Letters to the editor: Funding what Iowans voted for

How much longer can we wait for our elected officials to act?

Please don't let them continue to ignore you and the mandate that Iowa voters overwhelmingly gave them in 2010.

In 2010 63% of Iowa's voters approved this constitutional amendment.

 That's a rather resounding approval rating.

Sadly no funding has ever been provided since 2010 when 63% of Iowa voters approved a constitutional amendment to create the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, a permanent and protected funding source for Iowa’s communities and natural places. More than 10 years later, the trust fund sits empty, requiring a sales tax increase of 3/8 of a cent for funding. If funded, the trust fund would generate at least $171 million annually and provide farmers, local communities and state agencies with reliable and accountable funding.

I encourage you to ask your elected officials how they can get this funded.

Talk to them, call them or email them and tell them you want this oversight taken care of in this legislative session.

They need to hear from you. Otherwise they won't do anything.

Ozzie Ohl, Mason City

Primaries and caucuses

A political primary is a preliminary election in which the registered voters of a political party nominate candidates for office.  The key word here is preliminary.  The current system allows small states such as Iowa and New Hampshire {assisted by the media} to award front-runner status to the victorious candidate.  From there the candidates travel a path determined by which states wants to “leap frog” the other by moving up their primary dates. Candidates are whisked across the country without any real ability to distinguish regional issues from national issues.  Consequently, party platforms are determined by a make-it-up-as-you-go approach.  If the primary process were organized on a regional basis, candidates would be able to study the regional issues, campaign to confirm those issues and then receive votes based on the solutions they propose.  A regional approach would also prevent a premature selection of a front runner because success in one region certainly would not guarantee success in the next region. This would also further validate the process because each state would still have a say all the way down to the end.  Finally, the number of delegates awarded in each state should be determined by the percentage of votes won by each candidate.  And yes, convert the caucuses to primaries.

 Accordingly, the political primaries should occur between January and June of each presidential election year. Each of the six regions would be assigned a particular month. A lottery held in June of the previous year would determine which month each region holds its primaries. An example illustrates the format:

January

Middle West (9): Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin

February

Southern (8): Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

March

Atlantic (8): Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina

April

New England (8): Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont

May

Northwestern (9): Alaska, Idaho, Kansas,  Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming

June

Southwestern (9): Arizona, California, Colorado,  Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah

Joe Bialek, Cleveland, Ohio