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Sunday, April 28, 2019 www.thegazette.com $3.00

TREADING WATER
Iowa state
PUBLIC LAND lawmakers
adjourn in

BUYS AT RISK lengthy cap

to session
Last-minute hot-button
issues bring bumpy close
By Rod Boshart,
Gazette Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES — Iowa law-

makers took their cue from
Saturday’s crosstown Drake
Relays and finished in mara-
thon fashion.
This year’s
104-day session INSIDE
ended after a l Lawmakers
week of long approve
hours of closed- transgender,
door negotia- sex education
tions and floor limits, 2A
debates peppered l Medical
with partisan marijuana
acrimony as Re- expanded
publicans used again, 2A
their 32-18 major- l How key
ity in the Iowa issues fared.
Senate and 53-47 Plus, winners
edge in the Iowa and losers,
House to push 3A
through a con-
servative agenda
and shape a $7.644 billion
budget for fiscal 2020.
Saturday’s waning hours
featured hard-edge battles
over issues that surfaced late
Cliff Jette photos/The Gazette in the process — limiting
Jim Beeghly of Decorah climbs a hill to an observation tower April 18 along a recreation trail that runs through his land near Fayette. Jim and his wife, ;; LEGISLATURE, PAGE 4A
Nina, no longer live on the land, and they would like to sell the property to the Fayette County Conservation board so the entire property can enjoyed
by the public. The couple opposed a bill state lawmakers were considering to limit the level of state help for private buyers of conservation lands. “The
Legislature seems interested in interests other than conservation,” Beeghly said in an interview.

In a state reliant on the farm economy, agriculture

C.R. lawyer
groups stymie purchases involving state fund has no regrets
By Erin Jordan, The Gazette proved a bill making it much more dif-
over same-sex
marriage ruling
F
ficult — if not impossible — for private
AYETTE — Before the March groups to use the state revolving fund
4 sunrise, Jim and Nina to buy land that would later be sold
Beeghly rose in the dark, By Trish Mehaffey, The Gazette
to a public agency, such as the Iowa
put on their warmest clothes Department of Natural Resources or a
to brace for subzero tem- CEDAR RAPIDS — David
county conservation board.
peratures and joined about 50 of their Baker admits he was “terribly
Groups such as the Iowa Natural
northeast Iowa neighbors on a bus ride Heritage Foundation can act quickly to disappointed” when the public
to Des Moines. voted in 2010 to kick him off
purchase land desired for conservation
They weren’t going to sightsee or the Iowa Supreme Court for
and then sell it later to a government
take in a musical at the Des Moines having joined other justices
agency that wants it but isn’t as agile.
Civic Center. in overturning a law banning
The bill is a stripped-down version
The Beeghlys rode three hours to same-sex marriage in the state
of House File 542, which lawmakers
let lawmakers know a bill proposed by scuttled after more than 300 people 10 years ago this month.
Iowa House Republicans and backed “We knew the risk … we
showed up March 4 to oppose it. That
by the Iowa Farm Bureau would take saw the polling but even
bill would have prevented public agen-
away their ability to sell 120 acres of though you know it’s coming,
cies from buying land or even accept-
undulating hills, oak savanna and wet- ing donated land unless a donor paid it’s still shocking,” said Baker,
lands to the county so the land can be 66, who was appointed to the
for upkeep. It also would have ended a
preserved for the public to enjoy. court in 2008 by Democratic
popular tax credit for land donations.
“When I heard they were consider- then-Gov. Chet Culver and
The bills illustrate how political
ing a law that would basically shut now has a mediation practice
influence works in a state shaped by
down our plan for our farm, we didn’t in Cedar Rapids. “But you
large-scale agriculture but facing ma-
like that very well,” said Jim Beeghly, jor environmental challenges. Some can’t allow that to affect how
This red oak is one of 400 red oak seed- you analyze a case.”
77, of Decorah. “The Legislature seems conservation advocates are glad they lings Jim and Nina Beeghly planted on their
interested in interests other than The morning after the reten-
didn’t lose more ground this session, land near Fayette. The trees were purchased
conservation.” tion vote, he was left with the
with Iowa Resource Enhancement and Pro-
The Iowa Legislature last week ap- ;; WATER QUALITY, PAGE 6A tection funds. ;; BAKER, PAGE 11A

