decades. The thousands and thousands of Iowans from all corners of the state who flocked to the state basketball tournament to watch that curious six-player game.

My dad took teams to that tournament four times in the 1970s. Sure, the patriotic parade of states pageant on Saturday night and the guys in tuxedos sweeping the basketball floor to the strains of “Satin Doll” may seem a little corny in our jaded times, but it was special and unforgettable. Especially for girls who got a chance to play on the grandest stage in Iowa high school sports.

Mr. Cooley built that stage. The games and times have changed. But little girls in backyards still dream of getting there.

My 33-minute podcast interview with Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett can be found here.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett is now officially running for a second term. So far, he’s the only one interested in the job. Four years ago, there was plenty of buzz around mayoral possibilities. This time, zilch.

“I’m sure that before the filing deadline comes that there will be other individuals who step forward,” Corbett said while being interviewed for an “Insights on Iowa” podcast. (The full podcast will be posted at TheGazette.com and here on Monday.) “I sometimes run into people in the community who say you couldn’t pay me enough to do your job.”

History suggests he’ll have an opponent. “I haven’t done the research, but I think it’s probably been maybe 30 years since someone ran unopposed for a mayoral race,” Corbett said.

NONPARTISAN PREFERENCE

So that takes care of 2013. What about 2014?

Corbett’s name has popped up in the blogosphere as a possible Republican candidate for Congress in Iowa’s 1st District. He spent 13 years in the Legislature, including time as speaker of the House. He’s the mayor of Iowa’s second-largest city. More than enough to buy you a spot on the speculation train.

But Corbett seems reluctant to ride.

“I really do enjoy serving as mayor,” Corbett said. “You know, one thing that is different is the nonpartisan nature that local city politics has. I’ve really grown to appreciate that type of environment. So at this time, I have no interest in jumping back into the partisan environment.

“Actually, if you do have a heart for public service, which I do, you can probably have more of an impact locally in changing your community than you can heading off to Washington D.C. and try to make changes inside the beltway. So I’m very comfortable in my position of being mayor and hope that the voters give me four more years,” Corbett said.

So Hizzhonor is much more comfortable talking about flood recovery projects on the verge of completion, the metro’s low 5.1 percent unemployment rate and its economy-defying increase in manufacturing jobs. And how the local media don’t do enough to toot the city’s booster horn.

Corbett is willing to lobby Washington on our need for flood protection. Floods are notoriously nonpartisan.

RIGHTS ISSUES

Toward the end of our conversation, I got a keen sense of Corbett’s discomfort with thorny partisan issues.

A few weeks back, I was doing some research for a piece when I stumbled upon a 1989 Associated Press story on a debate in the Iowa House over legislation extending state civil rights protections to homosexuals. Corbett was in his second term in the House at the time, and he rose to oppose the bill.

“A person can’t choose their sex. A person can’t choose their national origin. A person can’t choose the color of their skin,” Corbett was quoted in the article. “Yes, people do have a choice in whether they want to be a homosexual or not.”

Sure, it’s been 24 years. But while Corbett spoke that day, I was an 18-year-old page in the same House, listening to a debate that profoundly changed the way I’ve thought about civil rights and gay rights, to this day.

So I asked him about it. Corbett was clearly displeased. More displeased than I anticipated.

“And what would you like me to say? Would you like me to say do I still stand by those views?” Corbett said.

I said a lot of politicians have evolved on the issue.

“I think certainly people evolve on a lot of different issues,” Corbett said. “Here in Cedar Rapids we’ve extended those rights to not just to gay people, but we’ve added transgender, also. That wasn’t debated at that point in time.

“I appoint people to the civil rights commission that take a balanced approach. I think social tolerance is important for a community,” he said.

We talked about how equality has come a long way in 25 years, even in the last five years. Opposition has waned. Young people are more supportive. His kids have good friends who are gay. The mayor said he has friends and supporters who are gay.

Has he ever been asked to take a public position on marriage equality? Corbett said he has not.

