(Spirit Lake)– With the beginning of another session of the Iowa Legislature now just days away, local lawmakers are weighing in with what they see will be priority issues. State Representative John Wills of Spirit Lake tells KUOO news one of those is intended to address the needs of employers and workers in the state…
“And that will include workforce housing and daycare and anything to go along with workforce development in the state of Iowa. We’ve tackled some education things in the last few years, but we still have to tackle a few of the more intricate details as far as getting people to immigrate to the state of Iowa and become productive workforce members.”
Wills says an increase in the sales tax also appears likely…
“I’ve been very involved in working with the group of people dealing with atleast the 3/8ths portion of the sales tax increase and maybe a penny. And then, you know, using the other portion of that penny to reduce taxes and some other things that are kind priority type issues. So I see that as an issue that I think has a lot of legs, has a very good chance of moving forward and especially if we would do a penny sales tax increase that would include the funding for IWLL which is the Iowa Water and Land Legacy. I think that is a very good possibility this year, along with more tax reform and other kind of issues like that.”
Wills adds of the legislative sessions he’s been involved in, he’s probably looking forward to this one the most…
“I’ll be sworn in and elected as the next Speaker Pro Tem on Monday and I’m looking forward to that and sitting in the Speaker chair for a good portion of the year. It will be a new experience for me and just honored that my peers in Des Moines have found that I would be a good person for that position and so I’m honored by that and I’m honored to have served five years here in northwest Iowa as House District 1 Representative.”
The Iowa Legislature will be gaveled into session Monday.
