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Iowa lawmakers getting ready for the 2025 session.

How will your money be spent?

And getting ready for a murder mystery that you'll laugh at in the cities?

Iowa lawmakers will open the 2025 session on Monday, January 13th.

Republicans will have supermajorities in both houses.

There's a Republican governor and a conservative leaning state Supreme court.

A political trifecta in Iowa.

Iowa Republicans are already forecasting a bit of what's to come regarding taxation, budgeting, education, and social issues.

And we talk with Bettendorf Republican State Representative Gary Moore, who's also the chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

The Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference is projecting, that I will bring in $687 million less.

Not unexpected, but still a sizable figure.

That's right.

Jim.

What are you going to do?

Well, let me say this was planned, for too many years.

We have taken too much money out of the taxpayer's pockets, for taxes in Iowa, which is why we started to lower income taxes in the state of Iowa.

That's why we did away with retirement income taxes for senior citizens.

Let me put it this way to you.

This coming year, we will end the year with a $2.2 billion surplus.

We have another billion in the bank and savings accounts, which were required by law to house.

We have an additional 3.7 billion in a taxpayer relief fund.

So we have between 6 and $7 billion in the bank, which is why we decided that's too much money to have, which is why we decided to start to lower taxes.

So some people are jumping out of windows saying, we're going to spend maybe $200 million more than what we take in next year.

Do you know how many years we can fund an annual budget of taking in $200 million less than what we spend?

When you have 6 to $7 billion in the bank.

We can go 30 to 35 years at that rate.

If we increase spending and spend 500 million more than what we take in.

We can fund the government for 12 years.

The point is, we have too much money in the bank, and we need to get it back to Iowans.

And there's there's several ways you can do it.

You can spend more on programs.

You can give it back to the taxpayers.

And we've chosen to do a little bit of both.

Our budget goes up a little bit every year.

But with those numbers and the reason I mentioned to you, that way we can continue to overspend $200 million a year.

And have enough money to fund that government for the next 30 or 35 years.

Well, and as you pointed out, I mean, the income tax drops to 3.8% January 1st, right?

Or it did already and it, it the governor has made it clear that she would like to see 0%.

I mean, do you still see that that is what you're aiming for?

Well, and the 3.8% is sooner than originally proposed.

Yeah, it was sped up a little bit.

Again, when you have 6 to $7 billion in the bank and you have a $9 billion budget, that's too much of the taxpayer's money to have in reserves, which is why we're doing all of this.

As far as doing away with income taxes.

Let me put it to you this way.

And I've heard the governor say that we have three main sources of income in Iowa.

Personal income tax.

And that generates about 40% of our revenue.

Sales tax that generates about 40% of our revenue.

And corporate taxes, which represents about 20% of our revenue.

If you do away with that personal income tax, and that's 40% of your revenue, and we have a $9 billion budget that does away with roughly 3.6 billion, 40% of 9 billion of revenue.

I don't think we're in a position to do that at this point.

So I think we're going to continue to have that as a goal.

As the governor has mentioned, to ultimately do away with state income taxes.

But at this point, it's not we're not able to do that overnight, because we'd have to raise sales taxes or we have to raise corporate taxes to balance the budget.

Well, and we're seeing corporate taxes being reduced as well in Iowa, which was, which was a major effort to keep, retain and lure new industry.

That's exactly right.

Do you think that is working so far?

I think it's a little too soon.

I think it will absolutely.

Just like, I sponsored the bill to do away with the income taxes for retirees.

Having lived here over 40 years, too many of my wife, Jane and my friends came here, as we did in the 80s, raise their families, built whatever wealth they had and retire and moved to Florida or moved to Illinois or moved to Texas where they don't have stayed in.

Right?

For retirees.

For retirees.

That was the impetus for me.

We're losing too many Iowans and their wealth once they retire.

But, Jim, the surprising thing to me is the number of calls I received from people.

And this I didn't expect.

People call and said, Gary, my wife and I grew up in Iowa.

We grew up on small farms.

We left Iowa and built our career, raised our families, and thought we were going to have to stay in Illinois because there's no tax on retirement income.

But now that you've done away with retirement income taxes for retirees, we're moving back to Iowa to retire.

And I'll bet I've had 50 calls.

So that was a pleasant surprise.

The Democrats, though, do point out when when it comes to, like you said, tax and spend is that, when it comes to living in Iowa, the way the policies of the, run administrations have worked is that there's a big pay disparity.

