New Additions
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Back ground color denotes a new addition to the list since the last update. |
Property Tax
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Tie Property Tax Classifications together to stop the skyrocketing effect of climbing values on residential and ag land. |
Property Tax
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Create a property tax reduction fund with new state revenues. |
| Property Tax |
Use the property tax reduction fund to take on more cost of K-12 from property taxes. |
| Property Tax |
Use the property tax reduction fund to provide an incentive to local voters to eliminate duplicative layers of administration within a county. |
| Health Care |
Establish a midwest purchasing co-op through an interstate compact with other regional state, in the event the federal government does not allow multi-state choice for insurance carriers as part of the federal health care reform legislation.
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| Health Care |
Instruct the insurance commissioner to start a new basic individual health insurance policy with no-mandates. A "buyer beware" that offers limited coverage but at an affordable price.
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| Health Care |
Tie mediciad reembursement to a quality rating. Those hospitals providing the best quality should receive 100% reimbursement. |
| Health Care |
Commit to establishing e-medical records within four years. Eliminate the cost and time of all the paper. |
| Health Care |
Create iowacomparecare.com to help Iowans be better consumers with information on cost, quality and outcomes. |
Health Care
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Impose a $250k cap on medical malpractice non-economic damages |
Health Care
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Establish a certificate of merit requirement on medical malpractice claims |
Health Care
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Mandate mediation before trial on medical malpractice claims. |
Judiciary
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Change process of appointing judges to be a true Governor's pick, ratified by Senate. Eliminate the role of the Bar Association in determining the list. |
Education
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Bring more choice to parents by establishing public charter schools or frontier schools, not subject to Chapter 20 limitations. |
Education
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Allow more alternative certification to get other professionals into the class room who demonstrate competency. Iowa faces a shortage of instructors in core areas of math and sciences. This is a solution. |
Education
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Promote foreign language studies that reflect today's economy. Thousands of Iowa students are learning French and German, when they should be learning Mandarin. |
| Education |
Standardize the school year calendar with beginning start dates, and times. Too much of the beginning of the school year is lost to early outs and half days. In addtion dissimilar schedules make it difficult if not impossible to share classes and do distance learning.
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| Education |
Convert existing state scholarships to a scholar awarded for performance on standardized tests in highschool.
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| Hunting |
Sell two tags for the price of one - to use an anysex tag, an anterless permit must be used first. |
| Hunting |
Allow landowners who can
demonstrate economic damage from deer up to 10 antlerless depredation permits
at no cost. |
| Hunting |
Create a special nonresident (think tourism and visiting relatives) anterless deer hungint season over the Thanksgiving holiday.
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| Hunting |
Allow landowners to transfer their deer depreation permits to another person.
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| Budget Accountability |
Legislative policy changes must include the appropriation - no more separating policy from money – that only leads to unfunded mandates on local governments. |
Budget Accountability
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A constitutional amendment to limit appropriation power to one fiscal year. Much of Iowa’s budget difficulty comes from multi-year commitments despite not having revenue available.
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Budget Accountability
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Establish an E-budget for Iowa. Every item, every expenditure will be transparent and reported in an on-line database so the public can see how their money is spent, and who is receiving their tax dollars. |
| Budget Accountability |
Every department must post on-line salaries, and comparable private sector wages - or services and comparable private sector costs. |
| Business Development |
Expand and enhance the Research and Development tax credit. The R&D credit brings high wage and high skilled jobs to Iowa. |
| Business Development |
Reward good behavior. Create a performance based permitting process within the IDNR and other agencies that rewards good actors with longer term permits, easier renewals and shorter application times. |
Business Development
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New start ups (the most likely to fail) get a tax free start for the first five years. We should set as our goal to move from the 49th best state in the nation to start a new business to be in the top ten. |
Illegal Immigration
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Mandatory minimum sentence per violation per day, with a cumulative effect on employers who hire illegals. Unscrupulous employers must have no incentive to hire people in Iowa illegally. |
2nd Amendment
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Adopt a state constitutional amendment the protects at the state level the same rights guaranteed under the federal constitution’s 2nd amendment. |
2nd Amendment
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Establish an affirmative right to carry a concealed weapon for law abiding citizens. |
Home Ownership
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Establish a state 529 plan to allow friends and families to help first time home buyers save tax free for their down payment. Patterned after the 529 college savings plan.
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Collective Bargaining
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In public employee collective bargaining, require the arbitrator to consider the "ability to pay" of the employer/taxpayer. |
Collective Bargaining
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In public employee collective bargaining, allow the arbitrator to pick mid-points, or to settle on a point between the two parties last offer. |
Collective Bargaining
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In public employee collective bargaining, allow contract negotiations to be re-opened when the state government reduces funding to the local government entity. |
Budget Reductions
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Visit this blog article for a "smarter way" to cut the budget and put our fiscal house in order. |