(Radio Iowa) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says former President Trump should show up next week to a debate in Iowa. C-N-N announced Trump, DeSantis and Haley had met the polling requirements to be included in the network’s debate that’s scheduled for January 10th. “He was invited. He declined. I’m debating Nikki Haley. And what does he do? He schedules a town hall on Fox News to compete with the debate that we’re going to be doing,” DeSantis says. “Why would you not just show up to the debate at that point?”

Trump’s town hall on Fox and the DeSantis-Haley debate on C-N-N will air at exactly the same time next Wednesday night. Vivek Ramaswamy says he’ll tape a town hall with podcaster Tim Pool that will also air at 7 p.m. next Tuesday.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic City Administrator John Lund was under the weather for this evening’s (Wednesday’s) City Council meeting, but he pushed through, donning a mask and gloves, saying he was “miserably sick,” but nevertheless optimistic for the start of the new year, budget-wise. He updated the Council on the City’s potential health insurance renewal costs.

Lund shared some positive news with regard to the Local Option Sales Tax revenue from November and December 2023 holiday shopping season.

Overall, he said, Atlantic is running “at pace or ahead of where we were last year. That will be reflected in the revised estimate. The rest is a good-news/bad news situation. The good news is, that the Assessed Property Valuations are in.

The bad news is while Iowa lawmakers have nearly unanimously approved a massive property tax bill on both sides of the aisle, which they claim will make Iowans’ tax payments more manageable, the bill consolidates 15 existing Iowa city levies into one General Fund system. For cities, the bill which was sent to Governor Reynolds’ desk, caps levies for cities at $8.10 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. For counties, it’s capped at $3.50/$1,000. Rural services levies are capped at $3.95/$1,000. The bill also requires local governments to put any surplus revenue from assessment value growth, toward lowering their levy. Lawmakers estimate the total tax cuts to Iowa property owners at upwards of $100-million. John Lund said “The legislature got what they wanted.”

He said that’s much lower than what he was basing his budget projections on.

Lund said “That’s not a lot to work with.” The General Fund helps to pay for many city operations, including the police and fire department, ambulance service, airport, library, the pool and much more. Despite the dire news, Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett remained optimistic.

Lund added the legislatures action won’t affect on the City’s economic development projects this year.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, approved First Whitney Bank & trusts as the City’s official bank for the City Checking Account in 2024, and the Atlantic News Telegraph as the City’s Official Newspaper for legal publications in 2024.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds didn’t share any clues about her tax and spending plans as she hosted an online hearing about the state budget today (Wednesday). Groups that have lobbied for tax cuts in the past used the forum to make the case for deeper reductions. Chris Hagenow is president of Iowans for Tax Relief.

“Clearly there is significant room to continue to lower income tax rates,” Hagenow says. “…Excited to see what you might have planned for us going forward.” Tyler Raygor, state director for Americans for Prosperity, says it’s reasonable to accelerate the plan to shrink down to a three-point-nine percent flat income tax.

“Moreover, we would support you, Governor Reynolds, and the legislative leadership in crafting a strategic path toward the complete elimination of the income tax,” Raygor said. “This bold move would make Iowa an attractive destination for businesses  and individuals seeking a state committed to fostering economy freedom.” Mike Rozenboom, legal counsel for the Iowa Bankers Association, says Iowa is in a well-positioned to both cut taxes and spend money on affordable housing, child care, education and other quality of life initiatives.

“Tax relief and a robust budget will mean more money is being invested in communities across the state,” Rozenboom says.  Matt Everson, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, says his members want to pay less taxes. “To let them keep their own money, to let them spend that in their communities, on their own employees and what not,” Everson says.

Reynolds will deliver the annual “Condition of the State” address on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and release her state budget plan that evening. During the event two years ago, she called on legislators to pass a flat income tax and is likely to reveal her latest tax cutting goals next Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who bought electric vehicles last week may have qualified for a 75-hundred-dollar federal tax credit, but that credit evaporated when 2024 arrived. The Inflation Reduction Act aims to shift battery production from China and incentivize production in the U-S, so cars with Chinese-made batteries aren’t eligible. Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association, says the regulatory hiccup will have a short-term impact on buyers, but he anticipates E-Vs only becoming more available across the state.