There's a huge disparity, in salaries.

Young people don't like the political climate, and they're leaving anyhow.

There's cuts in education, in higher education, which young people want, and that doesn't foster well for the future of Iowa.

What do you say to that about those concerns about the reinvestment part?

First of all, there have been no cuts in higher education or education.

We've increased.

We spent about $1 billion of our state budget on higher education.

It has gone up every year.

It's important.

I was in higher ed as administrator.

That is important to me to continue to fund education.

We increased our budget 4% last year.

So there have been no cuts since Republicans have been in control.

The legislature.

Of of the state budget.

We increase it every year.

As far as salaries, I don't think that's changed in the last number of years.

People have always moved in and out of Iowa for a variety of reasons.

Some people move out because of salaries.

Some people move in because of family.

That hasn't changed.

I don't believe the fact that the legislation that we've passed, hopefully over time, will bring more people into this state.

If taxes are lower, if they can retire here with no income tax.

It is designed to attract more people over the long term.

And I think that's exactly what it will do.

You bringing up education?

The house is creating a new committee.

For a higher education.

What do you hope is the goal of that?

Well, I would hope, I would hope the goal of it will be the increase access to higher education.

I don't really know.

I'm not on that committee.

Right.

I don't really know if they have issues that they want to discuss.

I'll be watching it as well.

But my hope is that, a major purpose of it is to increase access for Iowans to higher education opportunities throughout the state, no matter where you live.

Because the new chairman.

Correct me if I'm wrong, is also one of the leading advocates to dismantling Dei, the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that that Iowa lawmakers have have already started to do.

Does that worry you?

I mean, like you said, you were very active community college.

You're very active in secondary education.

Yeah.

Does it bother me that they did away with the Dei?

Let's start with that or that will continue to be diminished even more.

Well, I support the Dei and concept.

What I don't support is the millions of dollars that higher education institutions are spending on those issues.

I would rather see those millions of dollars go to student scholarships, invest in new programs.

We we still have a workforce shortage in this state.

And I am, among many others, want to spend more and more of our tax money to fill those jobs, train more people in nursing, health care industries, teachers.

That's where I want to see more of an emphasis.

And I think that might be one of the emphasis the new hiring committee is going to look into.

But we talked to a Quad City Dei facilitator who says that Dei so critically important to that is to make sure that that minorities and underrepresented, sections of our, of our population do get those opportunities.

Well, and I guess I would assume somebody who's working in that area would probably say that.

Yeah.

I think it's can be accomplished without spending millions of dollars of tax money.

Particularly at our regional institutions.

And so I support the effort to rein that back in.

And the directive was to redirect that money to student scholarships and workforce training programs.

The other, once again, critics and we don't know what the, Committee on Higher Education is going to do, but there's also a fear that it's going to turn a Republican state will become more like Florida, where they're really going after how children are taught, or that these liberal institutions are too liberal, and that that's what's going to happen to Iowa.

Iowa State and Northern Iowa University.

Well, I would caution your listeners.

I get a lot of calls in the legislative process in democracy.

We have 100 members of the Iowa House, 50 members of the Senate.

Every one of those members, including me, can introduce legislation.

And people are always calling me scared to death when they hear that so-and-so introduced a bill to do thus and so.

Well, don't jump out on a six story windows.

They might be introducing that for a variety of reasons, and it may not go anywhere.

So I understand people's concerns, but let's watch the committee.

Let's see what it does.

Because at this point, I don't think there's any preconceived plan other than more emphasis on higher education.

And again, I hope they they spend more time on access creating new workforce programs.

We've got to get more people trained for the jobs that we have in Iowa that currently are going unfilled K through 12.

You're one of the few Republicans who voted against the school voucher, the, the investment program, and you're seeing some of the ramifications of what's going on.

You're seeing, local public schools really worried about a loss of students and a loss of income.

Are you still waiting for that to fully play out, or do you see damage already occurring?

Well, I voted against that bill for a number of reasons.

I represent Pleasant Valley school districts, that North school districts.

So most of the parents in my district send their kids public schools.

I have a large contingent of parents who send their kids to private schools.

But the vast majority of my constituents that called me on that issue basically said, Gary, please vote no.

We don't want our tax money going to private schools.

And so trying to represent the majority of my students, that was a major reason I voted no.

I think it's still too soon.

