Around Des Moines

(Des Moines, IA, May 5, 2008) Ask your elected officials if it is okay to use a cash advance check from one of your credit cards to pay the minimum amount due on another card. Then ask that same official if it is okay to use funds from one source of government to pay for a project by another level of government. Most likely the elected official would express concern about the former and praise for the latter. Yet, in the end, the source of all those government funds is the same: the taxpayer. In theory and in practice, I favor using taxes from one source to pay for essential needs in another part of a jurisdiction. For example, I have no problem with some of my federal tax dollars earned in Iowa going to pay for food stamps in Louisiana. However, I have major objections to one level of government telling me something is free because another level of government is paying for it.

Take the new D-Line shuttle that starts today in Des Moines as an example. This shuttle will run from the Des Moines Public School’s Central Campus at about 18th and Grand to the state Capitol at approximately East 13th and East Grand. The shuttle will run the loop in approximately 10-minute intervals, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. It will be free to riders. In contrast, riders of the regular DART buses that cover that same run and a few additional blocks on their regularly-scheduled hourly runs, from approximately 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 7:00 to 6:00 on weekends, will see the fare for that zone go from $0.25 to $0.50 on June 1, 2008. DART and city officials sing the praise of this new simple-and-free shuttle. Alas, whether a regular DART route bus or a shiny new downtown shuttle, you and I are the ones paying the price and it is not free.

Similarly, I was not happy when the state legislature passed the $0.01 property tax/school construction bill this past session. If that sales tax were a permanent source of funding for operations of schools, I would have been a supporter. As it is, the construction tax bill has consequences not mentioned by its proponents. Yes, money from retail-rich parts of the state will help construct school-related buildings in less well-financed districts. However, if those districts do not vote in favor of the new school construction, they can use that money to lower property taxes that are already lower than those in many retail-oriented metropolitan areas. In other words, residents of Des Moines who shop within the city may soon be paying for property-tax reduction of corporate hog confinements across Iowa. Furthermore, another expense of the housing bubble was that governmental projects also cost more as construction workers and building materials went to residential construction, thereby raising prices for all projects. That means the General Assembly increased the cost of the Polk County courthouse reconstruction, should voters approve it at a later time. (Supporters of a new courthouse have been arguing since their defeat that the voters’ rejection of their plan increased the cost by millions of dollars due to the inevitable delay. One more thing on that school bill. Many of Des Moines’ big companies that supported Project Destiny have offices in those smaller communities whose property taxes may be reduced thanks to the state legislature.)

The April 2008 Polk County courthouse vote also suffered from the fact that it was about the prison system, something most people do not think about on a regular basis, unlike the sales taxes associated with Project Destiny. Why should county voters be taxed for something they don’t think they will use? I noticed that in the media discussions about the courthouse vote, the voices that were missing included jurors’ experiences, plus witnesses and victims who had to appear in court, a grieving survivor who had to struggle with probate, and even ex-offenders who were transported between the county jail and the courthouse. How would they improve the facilities? It is also possible that money being spent on new prisons in Iowa helped defeat the courthouse vote, at least subconsciously, but I don’t think that would have been a major factor in anybody’s decision.

The final part of this commentary is the tax levies themselves. I took a look at the levy maps and tables available on the county auditor’s website and was surprised at how much variation there is even within the city of Des Moines. A quick look at the table shows a range of rates from just over 25.13, including a sanitary sewer charge, in parts of Windsor Heights in the West Des Moines school district to over 49.92 in Des Moines in the SE Polk schools district.

M.R. Field was editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.  

As Week 14 of the Iowa State legislature’s 2008 session ended I was gleeful that certain legislation had been called dead. Then some of those bills were passed the next week. Week 15 saw the 100th day of the session on Tuesday, April 22nd, and the end of the session on Friday, April 25th. (The Senate adjourned at 2:32 a.m. and the House at 2:38 a.m.) The 100th day is important because that is the last day when legislators are paid a per diem for travel and other expenses. Now that the legislative session is over, Gov. Chet Culver has 30 days to either sign or to veto bills sent to him. If Culver does not sign or veto a piece of legislation, that bill becomes law without his signature at the end of the 30 days.

