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Conservation trust fund amendment to go before Iowa voters
Iowans rarely get a chance to vote on a constitutional change directly related to the environment, but they will for the first time in more than a decade on Nov. 2.
Buried in most counties on the back of the general election ballot - somewhere around the list of judges - voters will find Question 1: Iowa's Water and Land Legacy Amendment. If approved, the change would establish a trust fund to pay for new trails, wetlands, soil-conservation efforts and outdoor recreation projects. A simple majority is needed to pass.
The issue is two-pronged.
A "yes" vote would create the protected fund, but put no money into it. Supporters hope a future Legislature will take the next step - raising the sales tax. State law would then funnel the equivalent of a three-eighths of 1 percent sales tax into the fund, an estimated $150 million a year. Private donations could be deposited, too.
Supporters of the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund say it would improve water quality, save soil and help restore grasslands needed to return Iowa's shrinking pheasant population to levels that made it a draw for hunters years ago.
"I firmly believe this is the most important vote I and other Iowans will ever have for conservation," said Sean McMahon, state director for the Nature Conservancy and one of the campaign's leaders. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to increase funding for clean water, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat, and making sure Iowa has a strong and sustainable economy for current and future generations."
Some 130 organizations representing 300,000 hunters, anglers, paddlers, farmers, sheriffs and clean-water advocates have waged a relatively quiet campaign focused on core backers but also reaching out to all Iowans, McMahon said.
There has been little organized opposition to the plan, which has been a decade in the making. A few church groups have questioned how a sales-tax increase might affect low-income families.
Though a range of agricultural groups support the measure, delegates of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation passed a resolution opposing the trust fund. That's because there is no guarantee that lawmakers wouldn't someday decide to use money raised by the new sales tax - but not yet deposited in the account - for other things, said Rick Robinson, Farm Bureau environmental policy adviser.
And the group wonders if the environmental initiatives are a bigger priority than, say, education.
Members of Iowa's Water and Land Legacy, the group pushing for the trust, just finished a 60-stop media tour. The group launched an elaborate website and a grass-roots letter-writing campaign and plans TV spots.
The state has more than 500 seriously polluted waterways. An average acre of farmland loses 5 tons of soil a year. Also, Iowa ranks nearly last among states in spending on conservation.
The money would pay for voluntary programs. None would be used to pay for regulatory work, McMahon said.
Lawmakers wouldn't be able to use the account for anything but the uses detailed in a spending plan the Legislature approved last session. Two-thirds of the money could go to farmers and other landowners willing to establish wetlands and grasslands that would reduce runoff and serve as wildlife habitat.
Lawmakers last year agreed that the new spending would be in addition to what already is appropriated for those projects. The fund would be subject to regular, public audits.
In 1996, voters approved an amendment to keep budget-troubled lawmakers from diverting hunting and fishing fees for expenses that had nothing to do with wildlife habitat.
In 1991, then-Gov. Terry Branstad tried to divert hunting and fishing license fees to the general fund. Branstad later supported the amendment to guarantee the money would go to wildlife-related work.
Larry Wilson was director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources then. The department runs a system of wildlife reserves and programs that depend on hunting and fishing license fees and federal taxes on guns and fishing equipment.
Wilson said the new trust fund is a good step, though he worries that backers may have tried to solve too many problems at once.
"It's a good move forward," Wilson said. "I just hope the uses aren't so broad that it doesn't meet the needs that come up."
Matt O'Connor of rural Hopkinton has been hunting and fishing in Iowa for decades. His sons became so frustrated at the lack of pheasants here, O'Connor took them last Christmas to South Dakota, home to a far bigger population of the birds.
O'Connor said Iowa would fare far better with more public lands. As it is, the state ranks nearly last.
"Our pheasant population had a catastrophic drop in the past five years," said O'Connor, who is Iowa conservation director for Pheasants Forever.
"People are worried, and they should be," he said. "It doesn't just mean we have fewer pheasants. It says a lot of about our landscape."