He has been asked, as mayor, to take stands on a number of big issues, such as gun control and immigration reform. He’d rather not get involved.

“I really kind of refrain from getting into some of that national debate and discussion, only because we’ve had so much on our plate,” Corbett said. “Unless it really has a link to Cedar Rapids in a strong way, I’ve stepped back from some of these highly partisan issues. Tried to really manage the city in a nonpartisan way and not to get into some of those issues.

“But, maybe, say, on immigration, if Rockwell, for one, was extremely concerned about the immigration law going in one direction too far, and not having enough H-1B visas in a pipeline for their hard-to-find talent, and they were looking for support from the mayor, that might maybe influence me a little bit more to be involved in that issue.

“But other than that, I’ve just tried to stay focused on the local issues and move our economy forward,” Corbett said.

Maybe if a company that makes same-sex wedding cake toppers ever moves to town, Corbett will join the fight. But then the paper will probably bury the good news.

So I heard this guy was coming to town who says he can bridge the stubborn divides in Iowa’s Republican ranks, making peace between the culture warring evangelicals and leave-me-alone libertarians and let’s-talk-about-the-economy country-clubby establishment folks.

He’s going to grow the party nationally. Make it more diverse. Bring in Latino and African-American voters. Check for any possible Republicans hanging out in California and New England. Make it OK to disagree on social issues without the RINO hunts.

And he may try doing all this while running for president in 2016.

It’s easily 1,000 days until the Iowa caucuses in 2016. Too (beeping) early. And I’m not much of a fan of science fiction. But I figured this was something I had to see.

And there he was, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. The bridge to the big tent, with lots of room. Even Democrats.

“How you will have a bigger voice nationally, to be part of the national scene, is to come to Iowa,” Paul told reporters gathered in a conference room at The Hotel at Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids Friday. “That’s where political leaders come to talk about issues that they want to resonate nationally. And one of the things I want to talk about whether I run or not is how to make the Republican Party bigger.

“We need to have a Republican Party that looks like the rest of the country,” Paul said.

But is Iowa the best place to start that transformation?

Paul has opportunities and potential problems here.

Enthusiastic backers of his father Ron control top posts in the Republican Party of Iowa. An opportunity.

But many Iowa activists in other factions of the party have rejected their leadership. A problem.

GOP electoral losses have a lot of Iowa Republicans talking about the party’s message. An opportunity.

But a fair number think the best course of action is to double-down hard on the red meat social issues that motivate the base. A problem.

Iowa Republicans, particularly evangelicals, hear “big tent” and think “surrender” on the issues they care about, marriage, abortion, etc. Establishmentarians hear “Paul” and get nervous.

Can you keep your father’s politically diverse, motivated backers, appeal to the religious right, comfort the establishment and not appear like a shape-shifter in the process?

If Paul is worried, it doesn’t show. He’s relaxed, speaks easily, cracks jokes, some of which are actually funny. He delivered his largely low-key Lincoln Day keynote leaning casually on the lectern. It’s like he’s the anti-Romney.

“One of the ways I mean inclusive is African-Americans and Hispanics. I don’t think anyone is going to argue on that,” Paul said during the afternoon press conference. “Inclusiveness means going and trying to get people who haven’t been with us in the party. And that could be a variety of reasons why.

“The way I look at it, it’s sort of like your family, your dad, your sister, your brother, who you don’t agree with them on every issue. But you still break bread with them. It’s the same with the Republican Party,” Paul said.

“The party shouldn’t have an inclusion exclusion rule. And I think if we do we’ll be a party of the red states and not a national party,” he said.

He said he believes in “traditional” marriage but says it should be a state issue.

He wants immigration reform to fix a broken system. If you want to come here and work hard, you should have that chance. He’s uncertain how the bipartisan bill will evolve, but he hopes the need for more border security and a system change can be balanced.

“This bill destroys the rule of law,” said Rep. Steve King earlier in the evening, offering a less nuanced view of immigration reform.