Following the legislative session for these AroundDesMoines.com weekly recaps reinforced what I had learned from other projects. Much of what we call news is merely the reporting of news releases or other formal statements (e.g., House Journals and floor debates). Moreover, there are many more actions and events generating news than can possibly be included in any newspaper or in any broadcast times slot or on any broadband page. Much of what I, as a private citizen, needed to know could be learned by looking at the General Assembly’s website three or four times a week. However, ordinary citizens do not have the time to look at all the legislation introduced, assigned to committees, put on floor calendars, and sent to the governor. In addition, the priorities placed on the various bills was something not possible to ascertain just from the official record. This is where reporters on the scene were useful.

In the list of enrolled bills (those that passed both chambers of the legislature) for 2008, there are 82 bills originated in the House and 86 bills originated in the Senate. In addition, there are three joint resolutions that originated in the Senate. Two of the resolutions give permission for wine and/or beer to be served on the Capitol grounds during specific ceremonial events. The third resolution is for a constitutional amendment related to funding for natural resources. Look for the latter resolution to appear again next year when a new General Assembly begins. Iowa’s constitution requires proposed amendments to be passed in two consecutive General Assemblies before going before voters.

Just because the legislators have headed home does not mean their work is done. There are studies the legislature authorized and elections to be held. Stay in the habit of checking the General Assembly’s website while the legislature is not in session. Interesting information can still be posted there.

I know my coverage of the legislative session was not as extensive as I would have liked but I hope that I helped Iowans better understand what happens during the session, when it happens, and why. I’d like to hear what people thought about news coverage of the session in general.

M.R. Field covers local events for AroundDesMoines.com. 

Today, April 22, 2008, is Equal Pay Day. This date symbolizes how far into 2008 women must work, on average, to earn as much pay as men earned in 2007. Started by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996, Equal Pay Day is held each year on a Tuesday to symbolize how far into each week women must work to earn as much as men were paid the previous week. Equal Pay Day is an echo of Tax Freedom Day, which is a registered trademark of the Tax Foundation.

Tax Freedom Day represents the day, on average, when Americans have worked long enough to pay their taxes for the year. The Tax Foundation also includes information on how many days Americans work to earn money to spend money on clothing, recreation, food, and other items. In 2008, Tax Freedom Day falls on April 23rd. According to the Tax Foundation 2008’s day arrives three days earlier than in 2007 due to economic stimulus checks and a slowing economy.

The 2007 Supreme Court decision against Lilly Ledbetter offers a stark reminder of the long-term damage lower wages earned by women have over the course of their lifetimes. Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for pay discrimination but the Court ruled that the discrimination occurred too many years ago for the suit to be valid. Yet, many women do not discover pay discrepancies until years after the first act. After a decade of raises, bonuses, and cost of living adjustments based on a percentage of pay, that first pay check gap will grow dramatically. Add in calculations for lost contributions to retirement funds and spare cash to invest and the wealth gap also grows.

Imagine a man makes $25 per calendar quarter but a woman makes only $20 and both started their jobs in January 1995. By December 1995, the man would have $100 but the woman would not have $100 until March 1996. By December 1996, the man would have another $100 but the woman would have to wait until June 1997 for hers. By the end of 2005, the man would have $1,100. The woman will still be working for that amount until December 2008. In real world terms, a man making $40,000 a year, which is close to the median Iowa income, would have $112,000 more than a woman making $32,000 a year over the course of the 14 years from January 1995 to December 2008. That difference creates a significant impact on the type of house that could be bought, the type of business that could be started, and the type of recreation that could be enjoyed.

Instead of recognizing Equal Pay Day in April, I favor a September date. I find it much more powerful to tell men around the autumnal equinox that they can have the rest of the year off with pay but the women must keep working through December. We also need to discuss the greater gender gap in part-time pay.

