Iowa Governor Terry Branstad unveiled a major initiative this week – a plan to increase funding for water quality.
The governor teamed up with former Democratic governor and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to support a proposal that would extend the one-cent sales tax currently spent on school infrastructure. While the plan would extend the sales tax, most of the inflationary growth would be diverted to finance water quality projects. Critics say that money should go only to education infrastructure.
Today on River to River the governor talked with host Ben Kieffer and fielded questions from listeners about the proposal, as well as his plans for Medicaid privatization, general education funding, gun control, and the upcoming Iowa caucuses.
During the second half of the program, Andrew Batts of Iowa Public Television joins the show to talk about a new documentary about the history of the Iowa caucuses.