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2019
6A The Gazette ● Sunday, April 28, 2019
Jim and Nina Beeghly have worked to reestablish native plants in the prairie, savanna and wetlands on the property near Fayette.
Water quality/‘We’re a farming state’
;; FROM PAGE 1A
but one Republican lawmaker
says it’s just the beginning.
PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE
It started last year when
Sen. Ken Rozenboom, an Oska-
loosa farmer and Republican,
dropped into the budget bill a
yearlong morato-
rium on the state
revolving fund, a
program that pro-
vides low-interest
loans for water
and wastewater
infrastructure
Sen. Ken projects.
Rozenboom Rozenboom’s
R-Oskaloosa rider also re-
quired the Iowa
DNR to inventory all proper-
ties purchased by a public en-
tity with loans from the fund.
“I did that, for one, to call
attention to the use of the state
revolving fund for projects
I believe are questionable,”
Rozenboom told The Gazette.
Rozenboom is glad Iowa is
ranked one of the lowest in the
nation for the share of land
owned by the public. He and
other Republican lawmakers
don’t want groups such as the
Iowa Natural Heritage Foun-
dation to be able to use low-
interest loans from the state
revolving fund to buy land
that later becomes public.
“We’re a farming state,”
Rozenboom said. “Compared
to states that have other natu-
ral resources, mountains and
Soybean group pays price for calling water bill ‘timid’
Lawmakers yank $300,000
from Soybean Association
after public criticism
By Erin Jordan, The Gazette
As far as public criticism, it makers last year that Leeds,
was mild.
The Iowa Soybean Associa- tion for 26 years, should be
tion issued a statement Jan.
23, 2018, quoting
Chief Executive
Officer Kirk Leeds
saying a water
quality funding
bill approved by
the Iowa Legisla-
ture was “timid”
Kirk Leeds and only “nib-
Iowa Soybean bling around the
Association edges of what’s
truly needed.”
But that was enough to
anger Rep. Norlin Mommsen,
a DeWitt Republican who
grows corn and soybeans
near Miles. Mommsen printed Committee last year, agreed.
the Soybean Association
statement and carried it
around the Statehouse in
January 2018 to show other
Republicans.
State Revolving Fund land purchases
This map shows the number of acres in each county purchased by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation with
low-interest loans from the State Revolving Fund from 2006 to June 30, 2018. The Iowa Legislature passed a bill last
week that would end this practice, except in very narrow circumstances.
25 to 368
LYON OSCEOLA
SIOUX O'BRIEN
PLYMOUTH CHEROKEE
WOODBURY IDA
MONONA
HARRISON
POTTAWATTAMIE
MILLS
FREMONT
Source: Iowa Department of Natural Resources
deserts, that’s not who Iowa is.
That 3 percent doesn’t mean a
lot to me. It makes sense we’re
relatively low.”
Iowa’s share of land owned
by federal, state and local gov-
ernment ranges from 1 per-
“My concern about the Soy-
bean Association is after we
passed it (Senate File 512), he
wrote a piece basically trash-
ing it,” Mommsen told The
Gazette earlier this year.
Mommsen told other law-
who led the Soybean Associa-
fired.
“I got an indi-
cation that he was
rogue from the
board of direc-
tors,” Mommsen
said. “I’m a soy-
bean grower also,
and if he’s doing
Rep. Norlin something con-
Mommsen trary to what the
R-DeWitt board of directors
is, then I have a
problem with that.”
Rep. Lee Hein, a Monticello
farmer and Republican who
led the House Agriculture
“I question whether they
truly listened to the board or if
it was staff-driven,” he said of
the statement.
Leeds told The Gazette the
Cliff Jette/The Gazette
Cattlemen’s Association. They
say nonprofits that buy land
and later sell it to the state or
counties make it more difficult
for young farmers to buy their
first parcels for corn, soy-
beans, cattle or hogs.
As early as 2016, Farm Bu-
378 to 683 684 to 1,021 1,022 to 1,804 reau delegates included in a
list of policy priorities ending
DICKINSON EMMET KOSSUTH WINNEBAGO WORTH MITCHELL HOWARD WINNESHIEK ALLAMAKEE tax breaks for Iowans who
donate land to state, county or
CLAY PALO ALTO HANCOCK CERRO GORDO FLOYD CHICKASAW local government, according
FAYETTE CLAYTON to a 2017 Des Moines Register
article.
BUENA VISTA POCAHONTAS HUMBOLDT WRIGHT FRANKLIN BUTLER BREMER
