By BILL SHEA

bshea@messengernews.net

Local legislators still wrestling with potential property tax and eminent domain changes were asked during a Saturday forum to explain their position on funding for education.

State Rep. Wendy Larson, R-Odebolt, said during Saturday’s Eggs and Issues forum that statewide the number of students has decreased while the number of school district administrators has gone up.

Last year the legislature raised the minimum starting pay for teachers to about $50,000, according to state Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge.

And while the starting pay has increased, so have the challenges teachers face in the classroom, he said.

“Overall, it is much, much harder to be a teacher,’ he added.

Lawmakers meanwhile continue to work on the two dominant issues of the 2026 legislative session: property tax reform and the use of eminent domain for use by companies building carbon dioxide pipelines.

State Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, said the House Ways and Means Committee passed a property tax bill last week.

“There are a lot of good things in it,” she said.

Meyer also said that the House passed a ban on the use of eminent domain and sent it to the Senate early in the legislative session.

About 35 people attended the forum at Iowa Central Community College. Eggs and Issues is sponsored by the college and the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.

During Saturday’s forum, the lawmakers were asked what they intended to do about the fact that, in the audience member’s opinion, state funding for education has not kept up with inflation for the last six years. None of them directly answered that question. But they did comment on various elements of education funding and policy.

Larson said student enrollment is down, but the number of school district administrative employees is up 12 percent.

“We have more people managing less children,” she said.

She said education spending accounts for 54 percent of the state’s $9.2 billion budget.

Kraayenbrink said the increase in administrative personnel is in part a response to some of the challenges schools face today. He said he has heard of schools that have three or four vice principals who do nothing but deal with behavioral and discipline problems.

For a complete report on the forum, see Monday’s edition of The Messenger.