Governor Kim Reynolds’ (R) proposal to raise the state sales tax by one percent, called the “Invest in Iowa Act” had its first subcommittee hearing a couple weeks back, but it’s hard to tell what lawmakers plan on doing with the piece of legislation this session.

State Senate Bill 3116 was assigned to the Ways and Means Committee, which calls for three-eighths of the revenue from raising the states sales tax to go to a voter-approved natural resources trust fund, and the rest going to support income tax cuts. The plan would also shift 70 percent of mental health funding away from local property taxes and replace it with state funding. State House District 20 Representative Ray Sorensen (R) shares how legislators are feeling about the bill, “The only thing I can tell you for sure is that there’s no consensus. I mean there’s advocates for it, advocates against it, and there’s a group of folks that could go either way. And I’m kind of sitting on the fence and waiting to see how all the plans shake out because the Governor has her plan, and the House like I said we’re kind of in discussion on what our plan, if there is a plan, would be. And I know the Senate has their own idea of what’s going on.”

Sorensen adds that he and fellow legislators have been doing their due diligence in researching the proposal and debating it in caucus, since it was first introduced in the governor’s Condition of the State address in January. Listen to Monday’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program to hear more from Sorensen on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.