Iowans rarely get a chance to vote on a constitutional change directly related to the environment, but they will for the first time in more than a decade on Nov. 2.
Buried in most counties on the back of the general election ballot - somewhere around the list of judges - voters will find Question 1: Iowa's Water and Land Legacy Amendment. If approved, the change would establish a trust fund to pay for new trails, wetlands, soil-conservation efforts and outdoor recreation projects. A simple majority is needed to pass.
The issue is two-pronged.
A "yes" vote would create the protected fund, but put no money into it. Supporters hope a future Legislature will take the next step - raising the sales tax. State law would then funnel the equivalent of a three-eighths of 1 percent sales tax into the fund, an estimated $150 million a year. Private donations could be deposited, too.
Supporters of the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund say it would improve water quality, save soil and help restore grasslands needed to return Iowa's shrinking pheasant population to levels that made it a draw for hunters years ago.
"I firmly believe this is the most important vote I and other Iowans will ever have for conservation," said Sean McMahon, state director for the Nature Conservancy and one of the campaign's leaders. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to increase funding for clean water, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat, and making sure Iowa has a strong and sustainable economy for current and future generations."
Some 130 organizations representing 300,000 hunters, anglers, paddlers, farmers, sheriffs and clean-water advocates have waged a relatively quiet campaign focused on core backers but also reaching out to all Iowans, McMahon said.
There has been little organized opposition to the plan, which has been a decade in the making. A few church groups have questioned how a sales-tax increase might affect low-income families.
Though a range of agricultural groups support the measure, delegates of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation passed a resolution opposing the trust fund. That's because there is no guarantee that lawmakers wouldn't someday decide to use money raised by the new sales tax - but not yet deposited in the account - for other things, said Rick Robinson, Farm Bureau environmental policy adviser.
And the group wonders if the environmental initiatives are a bigger priority than, say, education.
Members of Iowa's Water and Land Legacy, the group pushing for the trust, just finished a 60-stop media tour. The group launched an elaborate website and a grass-roots letter-writing campaign and plans TV spots.
The state has more than 500 seriously polluted waterways. An average acre of farmland loses 5 tons of soil a year. Also, Iowa ranks nearly last among states in spending on conservation.
The money would pay for voluntary programs. None would be used to pay for regulatory work, McMahon said.
Lawmakers wouldn't be able to use the account for anything but the uses detailed in a spending plan the Legislature approved last session. Two-thirds of the money could go to farmers and other landowners willing to establish wetlands and grasslands that would reduce runoff and serve as wildlife habitat.
Lawmakers last year agreed that the new spending would be in addition to what already is appropriated for those projects. The fund would be subject to regular, public audits.
In 1996, voters approved an amendment to keep budget-troubled lawmakers from diverting hunting and fishing fees for expenses that had nothing to do with wildlife habitat.
In 1991, then-Gov. Terry Branstad tried to divert hunting and fishing license fees to the general fund. Branstad later supported the amendment to guarantee the money would go to wildlife-related work.
Larry Wilson was director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources then. The department runs a system of wildlife reserves and programs that depend on hunting and fishing license fees and federal taxes on guns and fishing equipment.
Wilson said the new trust fund is a good step, though he worries that backers may have tried to solve too many problems at once.
"It's a good move forward," Wilson said. "I just hope the uses aren't so broad that it doesn't meet the needs that come up."
Matt O'Connor of rural Hopkinton has been hunting and fishing in Iowa for decades. His sons became so frustrated at the lack of pheasants here, O'Connor took them last Christmas to South Dakota, home to a far bigger population of the birds.
O'Connor said Iowa would fare far better with more public lands. As it is, the state ranks nearly last.
"Our pheasant population had a catastrophic drop in the past five years," said O'Connor, who is Iowa conservation director for Pheasants Forever.
"People are worried, and they should be," he said. "It doesn't just mean we have fewer pheasants. It says a lot of about our landscape."