“Government incentives for
donations eliminates oppor-
WEBSTER BLACK HAWK BUCHANAN DELAWARE DUBUQUE tunities for young farmers,”
SAC CALHOUN HAMILTON HARDIN GRUNDY
Iowa Farm Bureau President
Craig Hill told the Register. “A
TAMA BENTON LINN JONES JACKSON lot of our young farmers think
CRAWFORD CARROLL GREENE BOONE STORY MARSHALL
Cedar Rapids it’s wrong.”
CLINTON
Hill declined The Gazette’s
CEDAR request for an interview until
SHELBY AUDUBON GUTHRIE DALLAS POLK JASPER POWESHIEK IOWA JOHNSON
SCOTT after the Legislative session.
Iowa City For a group that touts its
MUSCATINE
ADAIR WARREN MARION MAHASKA KEOKUK WASHINGTON grass-roots support, the Farm
CASS MADISON
Bureau has not turned out
LOUISA
actual farmers who aren’t law-
MONTGOMERY ADAMS LUCAS MONROE WAPELLO JEFFERSON HENRY
makers to speak about why
UNION CLARKE
DES MOINES
the law should be changed.
WAYNE APPANOOSE DAVIS VAN BUREN
In fact, the only two people to
PAGE DECATUR
TAYLOR RINGGOLD
LEE speak in favor of HF 542 at the
March 4 meeting were Farm
Bureau lobbyists.
David Trowbridge, presi-
Gazette graphic dent of the Iowa Cattlemen’s
Association, which represents
cent to 3 percent, depending 1 percent of land owned by the “nearly 10,000 Iowa beef-pro-
whether government build- federal or state government. ducing families and associated
ings are counted. An analysis companies,” told The Gazette
by the National Resources UNFAIR COMPETITION? his organization would “like
Council of Maine in the early Only two groups registered to see land in Iowa remain in
2000s ranked Iowa at 49th in support for HF 542: The Iowa private hands.”
the nation with just over Farm Bureau and the Iowa ;; WATER QUALITY, PAGE 7A
Soybean Association board state funding for the On-Farm Network, allowing only a
previously had agreed to sup- Network, a program that helps $100,000 one-year payment as a
port House File 612, an alter- farmers gather data to better concession.
nate water quality funding bill manage nitrate fertilizer ap- Mommsen and Hein said
that focused on watersheds plication on their cornfields. they were leveling the play-
and included urban-rural More precise application ing field among commodity
partnerships. Still, Mom- means less money spent on groups.
msen’s comments at the State- fertilizer and less excess ni- “The rest of the commodity
house caused Leeds to hold a trate washing into lakes and groups were doing good things
closed-session meeting with waterways. without our support,” Hein
his board, which ultimately “We leverage those funds said. “It’s our job as legislators
backed the leader. from the state to generate to set the budget and prioritize
It isn’t the first matches from other funding the needs of Iowans. There
time the Soybean organizations,” Research Di- was a higher need someplace
Association has rector Ed Anderson said. else to spend the money.”
diverged from the Kirkwood Community But Mommsen said Leeds’
majority of Iowa’s College has worked with the critique of the water quality
agricultural Soybean Association for the bill factored into his decision.
groups, including past two years to test differ- “I’m sure their opinion of
Rep. Lee Hein the Iowa Farm ent nitrate applications to see the water quality bill played a
R-Monticello Bureau and the which get the best yields with part,” he said.
Iowa Corn Grow- the least nitrate. Leeds said he’s been work-
ers Association. In March 2018, the Agricul- ing this year with lawmakers,
“We tend to be more pro- ture and Natural Resources including Mommsen, to find
gressive about research, es- Appropriations Subcommit- other funding sources for the
pecially on water quality, and tee, chaired in the House by On-Farm Network, which has
that has caused some disagree- Mommsen, indicated to the been forced to reduce nitrate
© 2019 The Gazette
ments,” Leeds said. Soybean Association the fund- strip trials because of the state
Lawmakers didn’t get Leeds ing was at risk. budget cut. “No one else is do-
fired, but there were other The 2018 budget bill, passed ing research like this,” Leeds
levers to pull. on the last day of last year’s said. “We have to find funding
The Soybean Association session, eliminated line-item that allows us to look at the
had received $400,000 a year in funding for the On-Farm system.”
 Sunday, April 28, 2019 ● The Gazette 7A