Paul favors decriminalizing marijuana, but not legalization. “I think it’s an issue where the youth might listen to us a little more if we didn’t want to lock them all up,” he said.

Paul drew his biggest applause Friday night hammering former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton on the failure to provide adequate security for diplomats and others killed in Benghazi. “It was inexcusable. It was a dereliction of duty. And it should preclude her from holding higher office,” he said to a standing O.

But he’s not keen on listing differences with his dad. “As far as itemizing differences, it doesn’t make for a good Thanksgiving Dinner.”

If Paul were a beer brand, he might be “Dad’s Light.” Tastes great. Less fringy.

But after 13 hours of filibustering against the excesses of the president’s dubious drone warfare campaign, Paul has a lot of political capital right now, as evidenced by the sold out Lincoln Day dinner crowd who gathered to see him speak at Kirkwood.

“I think there’s objective evidence out there that people are looking for a new type of Republican, looking for a way to grow the Republican Party,” Paul said.

With Gov. Terry Branstad’s school reform agenda hanging in the balance in the Legislature, its architect and salesman-in-chief is trolling for another job.

Jason Glass, our Department of Education Director, is one of three finalists for the top job at Eagle County Schools in Colorado, which, according to its website, ”Was one of the first school districts in the nation to successfully implement a pay-for-performance system and abolish the lock-step salary schedule over a decade ago? ECS has been recognized as a national leader in using teacher evaluations to enhance professional development and teaching practices.” 

Glass was human resources director in Eagle County when that pay system was put in place. So he’s a pay pioneer with an inside track.

Can you blame a guy for wanting to trade Statehouse slogging for a Rocky Mountain High? Eagle County is a “National Blue Ribbon School.” It’s been praised by Bill Gates. It’s nestled in the breathtaking Rockies, not far from Vail. Top that, Iowa.

Would he be a poorer man if he never saw Eagle County test scores fly? OK, I’ll stop.

I know a lot of folks at that slogging Statehouse are saying that this makes no difference. But Branstad’s education reform package includes multiple provisions that are basically TBA, stuff that, if approved by lawmakers, still would need to be planned and implemented over the next few years. Topping that list are new teacher evaluations, which could be tied to some sort of student performance measures. The measuring measures, too, have yet to be fully developed.

Glass is supposed to be at the center of all that planning and implementing and follow-through. He shaped the governor’s vision, and is the guy charged with turning that vision into policy. So if he hits the trail, you can’t help but wonder who will be doing all the lifting.

I’m sure some legislators are wondering that, even if they’re not saying it, as they remain stuck in negotiations over the guv’s reform package.  Teacher evaluations are a big sticking point. The timing of this announcement is not great for Glass’ current boss.

And maybe he doesn’t get the job. These things happen. Who needs Vail, anyway? Iowa is beautiful in the spring.

On Tuesday, Warren County voters flatly rejected a gambling referendum, with 60 percent voting no. That smashed plans for a $145 million casino/hotel complex near Norwalk just south of Des Moines. And no bowling alley for you.

The Register of Des Moines has the goods. I think this graph tells you all you need to know about the drubbing:

The gambling measure failed everywhere but in White Breast, a precinct in the southeast corner of the county that on Tuesday was responsible for 147 votes.

But how did it do in Drumstick Junction? Gizzard Gulch?

I’m no expert on Warren County politics, but I was surprised by the margin. I figured it would pass. It’s almost as if last night’s result was the exact opposite of Linn County’s March referendum, where gambling was victorious 61-39.

In Warren County, a pile of outside casino money, in this case from from Wild Rose Entertainment, was bet on a yes vote, unlike the $750,000 spent here by existing casinos hoping to defeat gaming.  Warren County opponents were led and funded locally, for the most part.

In Linn County, local opponents couldn’t distance themselves from a pricey campaign funded almost entirely by those outside casinos. The yes campaign here also was pricey,at $1.5 million, but the bills were paid by local investors.

