Logo belongs to Fund The Trust

There is a proposal from Senate Republicans regarding the next steps with the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, as an Iowa legislator gives her input.

District 14 Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott says some Senate Republicans are proposing a bill to repeal and replace the Natural Resources and Recreation Trust Fund with a fund that would focus on lowering property taxes. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that she was initially shocked to hear about the proposal. 

She describes that about 15 years ago, a constitutional amendment was passed by voters with 63 percent to establish the trust fund, allowing for three-eighths of one cent from the state sales tax to be used for natural resources and recreation needs. Trone-Garriott notes that over that 15 year period, the amendment hasn’t been funded. She stresses that it’s causing a lot of frustration for supporters of the amendment that the request is not being met, and is now in jeopardy of being replaced.

“It’s just like an inappropriate switcheroo happening here, and it just kind of keeps passing the buck down to a different group of folks. And so, we’ve seen a lot of shifting the burden of taxes from the wealthiest paying income tax to the middle class by putting all this pressure on property taxes and now they’re trying to push it even lower to some of the people that are working hard, but might not make ends meet. They spend all their money and it’s going to impact them with sales tax, so that’s going to disproportionately hurt folks who are on the lower end of the economic spectrum.”

Trone-Garriott reveals that there is a fear from some of the general public that if money was spent to support the Natural Resources and Recreation Trust Fund, then it would be used to buy farm land and remove it from farmers. She states that public land is not a threat, and instead should turn the attention over to maintaining farm land, as much of it is now being developed into housing.