M.R. Field has written on women’s economic issues for several years. 

Are you looking for work? Full-time, part-time, summer? Are you younger, middle-aged, senior? Techie, not a techie? There seems to be no reason to be unemployed in Des Moines.

There are two job fairs in Des Moines this week - one comprehensive and one for technical jobs. Both are free.

Tuesday
The 2008 Job Expo will be held at the Polk County Convention Complex at 501 Grand from 11 am - 4 pm on Tuesday (April 22, 2008). It looks like there will be full and part-time jobs at many levels in about 80 companies.

Thursday
The Dice Technology Career Fair in Des Moines will be held at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott at 7th and Grand from 3 pm to 7 pm on Thursday (April 24, 2008). This is much more limited in the audience it is trying to attract. Less than 25 companies will be there looking for technical talent.

The tech-savvy apply on-line, even when they have nice clothes.

Anytime
Iowa Workforce Development, our state employment agency has a Jobs and Careers site with a link to other job fairs.

Have you heard of IowaCareer.net? It is a cooperative venture of the Iowa Community Colleges designed to help community college students find employment.

Get to work.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Photo on flickr by kimberly hurst
Photo on flickr by My Boy Dodger

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Jobs in Des Moines

Leave the state for a week and it is hard to get re-focussed on the General Assembly upon the return to Iowa, particularly as the session is nearing its end. In an attempt to catch up on events that happened while I was gone, I flipped through the newscasts of local television stations and made a lethargic attempt to look online at old articles in the state’s newspapers. Just as tulips grew a bit taller but did not bud while I was gone, there seems to have been little movement in the state’s government. Eventually I settled on the tried and true resource of the General Assembly’s website to find out what happened in the past week.

On Wednesday, April 9, 2008, the legislature sent 33 bills to the governor. These future laws aim to make changes in funding for natural resources, protection for certain actions of good will, rules for governmental financing, information provided to victims of sexual assault, and policies for local school districts.

On Tuesday, April 8th, Gov. Chet Culver signed 16 bills. These new laws include such exciting rules as the per diem compensation for directors of the Iowa soybean association board, a requirement for the Department of Transportation to study the acceptance of electronic payments at its customer service sites, and issuance of non-resident turkey and deer hunting licenses to people who have severe physical disabilities or a terminal disease. Some of the bills signed on Tuesday were among the 16 bills sent to the governor on Monday, April 7th.

Looking at the April 10th Senate Journal, I discovered that several appointments made by the governor were confirmed. These included members of the Commission on the Status of African-Amerians, the State Board of Education, the Interior Design Examining Board, the Real Estate Commission, and the Renewal Fuels and Coproducts Advisory Committee. If anyone wants to read the conference committee’s compromise on the Smokefree Air Act, it can be found in the April 8th House Journal. The vote to accept the conference committee report was 52-48. The vote to pass the compromise bill was 54-45.

Much happened at the statehouse during Week 13 of the session. How lives will be changed because of those many actions remains to be seen.

M.R. Field writes for AroundDesMoines.com.

The Pajama Game is a musical comedy based on the book, 7-1/2 Cents, by Dubuque native Richard Bissell. It was performed at the Des Moines Playhouse in 1967 and returns in its current production after winning the 2006 Tony Award for best Broadway revival. This is not a show with a complex plot or challenging characters. Instead, it is the type of show to attend if you want to hum some of the score while waiting in the bathroom during intermission.

A few people sitting behind me at the Saturday, April 12, 2008, performance snickered several times during the first act. While I did not appreciate the distraction, I agreed with their reaction. There are numerous similarities between a 1950’s factory as presented in the musical and modern day work places. However, there are also many significant changes, not least being the power of unions. An updated version of the play would be more likely to hold the attention of audience members younger than 40. One song in particular, “Steam Heat,” offers a good example of changes time has brought. While I have lived in numerous places warmed with steam heat and know what it is like to have radiators, years of central air heating reduced my emotional reaction to the song.

