Iowa Representative Phil Thompson. Photo courtesy of Iowa Legislature website

A bill in the Iowa House that was passed last week would extend the sunset date on the sales tax for school infrastructure.

House File 546 passed 96-3 to extend the sunset date for the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) funds to 2051 and allow public school districts access to the state one-cent sales tax for school infrastructure projects, and now it’s headed over to the Senate. However, it didn’t pass unanimously and one of those dissenting votes was District 47 Representative Phil Thompson, R-Jefferson. He defends his “no” vote saying the distribution mechanism for SAVE is unfair between urban and rural school districts.

“Brick and mortar cost the exact same in Greene County (School District) as it does in Waukee School District and yet they have more money than they can keep track of. And back here we’re jumping through all kinds of hoops and leaning on property taxpayers harder and harder to provide the schools that we do need. It was breaking my heart and I fought really, really hard to come up with a better funding formula, a better disbursement formula for the SAVE revenue. And the version that came before us for a vote had distributed the revenue on a per pupil basis and I couldn’t support it.”

Even though the House bill is now over in the Senate, the Senate is working on their own version, which is in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.