I mean, the Essa Educational Savings Account program won't be fully implemented until after next year.

And so we're still in the process, of implementing that program.

I think it's going to take some time to know.

My other concern is, certainly about the cost.

We didn't redirect those dollars.

It's just a new cost being appropriations, chairman.

I'm concerned about money and spending money and being a conservative Republican.

I'm concerned about adding new expenses to the state tax rolls.

And in this program, we we added 3 to $400 million a year in cost.

And we're adding all those new expenses to the state budget, which kind of goes against my grain.

And, it's past, as I've said, to leadership.

I've fought against it.

I voted no.

I lost my job as appropriations chair.

Now is to incorporate those costs into the budget, and we will do exactly that.

Talk about cell phones for a moment, too.

As long as we're talking about schools, you know that the governor is supposed to make an announcement during her, condition of the state, talking for school districts, K through 12 to do a greater ban on cell phones.

Also, legislation, once again, for hands free, operation of motor vehicles, which just doesn't seem to be able to pass in the Iowa legislature.

What do you see for both of those issues?

Well, I support both of those issues, Jim.

I think they'll be, the cell phone issue seems to have a lot of support in our caucus in the House Republican caucus.

School, the school cell phone.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

And so I think you'll see some movement on that.

Tomorrow I go to Des Moines, our Republican caucus in the House is meeting, and we're going to discuss our legislative agenda.

And I'm sure that will be one of the issues.

So I think probably both of those issues will get another we'll get a fair hearing this legislative session.

And there seems to be a lot of support for both.

What's your big priority for 2025?

You yourself?

Well, as I've said to Speaker Grassley, it's left up to me.

Let's put together a conservative state budget, pass it and go on.

Again, as appropriations chair, most of my time there is spent on the budget.

Watching revenue, watching expenses, seeing where do we need to redirect dollars to get the best bang for the buck?

That's where most of my time this will be the seventh year he's appointed me, appropriations chairman.

So, I enjoy that job.

I like to watch taxpayer money.

I like to be conservative with it.

And so that's what most of my time is going to be spent on.

I have some issues from my constituents that have, individual issues that affect their lives.

I'll be working on those as well.

And, I turned 73 yesterday, so.

Well, thank you.

Just listening to the debate about Iowa and the future of Iowa and what do we need to do to change to make Iowa better?

Is one of the most enjoyable things I do in the legislature every year.

But as you well know, with a supermajority with Republicans, you're going to get those bills.

And a lot of people are worried that there's the I was just going to turn further and further, conservative.

Does that bother you when it comes to the social issues?

Because like you said, your your dollars and cents, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, because again, as I mentioned, all 100 members introduced bills and they'll be some bills that I'll look at and I'll think, no way I can't support this bill.

And so what I say to your viewers is just be patient, because many of those bills that people are most concerned about don't really ever go anywhere.

There's a thousand ways to kill legislation in the legislature.

A committee may not pass it.

A subcommittee may not pass it.

It may pass the House, but not pass the Senate.

I may pass both and the governor may veto it.

So there's a long way between where we are now and getting some of those bills that scare people, enacted most of the time.

I found 85, 90% of them just die on the vine.

They don't go anywhere.

Iowa Republican State Representative Gary Moore of Bettendorf, chair of the Iowa House Appropriations Committee.

Well, we're already reaching mid January with plenty of winter activity still ahead of us.

And here's some great ideas that will let you enjoy the outdoor as well as the indoor events in our area.

Thanks to visit Quad Cities.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Start off with learning how to play hockey at the River's Edge on January 13th.

Then you can enjoy a Sherlock Holmes mystery on January 15th at the circa 21 Dinner Playhouse.

Next, watch Hadestown at the Adler Theater on January 15th.

Then you can get some laughs in at the tomfoolery event at the Renwick Mansion on January 17th.

Finally, enjoy Barbie Night at the Storm hockey game at the Vibrant Arena at the Mark on January 18th.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at visit Quad cities.com.

Circuit 21 has finished its holiday performances and is ready to stage fresh performances for 2025.

Whether it's at the downtown, Rock Island Playhouse or at its neighboring speakeasy stage, Brett Hitchcock of circa 21 joined us with a preview of what we can expect this year.

Tell me what the holiday season was like.

I mean, because like December, you guys are crazy.

And now that that's over.

Yeah.

Is it like a breath of fresh air?