Link Strategies, the consulting firm that helped vote no in Linn and vote yes in Warren, is now 0-2 in 2013. The need to update that web site.

This probably has little or no effect on Cedar Rapids’ bid for a license, which should start revving up this summer. But having the Racing and Gaming Commission’s licensing process to themselves may be of some help.

It also might  mean that opponents of expanded gambling in Iowa, including the unholy alliance of existing casinos and anti-gambling activists, now will have one target.

UPDATE — Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett was in our shop to record a podcast (which will be posted later, probably Monday). During some informal chatting before the podcast started, he made a couple of points on the Warren County result that I hadn’t considered.

For one, the very lopsided no vote in Warren County makes the lopsided yes vote in Linn County look even more impressive. The commission may take note.

Second, the commission now will need only a regional market study to judge the potential for a Cedar Rapids casino to take business from nearby existing facilities, not a statewide study. Corbett says that may speed up the licensing process.

Over at Bleeding Heartland, desmoinesdem thinks Warren County’s conservative bent made its outcome so different than Linn County’s:

Warren County has seen rapid exurban growth during the past decade, and socially conservative Republicans have done increasingly well there. In fact, Warren was one of the best counties for Bob Vander Plaats in the 2010 gubernatorial primary, where Terry Branstad carried most of the state. Even though the Iowa House Republicans conceded House district 26 (covering most of Warren County) last fall, Democrat Scott Ourth defeated way-out-there Republican Steve McCoy by only about 52 percent to 48 percent.

The latest county-level voter registration figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office show that Linn County has 49,666 active registered Democrats, 37,948 Republicans, and 52,303 no-party voters.

Warren County has 9,802 active registered Democrats, 10,524 Republicans, and 10,628 no-party voters.

It turns out all the drama hasn’t spawned a dramatically altered Iowa Supreme Court.

On Friday, the state’s highest court ruled 6-0 in favor of a married lesbian couple seeking to have each of their names listed on their daughter’s birth certificate. The Iowa Department of Public Health refused, naming only the birth mother but not her spouse. But the Supreme Court ruled that the department’s application of existing law violated the Iowa Constitution’s clause entitling citizens to equal treatment under the law.

It’s a big ruling for a number of reasons. For one, as Jennifer Hemmingsen notes, it’s a win for kids.

It’s also the first time that the court has picked up its 2009 Varnum ruling striking down Iowa’s ban on same-sex marriages and used it as a tool to further expand civil rights protections.

“The court says in this decision, ‘We meant what we said,’” said Camilla Taylor, marriage project director in Lambda Legal’s Chicago office. “Turns out equal is equal. There’s no marriage lite for same-sex couples or their children.”

Between 2009 and now, you might recall, crusading critics of the ruling and the court succeeded in ousting three justices who joined the Varnum ruling. A fourth, Justice David Wiggins, survived a 2012 retention campaign and wrote Friday’s ruling. There have been calls for all of the remaining Varnum justices to resign. A few state lawmakers floated the possibility of impeachment. This year, some House Republicans called for docking the justices’ pay.

But if judge hunters were hoping to intimidate the court into drastically shifting its approach, for fear of invoking more loud rebukes from the outraged right and suffering dire political consequences, Friday’s ruling shows all the bluster brought very little change. Clearly, the four remaining Varnum justices haven’t changed their minds or backed away from the landmark ruling.

Still the court has been changed some. It was unavoidable.

Two of three new justices appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad, Justice Edward Mansfield and Justice Thomas Waterman, concurred with Friday’s result while also sending a cryptic message on their feelings about Varnum. Here’s their special concurrence, penned by Mansfield:

The Iowa Department of Public Health accepts the decision in Varnum v. Brien, 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009), for purposes of this appeal. I agree that if Varnum is the law, then Iowa Code section 144.13(2) cannot be constitutionally applied to deny Melissa Gartner’s request to be listed as parent on the birth certificate of the child delivered by her same-sex spouse. Accordingly, I concur in the judgment in this case.

That’s a very intriguing “if.”

“What it means is that they don’t necessarily agree with all the reasoning in the main decision but they absolutely agree in the result,’ Taylor said, while conceding that the justices’ thinking is unclear.

A third new member, Justice Bruce Zager, took no part. The court doesn’t say why.

(Update — Bleeding Heartland notes that attorney Sharon K. Malheiro, who was among the lawyers representing the couple, is with the same law firm where Zager’s daughter is a partner.)

None of the parties in this case challenged the validity of Varnum. But I think if these new justices had been itching to take a slap at the 2009 ruling, this was a chance to do it. The fact that they didn’t suggests that they’re willing to let it stand. So judge-defenders who worried that the retention ruckus would damage the court’s independence or imperil Varnum can breathe a sigh of relief.

Sure, this court is still going to make lousy rulings and draw fire, sometimes justifiably. But on civil rights, it hasn’t gone skittish. It’s not retreating.

Varnum remains the law of the land, no “if” about it.

But, as an alert reader points out, that’s not the only flipping and flopping going on.  No Casino Warren County‘s state incorporation document was registered by the same attorney who filed the one for Vote Yes Linn County, Mark E. Roth.

Roth is with Des Moines law firm Brown-Winick, which is also home to Doug Gross, the former Branstad chief of staff and gubernatorial candidate who advised Cedar Rapids casino investors. (See update below)

So the Linn County combatants appear to have traded places in Warren County.

And like here, the politics is kinda weird. A yes vote Tuesday would benefit Gary Kirke, whose Wild Rose Entertainment wants to build the casino near Norwalk. Kirke is a big Republican donor whose name recently showed up on a list of Rep. Steve King’s top individual givers this year.

Link Strategies namesake, Jeff Link, is campaign manager for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley. King says he’s still kicking around the notion of running for the Senate also, although all signs point to him skipping it. Might be too much of a gamble.

Kirke was among the hosts for a fundraiser on behalf of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The event last fall was at the home of lead Cedar Rapids’ casino investor Steve Gray.  And we’ve come full circle.

UPDATE — I spoke with Gross this morning, and he says although a member pf his firm set up the vote no entity, he’s had no involvement in the campaign. “I certainly have not been involved in any way,” Gross said.

Jonathan P. Dolliver. A fine Senator who first served in the House.

Earlier this week, Gov. Terry Branstad gave his frank assessment of who should not be running for U.S. Senate:

“I really believe that Iowans want somebody that will serve in the Senate that will be an Iowa problem solver, not another congressman,” Branstad said this morning during his weekly news conference.

“You know congress is a mess. We’ve seen them spend a trillion dollars more than they take in every year and so the Democrats have decided, ‘Well, we’re going to send up another congressman.’ That’s the last thing we need is another congressman in the United States Senate.”

…

“That last thing we need is another congressman in the United States Senate,” Branstad said. “The congress is so messed up. They are so unable to make tough decisions. They are so far out of touch with the public in terms of their spending policies that we just need somebody that’s going to come there with fresh ideas and we’ve got some of those in Iowa.”

The governor seemed to be talking mostly about U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Harkin. But everyone was all like, whoa, hey, wait a second, Rep. Steve King  also is  a congressman!

A busy one, too. So busy, he hasn’t had time to make a final decision on running for the Senate. But I think we all kinda know that he’s made up his mind. Yup. Not a chance.

Branstad’s diatribe reminded me immediately of a story Lamar Alexander used to tell when he was running for president. He walked up to a woman outside her job, having a smoke. He told her he wants to be president. “Great, that’s all we need. Another president,” she says.

Great, that’s all Iowa needs, another congressman. A congresswoman would be great, for a change. But not another congressman.

Branstad has a point. Congress is a dystopian disaster area. Voters are going to smell the dysfunction. It smells of cherry blossoms and flop sweat.