Water quality/Purchasing for conservation

;; FROM PAGE 6A
The Cattlemen’s group is
concerned state and county
governments don’t have
enough money to maintain
public lands, which could lead
to eroded soil that doesn’t sup-
port livestock grazing.
Colby Holmes, 47, of Mount
Ayr, in southwest Iowa, has a
story he thinks underscores
why changes are needed in
Iowa’s public land laws.
Holmes, a Farm Bureau
member who grows corn and
soybeans and raises Angus
cattle, recently planned to
help his 19-year-old son buy
land in Ringgold County, he
told The Gazette. There were
two 76-acre tracts for sale at
an estate auction in March,
according to DreamDirt
auction website.
The parcel Holmes pre-
ferred sold for $2,575 per acre,
which still was too expensive
for his son, he said. The other
parcel brought $4,300 per acre. A snowy egret takes flight April 18 from a pond on the property of Jim and Nina Beeghly near Fayette. The pond is the mail messages or an email
“That piece over there was
bid on by local neighbors, but
they were ultimately outbid
by the Iowa Natural Heritage
Foundation,” Holmes said. He
contends the higher sale price
shows conservation purchases
inflate the cost of farmland
and pastureland over what lo-
cal farmers can afford, he said.
The Natural Heritage
Foundation disputes Holmes’s
account, saying at least two
other bidders wanted to buy
the land at comparable prices
and an independent appraisal
showed the parcel was worth
$4,300. The land is ideal for
conservation because it’s nev-
er been plowed and is adjacent
to the Kellerton Wildlife Man-
agement Area, Foundation
President Joe McGovern said.
The state revolving fund
was not used in making the
purchase.
BEST USE OF LAND
Since 2006, the state revolv-
ing fund has been used to
purchase about 11,000 acres
for about $52 million, an aver-
age of about $4,700 per acre,
according to the Iowa DNR
inventory. This is far less than
the $7,264 per acre average
Iowa farmland sold for from
November 2017 to November
2018, according to the 2018
Iowa State University land
value survey.
“This is not prime farm
land,” Patti Cale-Finnegan
said of land purchased for con- western Iowa farms have sus- Secchi said. “That’s why this
servation. She managed the
revolving fund from 2004 to
2018. “It’s land that often has River, the Iowa Farm Bureau
wetlands on it. A lot of times
it’s next to wildlife manage-
ment areas that have already
been established.”
The Natural Heritage Foun- graphical and sustainability
dation also has bought land
in the flood plain, sold off by new limits on the loan fund.
moving from the farm to
Decorah in 2014.
“I told him not to worry,
that we could always come
back here,” she said.
“If this deal goes through,
that will always be the case,”
added Rod Marlatt, Fayette
County Conservation director.
FARM BUREAU’S INFLUENCE
Lawmakers don’t know or
won’t say who wrote HF 542
and Senate File 548, which has
passed both chambers and is
awaiting Gov. Kim Reynolds’
signature.
Iowa DNR officials and the
Natural Heritage Foundation
think the bill probably would
prohibit most of the ways the
nonprofit now is using the
fund to buy land for water
quality projects.
Rep. David Sieck, a Glen-
wood farmer and Republican
who sponsored the House bill,
Cliff Jette/The Gazette has not returned three voice-
largest of five wetlands the Beeghlys built on their farm with financial assistance from government groups, including the from The Gazette. He also did
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. not respond to a request to see
drafting notes for the bill.
Rozenboom, who intro-
The retirees have spent duced the Senate bill, declined
Farm Bureau campaign contributions more than $25,000 returning to share his drafting notes but
the land to its natural state by said Farm Bureau lobbyists
removing undergrowth and made clear the organization’s
The Iowa Farm Bureau contributed $291,700 to Iowa political candidates in seeding native prairie plants,
2018, with 94 percent going to Republicans, according to reports filed with the planting trees and shrubs and priorities in terms of limiting
public land purchases.
Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board. Here are the top 20 recipients: building five wetlands that “They presented things
now host animals including to me and I took what I saw
RECIPIENT CITY PARTY ELECTION TOTAL Canada geese, ducks, leopard as the most obvious thing to
frogs, chorus frogs and, on a work on right now,” he said.
Kim Reynolds Des Moines R Governor (won) $50,000 recent visit, a snowy egret. “That’s how it works. Every-
The couple has been aided body does that. Is it a Farm
Mike Naig Urbandale R Ag Secretary (won) $50,000
by groups that include the Bureau wish? Yeah. But it’s
Jack Whitver Ankeny R Senate 19 (won) $14,500
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, my wish.”
Shannon Latham Sheffield R Senate 27 (lost) $11,000 Natural Resources Conserva- The Iowa Farm Bureau is a
Chris Cournoyer LeClaire R Senate 49 (won) $10,500 tion Service, Fayette County tax-exempt organization with
Kevin Kinney Oxford D Senate 39 (won) $7,500 and Pheasants Forever. $1.72 billion in assets, its most
The Beeghlys’ wetlands recent Form 990 tax report
Peter Cownie W. Des Moines R House 42 (lost) $7,000
Louis Zumbach Coggon R House 95 (won) $7,000 filter water from their neigh- states. The organization’s rev-
bors’ corn and soybean fields. enue for the year that ended
Tod Bowman Maquoketa D Senate 29 (lost) $6,500 This is important because
Oct. 31, 2017, was $90.3 million,
Roby Smith Davenport R Senate 47 (won) $6,500 nitrate and phosphorus wash- mostly from investments and
Norlin Mommsen DeWitt R House 97 (won) $6,000 ing from farmland across the income from Farm Bureau
David Kerr Morning Sun R House 88 (won) $6,000 Midwest into the Mississippi Life Insurance Co. The Farm
Tim Kraayenbrink Fort Dodge R Senate 5 (won) $6,000 River is causing an oxygen- Bureau’s expenses that year
deprived dead zone in the Gulf were $31.7 million.
Ross Paustian Walcott R House 92 (won) $6,000 of Mexico. The nutrients also
The Farm Bureau paid 20
Zach Nunn Altoona R Senate 15 (won) $5,500 have caused harmful algal employees more than $100,000
Julian Garrett Indianola R Senate 13 (won) $5,500 blooms in some of Iowa’s in 2017, including President
Gary Carlson Muscatine R House 91 (won) $5,000 recreational lakes. Hill, who received $590,460
Rick Bertrand Sioux City R Senate 7 (lost) $4,500 A 2.5-mile paved trail in compensation and Don
Walt Rogers Cedar Falls R House 60 (lost) $4,500 through the Beeghly farm Petersen, director of govern-
takes cyclists, runners and ment relations, who received
Ashley Hinson Marion R House 67 (won) $4,000 walkers from Fayette to the $1.2 million.
banks of the Volga River. The The Iowa Farm Bureau
Source: Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board Gazette graphic couple granted an easement contributed $291,700 to
for the trail and for a lookout Iowa political candidates in
farmers tired of years of crops “Some farmers may say tower at the high point of the 2018, with 94 percent going
being ruined by flooded riv- ‘For fair market value, I would property. to Republicans, according
ers and streams. This spring, be willing to sell my land,’ ” The Beeghlys offered to sell to reports filed with the
their farm to Fayette County Iowa Ethics & Campaign
tained up to $2 billion in dam- bill is so silly. It’s not like they at a discounted rate, taking ad- Disclosure Board. The biggest
age from the swollen Missouri are using eminent domain. vantage of the state tax credit beneficiaries were Reynolds
You are taking that tool away on the donated portion. The and Agriculture Secretary
reported. from communities.” county is applying for a state Mike Naig with $50,000 each,
That is one reason Silvia grant to buy the land, which Senate Majority Leader Jack
Secchi, a University of Iowa ‘WE COULD ALWAYS would be used for educational Whitver with $14,500 and
associate professor in geo- COME BACK HERE’ programming. candidate Shannon Latham
Jim and Nina Beeghly Nina Beeghly said one of with $11,000.
studies, is frustrated about the bought their Fayette County her grandsons cried when he
farm in the early 2000s. learned his grandparents were ;; WATER QUALITY, PAGE 8A

ABOUT THESE STORIES

Erin Jordan of The Gazette is researching
and reporting on the progress — or lack of
progress — in reducing the flow of nitrate
and phosphorus into the Mississippi River
and other lakes and rivers during a nine-
month O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service
Journalism at Marquette University in
Milwaukee.
Because Iowa’s state revolving fund
provides low-interest loans for water quality
and water infrastructure projects, Jordan
spent the past four months investigating
the politics behind bills to prohibit use of
this fund by nonprofit groups, such as the
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, to buy
land later sold to government agencies for
conservation.
Jordan talked with eight current and
former state lawmakers, a half-dozen
Iowans who sent letters to legislators
about the bills, agency leaders,
conservationists, a commodity group
and water quality experts to write these
articles. She also reviewed more than
1,000 pages of emails from the Iowa
Department of Natural Resources and Iowa
State University about past water quality
legislation.
Marquette University and administrators
of the program played no role in the
reporting, editing or presentation of this
project.

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© 2019 The Gazette

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8A The Gazette ● Sunday, April 28, 2019
Water quality/Farm Bureau donations
;; FROM PAGE 7A
Latham, co-owner and
vice president of Latham
Hi-Tech Seeds, failed to
unseat incumbent Demo-
crat Amanda Ragan in
the November election in
north-central Iowa.
The Democrat who got
the most campaign cash
from the Farm Bureau in
2018 was Kevin Kinney,
an Oxford
farmer and
former
Johnson
County
sheriff’s
deputy, at
$7,500. He
Sen. Kevin defeated an-
Kinney other farm-
D-Oxford er, Heather
Hora, last
fall for Senate District 39.
Kinney is the only
Senate Democrat who
voted for the public lands
restriction bill.
“I probably got a little
different perspective
on it since I’m the only
farmer on the Demo-
cratic side,” Kinney said.
“I’m not saying what
the land trust is doing is
wrong. I just don’t think
we should be funding a
private entity to be going
against the taxpayers.”
Kinney said he worked
with Senate Republicans
to keep the tax credit for
land donations. He also
pushed an amendment
that said the revolving
fund could grant loans to
private groups if the land
had been out of produc-
tion for 10 years, but the
amendment didn’t pass.
Last year, the Iowa
Farm Bureau created
Iowans for Agriculture, a
527 political organization
it used to buy more than
$200,000 in television ads
in the Cedar Rapids/
Dubuque/Waterloo
market to promote
Naig’s campaign for ag
secretary, Iowa Starting
Line reported in October.
Naig, a former Monsanto
lobbyist, is a Republican.
“Iowa farmers and
agribusiness will benefit
for years to come if this
campaign is successful,”
according to a fundrais-
ing memo obtained by
Starting Line.
The memo from Pe-
tersen lists water qual-
ity, soil conservation,
value-added agriculture,
livestock production and
biotechnology as issues
Naig could influence.
Iowans for Agricul-
ture’s postelection
report, posted Dec. 6 on
the IRS website, lists
$335,000 in payments to
broadcast stations and
Victory Enterprises, a
Davenport-based com-
munications firm that
makes television com-
mercials.
The group paid an-
other $50,000 in Octo-
ber to the Republican
Downtown Fayette can be seen from the property of Jim and Nina Beeghly near Fayette. The couple plans to sell their land to Fayette County at a discounted rate so the
land can be used for recreation and education.
“I want to have
professionals
and I want to
have citizens
of Iowa make
decisions
for Iowa, not
politicians.”
Matt O’Connor, Pheasants
Forever
Governor’s Association
“in support of efforts to
bolster Gov. Reynolds
election.”
Contributors to the
fund include the Farm
Bureau, Monsanto, Iowa
Corn Growers Associa-
tion, Iowa Turkey Feder-
ation, Iowa Select Farms,
Agribusiness Association
of Iowa and Kent Corp.
‘PROBABLY ISN’T
THE END OF IT’
Groups that go against
the Farm Bureau’s legis-
lative priorities face po-
tential repercussions.
When Iowa Soybean
Association Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer Kirk
Leeds criticized a 2018
water quality funding
bill supported by all the
other agriculture groups,
including the Farm
Bureau, the Soybean As-
sociation lost $300,000 in
state funding for farm
demonstration projects.
Rep. Norlin Mom-
msen, a DeWitt farmer
Cliff Jette/The Gazette
and Republican who
chairs the House Agri-
culture and Natural Re-
Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino
YOUR BEST DEALS ARE NOW!
sources Appropriations
Subcommittee, told The
Gazette that Leeds’ state-
ments factored into the
cuts.
FROM Cedar Rapids, IA
339
“I’m sure their opin-
ion of the water quality
to Laughlin, Nevada
bill played a part,” Mom-
msen said. But “it was $ on the Banks of the Colorado River
more of not trying to
play favorites.”
AIR & ROOM MAY 20 thru 24
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this year’s public lands PACKAGES Monday–Friday
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Pheasants Forever has RiversideResort.com
spent years advocating
for a sales tax increase
to fund Iowa’s Water and
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created in 2010 by refer-
endum but not funded.
Matt O’Connor, habi-
tat team coordinator,
said the Farm Bureau
has falsely inflated how
much money from that *Prices are per person. Based on double occupancy. Single occupancy $50 additional charge. Includes
program could be used roundtrip airfare, taxes, fees, ground transfers and hotel lodging at the Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino.
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“Through their lobby-
ists, through legislators,”
he said of how the group
spread misinformation.
“I want to have profes-
sionals and I want to
have citizens of Iowa
make decisions for Iowa,
not politicians.”
Rozenboom said he’s
not done looking at state
conservation policy.
“Senate File 548 prob-
ably isn’t the end of it. I
have a lot more things I
want to look at.”
l Comments: (319) 339-3157;
erin.jordan@thegazette.com
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