You know, it's so exciting to have all of those people come in during the month of December.

We're used to it.

There's such a buzz in the theater that it's always a really magical time, but it's also nice to have a little bit of a break in a sense, you know, because we're going full, you know, we're full performances and we've got multiple shows going that are both doing well.

And so it's nice to kind of get a little bit of a breather, but we don't want too much of a breather.

You know, we want people to still come.

But and we've got some really good things coming up after, you know, that we're into now with with Baskerville coming up.

That's what I was thinking, is that, I mean, because because we get done with the holidays and all of that, the music, the pageantry and all that, and now you're going to commit murder.

Now we're going to commit murder.

That's right.

Because got a miracle on 34th Street, which is this family thing.

Now we're going to go to a murder show.

What is wrong with you at circa 21?

So January 15th, that's when you're opening up.

And it's Baskerville, a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Correct?

Which sounds like it is just like the movie.

And it ain't.

No, because it's a comedy.

Amazing.

Yeah.

So, the gentlemen that that adapted this, we've done several of his shows before.

People really enjoyed a lot.

And so it's going to be the storylines and similar.

It's still about, you know, the Baskerville family getting picked off and Sherlock Holmes and is there and and he's going to solve the case, but, it's really unique in the sense to Jim that there's only five actors in the show, but these five actors are doing almost 40 characters.

And so it's just rapid fire in and out, different costumes and our costume is going crazy for this.

But, there's going to be so many costumes.

And I think it's just going to be a really fun, kind of lighthearted show that the audience can kind of play along with.

And you love casting this.

And then and it's a mix of local and and people from out of town.

Correct.

All professionals.

Yeah.

Is there a certain challenge, like you said?

A couple of the characters play a number of characters.

Yeah.

Is there a certain challenge to it that that they appreciate or they look forward to?

I think that there is yeah, I think that they it's something it's different.

It's not the same thing and it's completely different than what they're used to.

And I think they appreciate it.

I think in rehearsals maybe it's a little bit nerve wracking to, you know, get this down and get the costume changes down.

And our costume designer is going to do an amazing job with this.

But, he's got his hands full right now, too, with all these costumes.

But I think it's going to be a wonderful show.

And we're really fortunate in the fact that Doctor Corey Johnson, who was, on the longtime staff member of Saint Ambrose University, is coming back.

She now lives in northern Minnesota.

She's coming back to direct it for us again.

And, I think she's going to do an amazing job.

And those are spaced very well, knows how to play within that room.

And so I think she's going to do a great job with it.

And it should be a wonderful show.

That sounds like fun.

That's on the mainstage.

You also have so much going on at the speakeasy.

Yeah, one of them, you always have Viva la Divas.

Yep.

And that's what, January 10th, February 7th and March 7th.

Yep.

That really has caught on.

It really has.

You know, I really feel like that that in a sense, the speakeasy kind of brought drag to the mainstream because before we started doing it, it was mostly just in the alternative clubs around town.

And a lot of those have gone away now, and there just wasn't, a form for the sort of venue to do this in.

And so we started doing it about a decade ago, and it's been very, very well received.

I mean, yes, we have some comments of some people that, that don't appreciate it.

And that's fine.

I mean, I think that's probably with anything you do, but we have, you know, after a decade, we're still doing shows and we're still selling out shows.

And I think that people really enjoy it.

And it's it's I think that what happens is you get people that will come in, it's mostly heterosexual women.

That's who we go after.

Every once in a while, there'll be a boyfriend or a husband that will come and, they'll for the first hour before the show starts, they'll come in and they'll sit down.

They won't look in the direction.

They'll look straight ahead, like with their blinders on.

They might have a beer, and they're probably thinking, what in?

Why did she bring me?

What did she bring me to?

But, you know, once you see that, you know, there's nothing offensive.

They're not pushing them.

They're not pushing a lifestyle or pushing anything.

It's just about glitz and glamor and a good time.

And oftentimes we find that some of those same guys that may be sitting on their hands during that first hour by the end of the show are up, and they're tipping the performers as well.

So it's not threatening.

It's just it's a good time.

Well, and speakeasy is just an interesting concept for you because it's a smaller venue.

So you can do stuff like improv because that's always been a big home for improv.

Absolutely.

And that's continuing.

But you're also doing, programs such as, misery from Stephen King's absolutely famous movie that we always remember with Kathy Bates and, oh, what's James Collins con you?

