Rep. Bush talks eminent domain in Sheldon

Rep. Dennis Bush isn't hopeful the Iowa Legislature will pass new rules this year restricting the use of eminent domain for private projects.

The Cherokee Republican, who represents O'Brien County in House District 3, said Friday in Sheldon that the mood among lawmakers regarding eminent domain law was tepid. He didn't expect any movement on the matter this session, but said the issue could be discussed in some form during the coming weeks.

Eminent domain has been a hot topic in rural Iowa over the past few months thanks to two proposed carbon dioxide pipelines that would cut through hundreds of miles of farmland, including routes through O'Brien and Clay counties. Both projects are currently seeking approval from the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), which will ultimately decide whether developers can use eminent domain procedures to complete the route.

Bush said Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, looked into a proposal that would require at least three-fourths of property owners in a project's path to sign voluntary land use easements before the IUB could grant approval. That didn't go far, according to Bush.

Kaufmann found that one of the companies behind a CO2 pipeline was "doing it right and approaching landowners in a business-like manner," while the other "came out very heavy handed." The former was seeing higher rates of signed land use easements, Bush said, while the latter was getting pushback.

"[Kauffman] said based on that, I think the system is going to work fine on its own. He doesn't want to draft a bill this year," he said. "At the present time, he thought it was too short a time period to do something that would be good legislation. He wanted more time to work on it."

Bush also discussed school vouchers. A former school board member in the MMC district, he feared any bill expanding voucher use would harm rural school districts.

He said current open enrollment regulations provide parents with adequate options when it comes to their child's education.

"I have problems with public tax money going to a private, religious school," Bush said.

As a compromise, Bush recently filed a bill that would allow parents who have students in a private school to be rebated the school portion of their property tax. Once their child graduates, the rebate would end.

"I don't have a problem with that part. It's their money going to support education their children are not taking advantage of in a public school system," Bush said. "I think it's as much a matter of fairness as anything."

Bush's bill hasn't been getting much attention in Des Moines, he said.

"Whether that has any future, I don't know," he said. "It's outside of what the governor has called for. Whether the House will take it up as some sort of compromise, I don't know."