May 23, 2012

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Governor’s symposium to focus on teachers as school leaders (audio)

May 21, 2012 By

Governor Terry Branstad

Iowa’s governor will host a one-day education “symposium” this summer, part of his push to get legislators to embrace changes in the way teachers are paid.

Governor Terry Branstad says the event will focus on ways to give teachers leadership roles, outside their classrooms.

“Principals alone cannot provide all the leadership that’s needed inside our schools to continually improve education and raise achievement for our students,” Branstad says.

Last fall Branstad proposed then tabled a three-tiered system for the teaching profession. It started with apprentice teachers who would move on to become career teachers, then a few would become master teachers. The ultimate goal is to cut the tie between pay and tenure and, instead, link pay to performance. Iowa Department of Education director Jason Glass says raising base pay for educators and increasing pay for teachers who volunteer to take on additional responsibilities are part of that conversation.

“This is about honoring the teaching profession,” Glass says, “creating pathways through the teaching profession that don’t all lead to exit ramps from teaching when you want to grow professionally, which is where we currently are.”

However, Branstad says not all education reform ideas are about money.

“If we’re going to be successful, we’re going to have to have a really great teaching force out there,” Branstad says. “They’re going to have to assume more leadership roles and principals need to work with them, collaborate with them. They need to provide leadership, but they also need to share that leadership and not be threatened by teachers playing important leadership roles as well.”

Branstad has referred to the education reform bill he received from the 2012 Iowa legislature as merely a “first step.” This summer’s symposium is part of Branstad’s plan to build public support for those additional steps.

“This is going to be a full-court press,” Branstad says.

The symposium focused on principal and teacher collaboration will be held August 3 at Drake University.

Branstad and Glass made their comments this morning during the governor’s weekly news conference.

AUDIO of news conference

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

Governor says Racing and Gaming Commission should decide Lamberti’s fate (audio)

May 21, 2012 By

Jeff Lamberti

Governor Terry Branstad says it’s up to members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to decide if a drunk driving arrest disqualifies someone from serving as the commission’s chairman.

Commission member Jeff Lamberti is in line to become the panel’s chairman this summer. He was arrested for drunk driving in Des Moines on Friday night. The governor was asked about the situation this morning during his weekly news conference.

“First and foremost, I think it’s a tragic thing that’s happened. He’s taken full responsibility for it, which I think it an important first step,” Branstad told reporters. “The decision as to who becomes chair of the commission is really up to the commission itself.” Lamberti is a former state legislator who served a Republican leader in the state senate.

He was the GOP’s nominee for congress in 2006 against Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell of Des Moines. “Jeff has had a long and distinguished career in state government,” Branstad said. “I know that he feels very bad about this terrible mistake that he’s made and he knows that there will be consequences for that and he’s taken full responsibility and I think that’s important and then I think it’s up for the commission to decide who should become chair of the commission.”

Branstad has not yet talked with Lamberti, but plans to hold a “personal” conversation. “I think he needs to take responsibility for this and he has,” Branstad said. “And then I do intend to visit with him and find out if he does intend to continue to serve and then it’s up to the commission to determine if he should be the chair.”

Police found an open container of what smelled like liquor in Lamberti’s vehicle, along with a nearly empty bottle of whiskey. Lamberti initially told cops he had two beers Friday night, then said he’d had four, then six. His blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

Lamberti, who is a lawyer, is president of the Iowa Barnstormers. He also has led the effort to save the U.S.S. Iowa battleship from the salvage yard. His father started Casey’s General Stores.

Audio of the governor’s remarks on this subject, made at the end of his weekly news conference, can be found here.

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

Iowa’s governor headed back to China

May 19, 2012 By

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is headed back to China at the end of May. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Iowa in February to reminisce with Iowans who hosted him in their homes and businesses in 1985 when Xi was part of a Chinese delegation visiting Iowa. Now, Xi has a reunion planned in China.

“He’s invited the old friends he met here in ’85 and myself and (Iowa Economic Development Authority director) Debi Durham to come over there and be there the 29th of May through the 5th of June,” Branstad says. “I’m very excited about this. This is where the future is and where we have an opportunity to market our products.”

Branstad will also attend the opening of Vermeer’s new manufacturing plant in Beijing. Branstad says officials with the Pella-based company tell him about 500 Vermeer employees in the U.S. are making components that will be shipped to China for use in that factory.

“We’re also going to visit our sister-state, Hubei Province, and Shijiazhuang (district),” Branstad says. “Xi Jinping was in charge of the feed association in Shijiazhuang when he came to Iowa in 1985.”

This is Branstad’s fourth visit to China, but he first met the man who is likely to be China’s next president in his own office in Des Moines. It was in ’85, during Xi’s visit to Iowa. This past February, Xi lauded China’s “flourishing” trade ties with Iowa.

“According to some statistics, in the last decade Iowa’s exports to China have grown by almost 13 times and a large number of Iowa businesses – the Principal Financial Group, the Pioneer seed company and others – are performing well in China,” Xi said, through an interpreter, during a formal “state dinner” at the Iowa capitol.

Xi told the crowd Iowa “stands at the forefront” of relations between China and the U.S.

“I hope Iowa will take an active part in economic, trade and investment cooperation between China and the United States,” Xi said in Des Moines in February. “China will actively encourage our enterprises to make investments in Iowa and to contribute to the creation of local jobs.”

Branstad says this latest invitation to China is a “positive” sign.

“It gives Iowa an opportunity to continue to build on our long-standing, friendly relationship with the biggest country in the world,” Branstad says.

Xi is expected to become China’s next president, but the exact timing has not been announced, only that it will happen anytime between July and December.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government Tagged With:

Governor: “next year’s the year” to raise state gas tax

May 18, 2012 By

Governor Terry Branstad says raising the state’s gas tax or “user fee” for the state’s transportation system should be on the legislature’s agenda in 2013.