I had it earlier.

Yep, yep.

And that's coming up on February 21st through the 28th.

You know, that's I would expect that really to be an interesting stage to do to to put that out.

Yeah.

It's the speakeasy is a much smaller space.

You know circa we see it about 320.

The speakeasy seats about 125.

And it's one small room.

It's one long room.

It's narrow.

Yeah.

It's not tiered the way circuits and it's much more narrow.

And so a lot of these kinds of shows play really well on that stage.

We do The Rocky Horror Show every October.

That's a cast of ten.

I mean, and that's a lot going on there.

But that stage can handle that.

We did a comedy over the holidays this year called Who's Holiday, which was based on Cindy Lou Who, now grown up and, she's had a rough life.

She's, likes her drinks and likes her, her medicinal, drugs and, and had a rough go for Cindy.

For Cindy Lou who?

So.

But she.

But that show did really well for us, too.

But it's things that we try to do in there that we probably could not do.

It's circa.

Right?

You know, stuff like Rocky Horror.

We couldn't do that.

It's certainly not, misery.

That's certainly not one that we could do at circus.

So it's, not at a dinner theater.

No, no, no.

So we're trying to find, you know, as they mentioned a moment ago, the speakeasy is kind of branded to be a bit more edgy, you know, in that 21 to 50 year old that want to come in and have a good time and party.

And that's kind of how we program it.

And so, you know, Rocky Horror fits that mold.

You know, the whose holiday comedy did misery fits that mold.

So we're not going to be doing more mainstream things in there, like your Sound of Music or your Fiddler on the roof, or shows that people have heard of, but some of these edgy kinds of theatrical pieces that that you don't see a lot around, that are what really fit into the business model for that space.

You're also known for music Heartbreak Hotel.

Yep.

40 songs.

Oh, yeah.

So there's something from that catalog you're going to love everybody that's coming up.

March through May.

It is.

And that was originally called Elvis, which was a huge hit on Broadway.

And then the, the Elvis's family got involved and decided they didn't want it to be called Elvis.

And so the name was changed to Heartbreak Hotel.

But it's still still a wonderful.

Yeah, still a wonderful show.

Yeah.

We're really looking forward to that.

We have this performer that we just hired to do Elvis has performed all over the country, just an amazing performer.

And have you had him here before?

We have not here.

Okay.

Because you've also had Elvis.

We've had.

Yeah, we've had some Elvis tribute acts coming in like one nighters and two shows over the years.

Not for a while now that were just strictly an all Elvis show.

The last one we did was probably Million Dollar Quartet, but again, that wasn't just Elvis, that was Elvis and Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins and was amazing.

Jerry Lee Lewis.

Yeah.

So I mean, it wasn't just an all Elvis show.

So this is the first one will be done.

We've been doing in a while.

That's just Elvis.

But I think, you know, our advance on it is really good.

And again, if you like that music, you're going to love the show.

So yeah, I want to get the kids musical in.

Yep.

How I became a pirate.

Children's music on March 25th through April 19th.

Yep.

You when you go to circa, there's a certain audience.

But when the kids are there.

Yeah, it's just totally different.

Absolutely.

It's so much energy.

Yeah, it really is.

And we this'll be the about the third or fourth time that we've done this show.

And we were lucky the first time we did it, is when the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Disney project, was still coming out.

And so we were able to tie into that when there was all of this, this buzz about pirates.

And so it's done really well for us.

And we haven't done it now for a few years, but we thought we would bring it back again.

It's been a real favorite for for people.

We've had people have come back and seen it every time we've done it, and it's a really cute show.

It's only an hour long as most of our kids shows are.

So for the evening shows, we don't allow kids under the age of four and just because of the length of time.

But these kids shows are about an hour, so you're in and out really quickly.

There's no meal, no bar service.

So it's a very simple thing.

And so if you have younger kids or kids with attention span problems, maybe this is the perfect thing for that.

So you're not they don't have to sit so long or, you know, get rambunctious after 2 or 3 hours and want to go walk around or what mom and dad to take them out and go do something in the lobby instead of sitting watching the show.

So so you're all set for 2025?

We're all set.

Yeah.

Just open the doors and let people in.

That's the goal.

That's all right.

That's it.

Yeah.

The masses will will come in.

So all right, our thanks to Brett Hitchcock of circa 21 on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health and we are here IHMVCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt.

Public affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to you by The Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth management needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.