“They’re there and they’re ready and they’ve been getting ready for the past couple of years,” Anderson says, “but the credit piece is changing.” If you priced electric vehicles last year but held off buying until now, you may be surprised to find the popular Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model 3 have lost eligibility for the big tax credit.

“They really changed at the stroke of midnight New Years Day,” he says. “There were vehicles on the showroom that qualified on December 31st that didn’t qualify on January 1st.” Major U-S car manufacturers are adjusting their supply chains to comply with the changes, but in the meantime, the list of vehicles eligible for the tax credit decreased from 43 to 19. Anderson says as car manufacturers shift their supplies, that eligibility number will rebound.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report an alleged shoplifter crashed a vehicle Tuesday night, in an attempt to flee from the crime scene at the Creston Wal-Mart Store. The incident happened at around 8:25-p.m.

Authorities say 24-year-old Wiley James Lewallen, of Riverside, CA, entered a 2006 Chevy Cobalt registered to a woman from Cromwell and took-off. The vehicle traveled northeast through the parking lot at a high-rate of speed before striking a curb and going airborne. It continued through the air until the vehicle crashed through a chain link fence, and entered a small retention pond. No tire tracks were observed by officers in the grass from the curb and chain link fence. Lewallen got out of the car and fled on foot. The vehicle sustained $3,500 damage.

Photos from the Creston Fire Dept. Facebook page

Creston Fire and Medic 1 crews responded to the scene. A fire crew donned cold water immersion suits to search the vehicle’s interior and the water surrounding the vehicle. The vehicle was determined to be unoccupied, and was towed out of the water. As mentioned in our prior report, 48-year-old Jennifer Suzanne Donez, of Cromwell, and 24-year-old Wiley James Lewallen, were arrested early Wednesday morning in the 1700 block of W. Townline Road.

Both were charged with Interference with Official Acts and Provide False Identification. Donez and Lewallen were being held in the Union County Jail, with bond set at $600 each.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna, Wednesday, said a Special Election will take place on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, to fill three positions on the Coburg City Council. The polling location will be at the Stanton Community Building for those who reside in the City of Coburg. The polls will be open from 7-a.m. until 8-p.m. Feb. 6th.

Ozuna says any voter who is physically unable to enter the polling place has the right to vote in the voter’s vehicle. For further information, please contact the County Auditor’s Office at 712-623-5127.

Iowa Law allows eligible persons to register and vote at the polls on Election Day. An Election Day registrant must provide acceptable proof of identity and current residence in the precinct. Voters choosing this option should plan to take a few extra minutes for the transaction.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County (Iowa) Sheriff Darby McLaren, Wednesday (1/3/24), issued a statement announcing he will not be running for re-election in the Fall of 2024. The statement is shown below:

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s top election official is proposing uniform rules for election recounts and is asking legislators to beef up his training budget for election workers.

Secretary of State Paul Pate said Iowa is one of the top states in election integrity and random audits in all 99 counties of the 2023 city-state elections found results were 100% accurate. “But you can’t just rest on your laurels. There’s got to be constant work to improve on what we’re doing,” Pate said during an interview with Radio Iowa. “…The real frontier that we’re seeing right now that we have to step up to is helping our poll workers.”

Thirty of Iowa’s 99 county auditors will be overseeing their first election in 2024 and Pate wants uniform training for them and for the Iowans who will be working in their local precincts this year. “We’ve got roughly 10,000 Iowans who are standing up for us to run those elections on election day. Those are the folks that your friends and neighbors…who’ll check you in, make sure you are where you’re supposed to be, making sure you have your ballot, making sure everything is done properly,” Pate said. “That’s a pretty heavy role when you’re talking about the 1600+ precincts across the state, so we want consistent training.”

Secretary of State Paul Pate spoke with Radio Iowa on Jan. 3, 2024. (RI photo)

Pate plans to hire more staff to accomplish that. Pate’s bill for uniformity in recounts would allow larger counties to have more than just three people on the county’s recount board. Pate said the 2020 recount of an Iowa congressional race — ultimately decided by six votes — illustrated the flaws in current law.

“This is a big election and if there’s any kind of a recount necessary at all, we need to be prepared,” Pate told Radio Iowa.