The premise of The Pajama Game is simple. There is a new male superintendent at the Sleep Tite pajama factory in Cedar Rapids. He has an encounter with the female head of the union’s grievance committee. Sparks fly, conflict erupts, all turns out perfectly. Boy gets girl and gets the union a 7-1/2 cents raise that lets the workers live like royalty, or so they dream.

Alison Shafer’s choreography was the first thing that I admired about this production of the musical. It offered an energetic coordination of moving bodies and objects in “Racing With the Clock” and a playful pas de deux in “Her Is.” After I stopped trying to think of the show in terms of a story and started looking at it only as a series of musical entertainment, I began to enjoy the singing, too. Susan M. Grozier (Gladys), Craig Peterson (Sid Sorokin), and Jim Benda (Hines) had choice roles and all deserved them. Andrea Markowsi (Babe Williams) gave a decent performance but she seemed to be trying too hard to get the chorus correct in “There Once Was a Man (I Love You More).” Yet she got the shouting in “I’m Not At All in Love” just right. She also had the misfortune of a small microphone problem at the start of another song. Lenny Houts (Prez) deserves mention for his acting and for the puppy dog steps in “Her Is.”

The entire cast earned the plentiful applause. The scenic design and most of the costumes complemented the story well. The lighting could have been much better. The musical was directed by John W. Viars. Viars is executive director of the Playhouse and was a member of the 1967 cast of The Pajama Game.

M.R. Field reviews arts for AroundDesMonies.com. 

In just over two weeks the 100th day of the Iowa General Assembly’s 2008 sesssion will arrive. According to the session timetable, during the twelfth week, the Senate considered only House bills and unfinished business and the House considered only Senate bills and unfinished business. Other commitments kept me from being at the statehouse this week.

There seemed to be little talk of legislative issues on news programs this week. I think it was on WHO-TV’s The Insiders last Sunday that I heard some pieces of legislation, such as the smoking ban bill, had been sent to the Ways and Means committee. Even though there wasn’t money involved, by having the bill in that committee, the piece of legislation is exempted from the funnel-week rules. Somewhere else I heard that the legislature was going to be concentrating on the budget now.

Reviewing the daily journals I see that the Senate passed a resolution “congratulating Iowa State University of Science and Technology for 150 years of leadership and service…as Iowa’s land-grant university….” In addition, there was a welcome extended to judges visiting from Russia as part of an exchange program. The House passed House Joint Resolution 2006 to allow alcohol to be consumed on the Capitol grounds during the awards ceremony for the Hy-Vee BG World Cup Triathlon. Apparently a champaign toast is traditional at the event.

On Tuesday, April 1st, Gov. Chet Culver signed SF2347, allowing for optical scan voting machines in each county. In the next few days he signed five more pieces of legislation. The governor has three days to sign or to veto legislation during the legislative session or bills sent to his office become laws without his signature. After the session ends, the governor has thirty days to sign or to veto before legislation becomes law.

To see a list of which bills have passed the legislature, when the governor signed them, and when they took, or will take, effect go to the Iowa General Assembly’s website. Select the Publications tab on the left side of the screen. When that page opens, the first section is Session Publications. Look down the left side until you see Periodically During Session. The first option under that sub-category is enrolled bills. Click on the number 2008 for this year’s new laws.

If you go back to the Publications page on the General Assembly’s website and look at the right-side column under Other Publications, you should see Fiscal Update directly underneath the sub-category of Periodic Publications. Clicking on the update will bring up information on the status of appropriation bills. I have been kept busy trying to identify useful information from the Des Moines Public Schools, the Des Moines Regional Transit Authority (DART), and the Polk County courthouse referendum budgets that I’ve had no time to do more than occasionally think about scanning through the state budget.

Items on the Capitol Complex schedule for the week included building a Habitat for Humanity house.

M.R. Field edited Leading Voices: Iowa.  