On the other hand, the Senate is one of the two major chambers within that dystopia. So it is possible that having some knowledge and experience with the lay of the wasteland could be beneficial.  Republicans, pundits and such often knock President Obama for not understanding how to navigate Congress, how to build relationships, pull the levers, stroke the egos, fight off the flying monkeys, etc. And they have a point. 

History also suggests that experience in the House isn’t all bad for a senator. Both Harkin and Sen. Chuck Grassley served in the House first. They seemed to do all right.

So did one of the most famous senators in Iowa history, Johnathan P Dolliver. Dolliver served in the House from 1889 to 1901, when he was appointed to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat. He was then elected to keep the seat, by the Iowa Legislature in those days, and served until 1910, when he died.

Dolliver, according to the interwebs, was very nearly President William McKinley’s running mate in 1900, but lost out to Theodore Roosevelt. So Dolliver could have been president. The son of a Methodist minister is also credited with a snappy soundbite. “Iowa will go Democratic when Hell goes Methodist.”

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Dolliver Memorial State Park south of Fort Dodge. Beautiful place. No flying monkeys.

Some of America’s most famous senators served first as bleepity bleeping congressmen. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun and Robert LaFollette each served time in the House.

But there was some guy from Illinois who served in the House and then lost his Senate bid in 1858. What was his name again?

So House membership may be a disadvantage in our turbulent times, but it shouldn’t mean automatic Senate disqualification. It will mean some very nasty TV attack ads, maybe showing you in a grainy black and white photo with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Hugo Chavez, but not outright disqualification.

And remember, just because your opponent says you’re wrong for America, that does not mean you’re necessarily wrong for the United States Senate.

Also, governors who seek to live in Terrace Hill for nearly a quarter-century should not throw stones while demanding “fresh ideas!”

(Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Now for the ceremonial changing of the grill.

Each year, about this time, I roll my charcoal grill from its wind-sheltered winter quarters in front of my garage to its summer position on the back patio. A whiff of fresh cut grass. The first neighborhood kid in a swimsuit. I know it’s time.

It’s a ritual that has endured. But not all is unchanged in grilltopia.

Last month, the National Pork Board announced that several cuts of pig are getting new names. Apparently, according to exhaustive consumer research, shoppers get confused by names such as “pork rib chop” or “pork loin chop” or “top loin chop.” Shoulders shrug at the “Boston butt.”

So pork, which once claimed to be the “other white meat,” will now borrow its cut names from beef. The loin chop becomes a “porterhouse chop.” Rib chops are “ribeye chops” and top loin becomes a “New York chop.” New York pork?

That big ‘ol punch line of a pork cut, Boston butt, becomes a more refined “Boston roast.”

Cook chops like steak, pork producers insist.

Agreed. But what will become of our famously thick “Iowa chop?” Symbol of our pork supremacy.

Could presidential candidates visiting the Iowa State Fair really prove their Midwest bone-a-fides by flipping something called a porterhouse? Would Iowa face the same fate as Kansas City, which watched its famous strip steak go all New York? Will RAGBRAI’s “Mr. Pork Chop” have to alter his smoky siren’s song?

“We’re still calling it the Iowa chop,” said Ronald Birkenholz, spokesman for the Iowa Pork Producers. In Iowa, at least, the one-and-a-half-inch thick center cut loin chop will continue to go by Iowa chop, as it has since the 1970s.

Still, it seems like an odd time to make pork sound more like beef.

We’re in the midst of a pork renaissance. A number of producers are returning to Iowa’s farming roots by raising Berkshire hogs and other traditional breeds on smaller farms. Great restaurants are gobbling up their delicious cuts, by any name.

Chefs across the country are going full nose to tail, preparing dishes from parts I didn’t even know were edible. If pig tails, for instance, catch on, what do we call them? Flank twists? America, at last report, remains wrapped in bacon.

And with our right wing and left wing girding their loins for endless battle, isn’t a center cut chop exactly what America needs?

Remember, marinate liberally. Grill conservatively.

Also, here’s a recipe for Bourbon-brined pork chops. Good stuff.