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Three-on-three basketball tournament coming to Des Moines

June 1, 2006 By

A national 3-on-3 basketball tournament is coming to Des Moines later this month. After going out of business for a couple of years Hoop It Up will bring a tournament to the streets of the capital city June 17th and 18th.

Dona Smith organizes tournaments in the midwest and says the new versions are more structured as the referees will have control over the games. Smith says they will eject teams if there are any flagrant fouls.

Similar tournaments have been held in states like Florida, Texas and Utah. Smith says there are some teams that travel around to compete in different tournaments. All the teams will be competing for a chance to move on to the nationals in Orlando in August. Divisions are available for boys and girls beginning at age eight. There are also a number of different adult divisions. The entry deadline is June 12th.

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Iowa City West looks for another soccer title

June 1, 2006 By

Iowa City West will be looking to win another state soccer title when the boys’ state tournament begins Friday in Des Moines. The Trojans are 18-2 on the season and will go up against Mississippi Valley Conference rival Cedar Rapids Washington in Friday night’s opening round.

West coach Brad Stiles says they are not approaching the tournament as defending champs. He says they look at each year differently after learning from winning in 2000 and then defending in 2001.

The teams met once during the regular season and the Trojans claimed a 1-0 win. Stiles says it was on a Saturday and on a rainy day on an enormous field. He says they’ll try to keep the ball on the ground. The tournament begins Friday afternoon with the opening round in class 1A.

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Republicans upset governor vetoed teacher pay for performance

June 1, 2006 By

Key Republicans are angrily rebuking the governor for vetoing key sections of an education bill that called for tying teacher pay to performance. Senator Paul McKinley, a Republican from Chariton who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee, is outraged. “We had absolutely no warning whatsoever. My initial reaction was shock,” McKinley says.

Republicans had insisted on launching a merit-based approach to teacher pay in return for agreeing to a package that will funnel over two-hundred million more state tax dollars to teacher salaries in the next three years. McKinley says the Democrat governor has broken the promise he made to Republican lawmakers. “I was brought up (with the notion ) that when you give a man your word, you keep your word. Your word is your bond. You do what you say you will do,” McKinley says. “This is the really the first episode I’ve had of somebody really reneging on what was a done deal.”

Vilsack signed into law a package of education bills this (Thursday) morning that included the teacher pay raise. Senator McKinley was invited to stand just behind Vilsack during the ceremony, but the governor made no mention of his decision to veto the pay-for-performance initiative.

Instead, Vilsack is issuing an executive order asking an already-existing task force to study the issue. Vilsack only hinted at that action during his remarks this morning. “As we look at new ways of compensating teachers that recognizes the performance of teachers, I want the Institute for Tomorrow’s Workforce to engaged and involved in that process,” Vilsack said. “…To see what works and what doesn’t work.”

McKinley says putting the pay-for-performance system off for yet another year isn’t the right answer.
“If you look at where Iowa is and where Iowa needs to be we absolutely must begin focusing on student achievement, not teacher credentials — which are important, but it’s the student and student learning and student achievement that must be focused on,” McKinley says. “That is what this bill did.”

Filed Under: Education, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

State Auditor to review job creation claims of Iowa Values Fund

June 1, 2006 By

State Auditor Dave Vaudt and his staff will investigate the job-creation claims made by backers of the Iowa Values Fund which has handed out millions in state grants to businesses.

“What we’re going to be doing is trying to take a look, first, at the documentation that the Department of Economic Development is putting together and I understand they’re still in the process of gathering some of that data and then we’ll be going in and doing some selective test work on some of those projects and seeing what documentation is available to support (claims of) the jobs that have been created or retained,” Vaudt says.

Last week Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Fallon asked Vaudt to audit the Iowa Values Fund, which Fallon has long criticized as corporate welfare. Vaudt says he’s fulfilling Fallon’s request, partly because of the timing. “The program has been in place for a good…three years, there’s been $130 million spent and it’s probably a good time for a progress review,” Vaudt says.

Chet Culver, another Democrat running for governor, last week joined Fallon in questioning the impact of the Values Fund which was administered by their rival in the race — Mike Blouin. Governor Tom Vilsack helped dream up the program and asked Blouin to be his economic development director to administer it.

Vilsack refuses to comment on Blouin’s stewardship of the Iowa Values Fund. “You know, I’m not going to get in the middle of the primary,” Vilsack says. “The Democratic voters will make that decision about who is best to represent our party.” Yet Vilsack says he’s ready to defend the economic record he contends his administration has helped create. “I’m proud of the fact that we have a record number of employed Iowans today. I’m proud of the fact that Iowa’s economic growth ranked 12th in the nation in the last five years according to USA Today. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve had the longest sustained increase in population in our state since they began keeping census information,” Vilsack says.

“So I’m proud of our record and I’ll be happy to talk about our record but I’m not going to get myself in the middle of a primary.” Vilsack has repeatedly claimed that over 25-thousand jobs have been “created or retained” because of the Values Fund grants.