Jim Wallis is a Washington D.C.-based, evangelical Christian minister and national figure committed to elimination of poverty. His views and actions are rooted in Old and New Testament scripture and are noteworthy for the manner in which they cannot be blindly categorized as liberal or conservative. (If you are rigid enough and narrow enough in your left or right views, he will offend you. If you are flexible enough and open enough to the recurrent themes of the Old and New Testament, you will recover. Believe me, he jarred me out of my political comfort zone.)

To see what Jim Wallis is up to take a look at Lyndsey Teter’s article from Ohio. As you can see Jim Wallis will be one of the leaders of a “Justice Revival” in Columbus Ohio in mid-April. The revival will bring together thousands of Central Ohio church goers from diverse political persuasions in order to complete projects that serve the community. Thousands more will sign on to mentor young people through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio. This is the first of what is expected to be many justice revivals across the country, taken as a first step to eliminate injustice and poverty through cooperative action of religious groups.

So what is the Des Moines connection? - an article in The Des Moines Register. I hope you didn’t allow The Des Moines Register’s hot button headline to deflect your interest in reading the page 3A article about Jim Wallis on Sunday (3/30/2008). Other papers around the country used more neutral language in headlining the views and actions of this evangelical Christian. You can read the same article (written by the AP’s Julie Carr Smyth) on-line in the Washington Post without the Register’s politically polarizing headline, “Liberal group redefines goals of evangelicals.” On the issue of abortion Jim Wallis is as “liberal” as the Catholic Church (He is pro-life.) so how helpful was that headline? Perhaps a more fitting headline would have been “Progressive… or Religious group redefines goals of evangelicals.” He is not conveniently categorized (or dismissed) as a liberal. We all know liberal (or conservative) is a dirty word in many Iowa households, and as a consequence if someone is called a either, we sometimes think we don’t have to consider their ideas because we “know” a priori that they are wrong.

My introduction to Jim Wallis came two years ago. At Grinnell College where I teach, we invite a lot of great speakers, and one of them was a nice Midwestern boy named Peter Agre who also happens to have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003. I got to spend a little time with him. When he was visiting, Peter wanted some exercise so I picked him up at 6 am one morning, and we swam a mile and then had breakfast; that’s where I asked him my favorite question: “What are you reading?” Peter Agre was enthusiastic about three books one of which was God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis. As you can see from the title, if you consider yourself left or right, you are going to get dinged. I sure did. Two years later I am still struggling with the moral and ethical questions that Wallis discusses, but I loved his book. So for you - Christian or not, church goer or not, left or right - just read it, and draw your own conclusions. The Des Moines Public Library has two copies.

Jim Wallis has three books of note.

• God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It
• Faith Works: How to Live Your Beliefs and Ignite Positive Social Change
• The Great Awakening

His umbrella group called Sojourners, a network of progressive Christians, was organized with intent to translate spiritual beliefs into action. Don’t be the last to know why and how politics and religion are mixing more in the last two years than in previous decades; recall the June 2007, Sojourners-sponsored Presidential Forum on Faith, Values & Poverty on CNN or the Public Radio program Speaking of Faith where the major political candidates discussed faith and politics.

Don’t be stuck in yesterday. Times are changing.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Sojourners, Jim Wallis

Landscape crews worked on the western plaza of the Capitol complex this week. As plants that stood tall through winter’s snow and ice were whacked down, the Iowa legislature left some bills caught in the second funnel’s trap. Several other bills were sent to Governor Chet Culver. According to the daily analysis reports on the Track Legislation option of the General Assembly’s website, Culver signed 14 bills this week. One of those bills was HF2194 (formerly HF2002) relating to exemptions from minimum wage for certain retail businesses.

The second funnel of the Iowa legislature is the date when most bills must be passed out of committees in the opposing chamber. Thus, House bills must pass out of Senate committees and vice versa. One bill that made it through is HF2164 which codifies what the Iowa Department of Education required earlier this year when the Des Moines Public Schools and a few other districts in the state had to drop their desegregation plans in favor of diversity plans.