“I think next year’s the year to do it. Now, already since the (2012) legislature adjourned we’ve seen the price of gas drop significantly,” Branstad says. “The biggest problem with doing it this year was the extremely high price of gas, but I’ll tell you, I saw in Bondurant the other day on the way back from Marshalltown gas at $3.27 and 9/10ths.”

Branstad appointed a task force last year to study the state of Iowa’s roads and bridges. The group recommended raising the state tax gas, but Branstad rejected the idea and, instead, asked the director of the Iowa Department of Transportation to find $50 million in savings within the agency’s budget to redirect to road construction and repairs. Branstad says he’s confident his fellow Republicans in the legislature will embrace the idea of raising the gas tax next year.

“Listen, along with comprehensive tax reductions, I think we can,” Branstad says.

Republican legislators have already started talking about reducing the state’s income tax next year and the GOP pledges to continue its push to cut commercial property taxes. Branstad says coming up with a “fair and equitable system” for financing roads and bridges should include ensuring electric cars and vehicles that run on natural gas “pay their fair share.”

“I also think that whatever’s done should be phased in over a period of time,” Branstad says.

In the just-concluded 2012 legislative session a bipartisan group of lawmakers tried but failed to win passage of a plan that would have phased in a gas tax increase up to a dime a gallon over the next two of three years. The group got significant push-back from the auto industry over provisions that would have raised the registration fees for hybrid vehicles, electric cars and vehicles that run on natural gas. Branstad suggests a fee based on the mileage might be one answer.

“If we do that in conjunction with comprehensive tax reform, you can actually show that people will pay less taxes,” Branstad says, “and the people that will pay more in user fees are the ones that are going to get the benefit of better roads and bridges.”

Branstad made his comments late this morning at Iowa Public Television where he taped an appearance on IPTV’s “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight at 7:30.

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

Bill waiting for governor’s approval would crack down on “storm chasers”

May 18, 2012 By

A bill awaiting Governor Branstad’s review would establish new requirements in hopes of cracking down on so-called “storm chasers.” Consumer complaints about contractors who ride into town after a tornado or other disaster, but provide substandard or no repairs at all prompted legislators to draft the bill.

Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, says if the bill becomes law, contractors will have to provide a written document to the home owner, spelling out how the deal may be cancelled. “It requires contractors to provide notice to the person that is receiving the repair, the residential homeowner, prior to them entering into a contract,” McCoy says.

The lettering on that document is to be “at least 10 points” high and in “bold” which means it can’t be tiny, unreadable type at the bottom of the page. Contractors could also get into trouble for misleading marketing to home owners. McCoy says there are some common tricks.

“Misrepresenting themselves as a negotiator or an adjuster on a claim,” McCoy says. If the bill becomes law, it would be illegal for a contractor to offer a rebate or reduction on the cost of repairs that’s equal to the homeowner’s insurance deductible.

The bill also stipulates a homeowner who receives notice from their insurance company that the repairs are not covered by their home owner’s policy have three days to notify the contractor they want to cancel the work.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News, Politics & Government, Weather Tagged With: , ,

Garden hose causes significant damage in Urbandale home

May 17, 2012 By

A top city administrator in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale is dealing with thousands of dollars in water damage to his home. Randy Peterson of the Urbandale Police Department says it’s “clearly” a case of vandalism.

“Absolutely — there’s no accident involved in this,” Peterson says. “In my seven years of being with the Urbandale Police Department, I don’t remember anyone ever doing something like this and causing that much damage.”

Someone ran a garden hose into the home of Urbandale city manager A.J. Johnson. It happened yesterday, sometime between 7:40 in the morning and 5:15 in the afternoon. As for the point of entry into the house, authorities aren’t saying.

“We do know how the water damage took place, with the water hose, but we’re not releasing that at this time,” Peterson says.

Police are offering a cash reward to anyone who calls in a tip that leads to a conviction in this case. Peterson says investigators don’t know if the motive may have been retribution for some sort of city decision.

“We can’t speculate at this point if someone was upset over something that’s going on currently or in the past,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is get anyone from the public’s assistance in trying to identify who did this or what group may have been involved so we can hold them accountable for their actions.”

Carpeting and dry wall in the home will have to be replaced, but a damage estimate is not yet available.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

Bill makes “good start” at limiting city, county taxing districts

May 17, 2012 By

Peter Fisher

A retired University of Iowa professor who’s taught classes about how governments finance infrastructure projects says a bill that cleared the 2012 Iowa legislature is merely a start at controlling special taxing districts that critics say cities and counties are abusing.

 Economist Peter Fisher says there are “some good parts” to the legislation which addresses what are called “Tax Increment Financing” districts.

“The reporting requirements are quite strong and needed in a program that’s as confusing and complex as TIF,” Fisher says. “Taxpayers need to be able to figure out what’s going on and this should help a lot.”

And, according to Fisher, the bill also makes a start at preventing local governments from using these financing schemes to lure businesses out of other Iowa cities. But Fisher faults lawmakers for failing to put any limits on the scope of these special districts.

Cities, for example, are able to declare an area of the city as a “tax increment financing district” and, after businesses pop up in the area, all the new property tax revenue is diverted to pay for other improvements — not just streets, but even swimming pools in some instances.

“I think we can hope that the reporting requirements will lead to a broader understanding of TIF and pressure for more significant reforms of TIF the future,” Fisher says.

Fisher is research director for the Iowa Policy Project and he’s written an analysis of this particular piece of legislation for the Iowa Fiscal Partnership. The bill is not yet law. It’s awaiting Governor Branstad’s signature or veto.

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