Legislative Issues

Contact your congressional leaders

Sample Letter

Dear Iowa Congressional Delegation:

We are writing to you regarding the time sensitive need to retroactively extend the bio-diesel tax incentive.

The federal bio-diesel tax incentive lapse is having a severe impact on our state. We understand that in addition to the hardships we are facing here in Iowa, there are more than 23,000 jobs at risk nationally.

Now, more than ever, this industry and these green jobs need your support. We urge you to enact a retroactive extension of the bio-diesel tax incentive as soon as possible.

Local bio-diesel leaders have confirmed that since its enactment in 2004, the bio-diesel tax incentive has achieved its desired goal of increasing the domestic production and use of bio-diesel. When the incentive was enacted, the U.S. produced 25 million gallons of bio-diesel. That number rose to 690 million gallons in 2008.

Since the credit was allowed to lapse, bio-diesel prices cannot compete with heavily subsidized petroleum, and production and use of the fuel has nearly come to a halt.

In Iowa, Maple River Energy, Western Iowa Energy, REG Ralston, REG Newton, Iowa Renewable Energy, and Western Dubuque Bio-diesel have all been forced to lay off employees following the bio-diesel tax credit’s expiration. Without the credit in place, each day that goes by puts more local green jobs and local investments in peril.

We respectfully request that you take all steps necessary to reinstate the bio-diesel tax incentive in short order. In addition, we urge you to continue to push for the adoption of a five-year extension of the bio-diesel tax incentive that would prevent the current situation from happening in the future.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request and for your attention to this critical issue.

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• Iowa school aid formula already generates $380 million in state aid and property taxes to pay for special education.  The $40 million deficit that automatically raises property taxes is what districts spent above and beyond the $380 million.
• Up until 2008, the deficit hovered around $20 million. In 2008, it jumped to $31 million and in 2009 to $40 million.
  
• Iowa also gets $120 million in federal money for special education but little of that is made available for Iowa school districts to spend.
• Today, there are 4,500 fewer students enrolled in special education than five years ago.
• But today there are 1,275 more teacher’s aides assisting teachers with their classroom than five years ago. Many teacher’s aides are funded with special education dollars.
• Iowa’s image as a high performing state doesn’t match the fact that 12.7 percent of Iowa students are in special education. The national average hovers around 13 percent.

Clearly students come to school with more diverse needs than they did 10 years ago. Teachers must first manage disruptive classroom settings and then get down to the business of teaching. And, for example, Iowa’s fastest growing population, foreign born students, often lack language as well as basic learning skills.

Every facet of Iowa education is at a crossroads. K-12 education , in particular, struggles to update itself and to cope with our changing dynamics. A $40 million special education deficit is just another indicator.

In the State Government Reorganization Bill (SF 2088), the legislature called for a comprehensive study of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs). The study needs to examine how Iowa serves special education students. After all, the vast majority of Iowa’s $120 million in federal special education money is funneled to the AEAs or is spent by the Iowa Department of Education.

It is time to air the not-so-great facts and then seriously look for creative, workable, student-focused decisions.