Editorials Elsewhere

Sioux City Journal: Local control of traffic cameras works best
We recall few local issues that have produced as much emotion and discussion as traffic cameras.
To be honest, we don’t get it. If you follow the posted speed signs and stop for red lights, you won’t have a problem with speed and red-light cameras.
Nonetheless, here we are, still debating and arguing (and writing) about them, from Des Moines to Sioux City, years after they first went into use, with no sign of letup.
First three paragraphs of Our Opinion, Sioux City Journal, Feb. 23, 2014
Three years after we wrote those words, the traffic camera debate in Iowa rages on.
Two related bills have been introduced during this year’s session of the Legislature.
One bill, passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would ban traffic cameras in Iowa; the other, passed by the Senate Transportation Committee, addresses regulation of traffic cameras by the state.
Our view?
As we have said before, for reasons of public safety we prefer traffic cameras remain legal within a uniform set of reasonable rules, including fines.
If a majority of lawmakers in both chambers of the Statehouse believe traffic cameras represent pure evil, then they should vote to outlaw them altogether. However, if the Legislature believes these cameras represent an acceptable form of traffic enforcement in Iowa cities and decides to retain them, then we believe decisions about where to place them should be left to local municipalities, even on state roads within city limits.
Simply put, local jurisdictions know better than the state Department of Transportation where to put their speed and red-light cameras.

— Feb. 10

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Burlington Hawk Eye: A miserly increase for schools

In his first major issue as a state senator, Tom Greene whiffed.
The Burlington Republican — a former school board member — failed to participate in a school funding bill, which has become law with a measly 1.11 percent increase.
He neither debated nor voted.
School superintendents from Keokuk to Sioux City complained the action will result in layoffs and larger classroom sizes. Pro-education officials were pressing for at least a 4 percent increase, saying it was necessary simply to remain in place. Early literacy initiatives and local efforts to boost student achievement will have to wait. Further backsliding is probable.
Four percent seemed generous, but for the past half dozen years, the Legislature has adopted a Scrooge-like mentality for public education. Where 30 years ago, Iowa ranked in the top 10 in education spending and had student performance scores to match, it has dropped into the bottom half of states.
Gov. Terry Branstad, who two years ago scuttled a compromise plan to add one-time spending to boost per-student spending, signed the spending bill into law even though he advocated adding $78 million more on K-12 education — nearly twice as much as Republicans put into the bill.
Greene had the opportunity to share his expertise as a Burlington School Board member and local struggles with math and literacy scores with his fellow Republicans, who control both chambers, but he chose not to. Not only did Green fail to participate in the debate, he was the only Republian absent when the vote was taken. Greene told The Hawk Eye protracted Democratic discssion and an unspecified family matter were to blame. He later acknowledged he would have voted with his colleagues for 1.11 percent allowable growth.
“We didn’t have much choice this year,” Greene told reporter Elizabeth Meyer. “I certainly would like to pass out more money but the primary thing we wanted to do was get it to the superintendents early in the process. That was a huge point when I was on the Burlington School Board. Every year, the supplemental school aid was not set until April and school boards have to certify their budget much earlier than that …. Although it was low, it was only 1.11, every superintendent I talked to said just get us the number early so we can plan and face our reality as soon as possible. So that’s what we did.”
It’s unpersuasive. Budgets are about priorities and clearly, Republicans do not value education as they once did.
Two things are going on here.
For one, as long as Republicans pass minuscule education measures year after year after year, it forces Democrats to seek larger and larger allowances to make up for lost ground. During campaigns, GOP candidates can use “real facts” and say the opposition party wants unrealistic increases — a win for them.
The other is Republicans don’t care.
During an appearance last week on “Iowa Press,” House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, suggested local school districts will be able to make up the gap between state funding and their needs by a streamlining effort to make reports filed with the state Departments of Education resemble federal paperwork.
It demonstrates how out of touch her party is. Paperwork? Really?
Greene, while new to the Legislature, has the background to present a convincing case why Upmeyer was wrong. He chose not to.
He ran saying he’d be a voice independent of his party. Given a stellar chance to do so, he didn’t.
—  Feb. 9

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