Earlier today, Vilsack was asked about that claim and this was his response. “Here’s the deal: I come into the state and I say I want to build a new financial services enterprise and I’m going to spend $80 million and I’m going to build a building and once that building’s built I’m going to put people in that building. I’m going to hire people. Now, it’s going to take a couple of years for that building to be built,” Vilsack said. “Meanwhile, construction workers are working, building the building. Meanwhile, suppliers are providing supplies. Meanwhile, the economy is growing.”

Vilsack cited statistics indicating a record number of Iowans are working and the state’s unemployment rate is much lower than the national average. Part of the reason, not all of the reason obviously, but part of the reason is (because of) what the state has done,” Vilsack says. “New jobs have been created. There’s no question about that.”

Vilsack suggests the auditor will have a hard time judging the success of the program because many of the businesses are in the construction phase of their expansion plans and haven’t yet hired the staff they’ve promised to hire in order to get the state grant. “It’s probably a good thing that people are asking these questions so that people will know that the Values Fund has actually created opportunities in over 80 counties, that most of the opportunities are not large businesses but many of them are small businesses that employ less than 50 people, that the wage levels are higher and that jobs are — in fact — being created and will continue to be created over a long period of time,” Vilsack said.

“As Wells Fargo gets started, as Allied gets started, all of these things are in the pipeline so it’s going to take a while — obviously — to get all of the jobs to be people actually in a job but there’s no question there’s economic activity. Just look around town.”

Vilsack made his comments this morning in Des Moines after he signed a series of education initiatives into law.

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Group speaks out against repeal of estate tax

June 1, 2006 By

A coalition of Iowa groups and individuals today (Thursday) spoke out against repealing the federal estate tax. Retired Iowa State University ag economist Neil Harl disputes the idea family farms can’t be passed to a descendant because under current law you can inherit up to two-million dollars worth of property — or four-million dollars if you’re a couple — without paying any estate tax.

“I am convinced that it’s a total myth that the federal estate tax jeopardizes farms,” Harl says. “A few years ago I made the statement that I had never seen a farm business that had to be sold to pay federal estate tax. One of the farm organizations put out an all-points-bulletin to try to find at least one in the whole country and they, I understand, did not find one.”

Harl says only the most wealthy estates are subject to the estate tax. Harl says the heirs to the Ted Turners of the world who are buying up large tracts of land in order to create private parks will have to pay a federal estate tax, but not regular Iowans.

Marvin Shirley, a fourth-generation Dallas County farmer who’s a member of the Iowa Farmers Union, says both of his parents died in the past seven years and he didn’t have to pay estate tax on the farm he inherited. Shirley contends it’s a “smoke-screen” to claim that small farmers benefit from the repeal of the federal inheritance tax. “As far as whether my grandson is able to farm or not, inheritance tax is way down the list,” he says.

According to Shirley, health care costs, energy prices and the continued concentration in agriculture are all greater issues that will determine whether his grandson will be able to farm.

Charlie Wishman of the Iowa Citizen Action Network says only three-hundred-57 Iowans paid the estate tax in 2003. “Compared to the other issues that Iowans face — the 44,000 uninsured Iowa children, the 17,942 households that are experiencing hunger, the 4,434 Iowa high school graduates (who) didn’t attend college because of costs — it’s hard to imagine repealing the estate tax as being a top priority for Iowans,” Wishman says.

The U.S. Senate is expected to debate a bill next week that would repeal the estate tax.

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Iowa Business Council issues positive report for rest of year

June 1, 2006 By

Members of the Iowa Business Council say they’re optimistic about the state’s economy for the second half of this year. The I-B-C is a non-profit organization made up of the top executives in the 20 largest businesses in the state. Executive director Elliot Smith says it’s the second consecutive quarter that members expect no decreases in sales, capital investments and hiring.

Smith says the companies are envisioning a very healthy second half of the year and if that persists, it’ll be a very good year. The economic outlook survey says all indicators are projected to stay the same or improve from the last quarters.

Smith says the survey shows 95-percent of their corporate members expect an increase in sales during the third and fourth quarters of this year. Smith says that’s good news for employees, suppliers and everyone. Smith says 58-percent of the I-B-C’s corporate members anticipate a jump in employment levels over the next six months. Fifty-eight percent also expect an increase in capital spending. The survey was taken in the third and fourth weeks in May.

Filed Under: Business

Alcoa reaches tentative contract agreement in Quad Cities

June 1, 2006 By

A tentative contract agreement was reached last night (Wednesday) to avert a potential United Steelworkers strike at one of the Quad Cities’ largest employers. John Riches, spokesman for aluminum maker Alcoa, says the contract covers nine-thousand workers at 15 Alcoa plants, including 16-hundred workers at the Riverdale plant, just outside Davenport.

Riches says the local unions in Riverdale and at the 14 other locations will be scheduling informational meetings and ratification votes over the next week. Details of the new four-year contract have not been released to the public. The tentative deal was reached after a meeting that began around 10:15 Wednesday night and Riches says the previous contract would have expired at midnight.

Riches says everyone worked hard and came right down to the wire and came within an hour and a half of the deadline and finally got an agreement. Another Alcoa spokesman says the proposed contract has a competitive wage and benefits package, a new health care plan and a new pay-for-performance program. The last strike at the Davenport Works was in 1986.

Filed Under: Business
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