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Landfill lawsuit against DNR could be dropped

September 24, 2009 By

A lawsuit filed against the Iowa Department of Natural Resources by three of the state’s landfill operators could soon be dropped. The federal government passed rules requiring liners in all landfills to protect ground water in the mid-1990s, but the state did not begin enforcing them until 2006.

Landfill operators in Dallas, Page, and Des Moines counties, who had already been issued permits by then, think they should be exempt. Alex Moon, with the DNR, disagrees. “When you put garbage into a landfill you have contaminates that can leach out of it. Water comes in contact with waste and the stuff that comes out the other end contains a bunch of toxins,” Moon said.

“If you don’t have a liner system, that liquid will just slowly go down through the clay underneath to where the garbage is and then the groundwater sits down below there.” Vicki Moorhead operates the South Dallas County landfill in Adel (Ay-DELL). She doesn’t agree with the way the D.N.R. implemented changes but says a solution will likely be worked out before the case goes to court.

“We’re working it out. I think things are going to work out where both parties will be satisfied…we’ll either put a liner on the abutment side or do some extra work on the side that butts up against the old unlined area,” Moorhead said. Representatives from the DNR say they also think an out of court solution will be found. As a result of the state enforcing federal rules, 15 of the 60 landfills operating at the time shut down and another 15 made major adjustments.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Environment & Conservation Tagged With:

First Black Business Summit set for Friday in Des Moines

September 24, 2009 By

The state’s first “Black Business Summit” is set for Friday in Des Moines. Only about two percent of the small businesses in Iowa are owned by blacks, one of the lowest rates in the nation. One of the presenters at the summit, Debra Carr with the Des Moines office of Iowans for Social and Economic Development, says that percentage needs to increase for the good of the state.

Carr says, “If we’re able to strengthen and encourage more African-American business owners to strengthen their business and grow, that creates more jobs and opportunities and contributes to the economic tax base across our state.” Carr says many blacks could end years of economic struggle by starting their own companies.

“When you look at the distribution of assets and wealth and parity issues historically over time, African-Americans are in the same place in terms of asset acquisition as they were back in the 1800′s.” Carr plans to present legislators with material delivered at the summit and ask them to remove any remaining barriers to the establishment and growth of black businesses in Iowa.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Iowans urged to take part in National Family Day

September 24, 2009 By

Studies find kids are more likely to stay out of trouble when they sit down to a nightly dinner with their parents. Kent Bailey, a leader of the Power Up Youth Coalition in Webster City, is urging families across Iowa to share their evening meals together next Monday, as part of National Family Day.

“The more that children and teenagers eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use illegal drugs and it’s just that simple,” Bailey says. “We are encouraging families to come together and have a meal together.” Between sports, academics and our jobs, Bailey acknowledges it can be a challenge to get the whole family to the table at dinnertime.

“It’s tough,” Bailey says. “We’re a fast-paced society and kids are out doing activities, parents are out doing activities and work and it’s hard to come together but we hope that everybody will make an extra effort to come together and eat on Monday evening.” The Webster City group got an anonymous donation to help promote the effort throughout Hamilton County.

The organization will donate $1,000 for after-school programming to the county school building with the highest percentage of households taking a pledge to have at least four family meals together every week for three months. For more information, visit “www.casafamilyday.org“.

Contributed by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Human Interest

William Penn looks to go 3-0 Saturday

September 24, 2009 By

The William Penn football team will bid for a third consective victory on Saturday night when the Statesmen host Trinity International. Penn is 2-2 after a wild 35-30 win over Quincy last weekend in which they rallied in the final moments. William Penn coach Todd Hafner says the team found out that no matter what the situation and how much time is on the clock, they have a chance to win. He says the team stepped up when Quincy went ahead instead of losing their steam.

Hafner who feels experience showed in the final minutes, as the team is older and has been preparing for these situations for there or four years. He says older teams tend to win the closer games.

Hafner is not concerned that his team will be looking past a Trinity International ballclub that is off to an 0-4 start. He says the game was 25-24 last year so they know what the team can do. Hafner says Trinity plays hard and his team knows that and has done a good job of preparing well to get ready for Saturday.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With:

Critic welcomes new scrutiny of state tax credits

September 24, 2009 By
Joe Bolkcom

Joe Bolkcom

A long-time critic of state tax credits welcomes the new scrutiny that’s being focused on all tax credits, courtesy of a controversy in the Iowa film office. 

Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, is the chairman of the Iowa Senate’s Ways and Means Committee which writes and reviews state tax policy. Bolkcom says state tax credits had been on “automatic pilot” until this past spring when the governor and legislature put some “caps” or limits in place on several credits.

“How do you have an open checkbook on state spending in these areas?” Bolkcom says.  “It makes no sense.” 

Nineteen of the state’s 28 different kinds of tax credits now have a cap. It is a new limit on the state tax credit for movie productions, however, which prompted the rush from film makers to secure the credits before the new restriction took effect on July 1st. Bolkcom wants the state to create a website where Iowans can see who got what credit — and how many jobs were created.

“We’re throwing around several hundred million dollars here with inadequate oversight, in my judgment,” Bolkcom says.

Bolkcom notes legislators were fiercely criticized by business groups for voting this past spring to disclose the names of businesses that get a check of $500,000 or more from the state’s “research activities tax credit.” 

 ”Over the last three or four years there’s been a number of pieces of legislation dealing with transparency and more accountability that we’ve had an extremely hard time moving,” Bolkcom says.

Many of the state’s tax credits have nothing to do with business.  For example, there’s a state tax credit for parents who buy textbooks for their kids, or who pay tuition to send their children to private schools.

“We need to sit down and spend some time going through these,” Bolkcom says. 

At least seven state agencies are responsible for administering state tax credits.  In addition to the Department of Revenue, agencies ranging from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs to the Iowa Agricultural Development Authority to community colleges are given authority to award tax credits.

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

IDED says 109 have applied for film tax credits

September 24, 2009 By

A spokesperson with the Iowa Department of Economic Development says applications for 109 film projects [Download Excel file]  in Iowa have been approved to receive tax credits. However, Erin Seidler says those are only applications, not contracts, so the state is not under any obligation to those projects – even if they’re already filming in Iowa.

“The productions may move forward before they have a contract with the state and that is their option to do that,” Seidler told Radio Iowa. “But, it does not mean they have a guaranteed contract with the state because their application was approved.” Most of those 109 film projects are counting on the tax credits at the end of production.

Meanwhile, there are 26 projects that do have signed contracts with the state and are due to receive an estimated $78-million in tax credits. Nearly two dozen other projects have been completed and awarded tax credits. Seidler says tax credits worth $32-million have been issued to 22 film projects.

The state is investigating alleged abuse of the tax credit program by movie makers and if contracts were improperly approved by a state employee. Iowa Film Office manager Tom Wheeler was fired earlier this week. The director and deputy director of the IDED, which has oversight of the Film Office, have both resigned.

“As we’re moving forward in this investigation and we are handling some of the issues that were going on in the Iowa Film Office, we want to make sure it’s clear what the actual liability is to the state of Iowa at this point and it is just to those projects that are under contract,” Seidler said.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment Tagged With:

Smokeshop owner wonders what’ll be taxed next

September 24, 2009 By

One northeast Iowa smokeshop owner says the F.D.A.’s ban on cigarettes containing candy or fruit flavors has him wondering what is going to be next. The president of the National Cigar Store in Waterloo, John Eveland, says he didn’t sell a lot of candy-flavored cigarettes. He says pipe tobacco has become a popular seller for people to use to make homemade cigarettes.

“The thing that’s been our savior has been the pipe tobacco, and the pipe tobacco is just like roll your own (cigarettes), only it’s not taxed as much. And you can still roll your own for about 11 dollars a carton. So, this is a category that’s growing, but who knows, the government will probably step in and tax that just like they do roll your own tobacco,” Eveland says.

There’s been some discussion of banning menthol cigarettes, but Eveland predicts that won’t happen. “I’d be very surprised if they do I think menthol is a very very good seller, lots of people would be impacted but who knows with the F.D.A. what’s gonna happen, ” Eveland says. Eveland says the menthol customers tend to be older and the ban on candy and fruit flavors is an effort to keep kids from starting to smoke.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:
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