A meeting of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women (ICSW) took me to the Capitol complex this week. Culver has made five new appointments to the Commission, including former Des Moines school board president Marc Ward. The other appointee with whom I am familiar is Judy Stafford of the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevent in Sioux City. Phyllis Peters (Ames), Rizwana Amjed (Clive), and Chad Leonard (Dallas Center) rounded out the new appointees. I have covered meetings of the ICSW for Leading Voices: Iowa since late 2006. What I observed has made me intensely passionate about all the governmental commissions and boards being observed by a member of the reporting press or by citizen journalists. These things need to see the light of day because quite a few decisions affecting a huge swath of the state’s population are being made by a small circle of people whose jobs put them at the Capitol, or at city halls and county buildings, on a regular basis. Unfortunately, now that I have finished my original commitment to Leading Voices, I do not know who is going to report on the ICSW meetings for the women and men of Iowa.

As long as I was at the Capitol, I took time to watch the short morning session of the House of Representatives on March 25th. It included the reading and unanimous acceptance of a resolution recognizing women from Nigeria visiting Des Moines as part of a State Department program to strengthen the future of women politicians in Nigeria. Nafisat Lawal Musa, the deputy director of legal drafting in the ministry of justice, is observing the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women for two weeks as she works on building a human rights organization in her country.

I also had several interesting conversations with representatives of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and of Rural Electric Cooperatives. I’ve put the groups on my list of subjects to cover sometime in the future.

M.R. Field covers local events for AroundDesMoines.com. 

(Des Moines, IA, March 27, 2008) The Hot Pink Grannies defeated Lighten Up Iowa 20-14 in a Granny Basketball exhibition game at the Central Campus gym. In post-game commentary, Granny Forward Jewell Chapman said, “I feel like we had a lot of fun.”

Chapman scored the first goal of the game and the Grannies led at halftime 14-6. Lighten Up Iowa had taller players but the Hot Pink Grannies had more experience moving the ball as a team. The Iowa team was so new that when the announcer asked if the players were ready to take the court, the captain said, we “haven’t put [the team] together yet.” Helping round out the team of state employees, including some from the Department of Public Health, were members of the Motorcycle Grannies team from Indianola. In the second half, the Iowa team was helped by members of the Wild Wild West Des Moines Grannies.

The Grannies showed their sneaky sides as they managed to move the ball around the Iowa men who just stood and looked down at some of the more diminutive players in this game of six-on-six basketball played under 1920’s rules. In the exhibition game it sometimes seemed as though this was a preview for the Harlem Globetrotters’ appearance at Wells Fargo Arena on March 30th. The ball bounced off knees and shoulders and at one time was kicked by a Granny. With all the player substitutions, confusion sometimes was unavoidable. At the start of the second half a temporary Iowan found herself with the ball and wondering, “who’s my team?” When she realized the player to whom she passed the ball was not on her team she simply said, “oh, no!”

Granny Basketball games last 32 minutes and are divided up into 4 quarters of 8 minutes each. No running or jumping is allowed and only 2 dribbles are permitted. Unlike the Globetrotters, the Grannies pay for their own uniforms, court time, and travel. Like the Globetrotters, they use their appearances to help raise money for charity.

The Hot Pink Grannies vs. Lighten Up Iowa game brought in donations to help out lower income senior citizens with some of their expenses. Last year’s match raised money for a basketball court in Ghana. Patrick Choquette, the son of a state employee, was serving in the Peace Corps and thought the school where he taught chemistry, biology, and physics needed basketball in addition to the soccer and volleyball they already played. At this year’s game, Choquette, who now works for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, gave a brief report on the Ghana court. The schools’ students all pitched in to help construct it.

Twelve Granny Basketball teams will play 6 games in Alburton on Saturday, March 29th. The first game starts at 9:00 a.m.; the last one at 3:15 p.m.. The league has expanded and now includes teams in Illinois, Louisiana, and Minnesota. If your organization is looking for a fundraiser, the Grannies would like you to call.

M.R. Field had to catch some basketball action after missing the NCAA games.