The bill Pate proposes also calls for all ballots to be accounted for in a recount. There were four recounts in a 2022 race for a seat in the Iowa House and the Scott County Auditor reported different absentee vote tallies as ballots were counted by hand and by machine. “If there were 5000 votes cast in that precinct or that county, we have to show through our process where those 5000 votes went. You don’t get to home and go: ‘Well, sorry. We can’t find those 250,’” Pate said. “No, no.”

Pate’s plan calls on recount boards to choose one form of counting — either by machine or by hand — before the counting begins.

(Radio Iowa) – The final tallies are in, and state climatologist Justin Glisan says 2023 is going down as one of Iowa’s warmest and driest years in more than 150 years of record keeping. Glisan says when you average out the temperatures over 365 days, it’s rare for Iowa’s year-long average temperature to vary by even one-degree above or below the previous year, but that changed during 2023. “We were over two degrees above average,” Glisan says, “so that was looking at the rankings that we have, it’ll be in the top 20 warmest years on record, again going back to 1872.”

As 2023 concluded, he says it ended 182 consecutive weeks of at least D-1 moderate drought in some part of the state. That’s more than three-and-a-half years of continuous drought and some sections of the state have very dry conditions. “We have widespread drought, a large D-3, which is on that scale of D-0 to D-4 for extreme drought, a large swath in eastern Iowa,” Glisan says. “Precipitation deficits within that D-3 region, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches below average just for the year.”

Justin Glisan (Photo courtesy Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship)

The only corner of the state that recorded above-average precipitation during 2023 was northwest Iowa, which saw between one and three inches more than the norm. However, he says the rest of the state was exceptionally dry. “Overall, if you look at the statewide average, about 27 inches, with the average just a little over 35-and-a-half inches,” Glisan says, “so about nine inches below average, and looking at the rankings, it’ll be in the top 25 driest years on record.”

After three consecutive La Nina winters, we’re now in an El Nino pattern, which Glisan says tends to bring the Midwest warmer temperatures in addition to wetter conditions. Glisan says Iowa had a bit of a snow drought last month. “Climatologically December is the snowiest month for Iowa,” Glisan says. “The preliminary statewide average is 1.4 inches. That’s 6.5 inches below average.” Despite the lack of snow, December was one of four months out of 2023 that wound up with ABOVE average precipitation. “A majority of our precipitation was rainfall and that rainfall was gradual over several days and it was able to soak in,” Glisan says. That’s because December temperatures were above average, keeping the ground from freezing solid.

Glisan says there is a storm system in the Pacific Ocean that’s headed east and the long-term forecast indicates it may bring rain and snow to Iowa as early as this weekend. Glisan cautions, though, that the storm system could weaken as it makes landfall on the west coast and moves across the Rockies.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature say a proposed constitutional amendment is on hold as they wait for an Iowa Supreme Court ruling on Iowa’s six-week abortion ban. Jack Whitver is the Republican leader in the Iowa Senate…. “We passed the ‘Heartbeat’ bill last year. That is going through the court system right now. I don’t know when that decision will come out and that might have an impact on what we do, but right now plan to let the courts sort that out before we move anything further,” Whitver says.

In 2021, Republicans approved language that declares the Iowa Constitution does not recognize, grant or secure the right to an abortion — but it would have to be approved again this year for it to be voted on in November. House Speaker Pat Grassley says the issue is tied up in the courts and Republicans in the House will decide how to proceed on the proposed amendment after a ruling is issued. “We’ve been consistent as we’ve had a majority for 10 years that we’re a pro-life caucus, so it’s nothing that we’ve ever shied away from,” Grassley says.

House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst suggests Iowa Republicans are putting their proposed amendment on hold after seeing similar amendments fail in Kansas and Ohio. “If their issue is so popular, why aren’t they willing to take it to the voters?” Konfrst says. “Let’s see what the voters say.” Konfrst and other Democrats in the legislature say if they win a majority of seats in the House and Senate, they’ll propose a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights. Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum says if the court rules the six-week abortion ban should take effect, state officials need to be clear about how it will be enforced.

“I have heard from a lot of health providers who are not happy at all about the Board of Medicine’s proposed rules,” Jochum says, “and I think they will continue to get a lot of feedback from doctors in our state who do not agree with how they’re approaching this.” Jochum says the proposed rules do not spell out the penalties for doctors who perform abortions that fall just outside of the guidelines related to medical emergencies and in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormality.