A $1 Billion Down Payment on the Nutrient Reduction Strategy – Use the surplus in Iowa’s treasury
Iowa released its draft nutrient reduction strategy in 2012. Since then, dealing with high levels of nutrients in Iowa’s waters has been an on-going issue, plagued by the lack of financial resources. It has been estimated that the cost of implementing the Nutrient Reduction Strategy is 5 billion dollars.[1] Finding a source for that amount of money has been challenging.
During a recent Iowa Press program, Speaker of the Iowa House Pat Grassley pondered how the $1 billion surplus in the state treasury could be spent.[2]
Here’s an idea – put the 1 billion dollars to work on the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Currently the $1 billion is parked in a fund called the taxpayer relief fund. But with a simple bill before the Iowa Legislature that money could be transferred to support the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Contact your legislators and let them know that the money that is residing in the taxpayer relief fund should be transferred to support the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Contact both of your legislators and ask that they support using the $1 billion surplus on the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Email, address, and phone number for Representatives
Email, addresses, and phone numbers for Senators
Each state in the Mississippi River watershed is responsible for reducing their share of nutrients being sent to the Gulf of Mexico; that is what led to Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The national goal is a 45% reduction by 2035 with an interim goal of 20% reduction by 2025. 2025 will arrive soon; 2035 is not that far way. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do in reducing nutrients. The longer we wait, the harder it will be the meet the goal. But by investing $1 billion toward that effort in 2022, we will move a long way toward reaching both the interim and the long-term goal.
Using the taxpayer relief fund for the first billion dollars for the Nutrient Reduction Strategy is an easy solution. What’s more, that first billion dollars was raised without any painful tax increases.
Some may say that the taxpayer relief fund should be used for taxpayer relief. However, we, the taxpayers, are going to pay for the Nutrient Reduction Strategy one way or another. This fund is already available and provides a nice down payment.
It is time to get serious in implementing Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It makes sense to use the taxpayer relief fund for the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Sources
[1] Perry Beeman, “Experts: Fixing Iowa waterways will take legislation, legal action and $5B”, Iowa Capital Dispatch, June 18, 2021
[2] Iowa Press, Iowa PBS, September 24, 2021, www.iowapbs.org/iowapress/story/39214/rep-pat-grassley
