Water quality in Iowa continues to be a topic discussed by lawmakers.

State Senator Jerry Behn says the governor proposed to extend the one-cent sales tax from 2029 to 2049 and divert part of that tax from school infrastructure to improve water quality in the state. Behn points out that Branstad’s proposal wasn’t well received with some legislators. A road block has been figuring out the funding source to help with water quality.

The senator from Boone, who is also a farmer, says there isn’t a clear cut answer if state government should be involved in solving water quality, because there are so many unanswered questions.

“You’ve got to define what impaired water is. Do I think water quality is an issue? Of course it is, we want to be sure that everybody has clean water as much as we can. What I want to be sure is, if the water is impaired, what is it impaired? Who is doing it? Who is the cause of it? And what can we do about it?”

Before state government steps in to help out, Behn wants to look at what other state lawmakers have done.

“My concern is, oftentimes, we’ll have a tax or we’ll have an increase in revenue or we’ll do something and then we found out years later, it didn’t make any difference. And that’s what I want to be sure we don’t have happen.”

He believes farmers are implementing water quality solutions on a voluntary basis with more buffer stripes and conservation tillage.