{"id":263,"date":"2010-10-15T20:02:58","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T01:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=263"},"modified":"2010-12-06T14:03:23","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T20:03:23","slug":"another-election-issue-to-consider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=263","title":{"rendered":"Another Election Issue to Consider"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If our tax dollars go to nonprofit organizations that are formed and ran by government, it makes sense that those particular non-profits should be subjected to the transparency we all expect from governmental bodies.<\/p>\n

During the 2010 session of Iowa\u2019s General Assembly, Rep. Geri Huser<\/a> (D-Altoona) introduced an amendment<\/a> to the Education Appropriations bill<\/a>, which was intended to have nonprofit organizations that are run by government entities subject to the Iowa Open Meeting and Public Records laws.\u00a0 The amendment, H-8533 to Senate File 2376<\/a>, was adopted 98-0<\/a> by the House on March 22.\u00a0 It was taken out of the bill by a Senate amendment<\/a> on a party-line vote 29-18<\/a> on March 25.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the concept was incorporated into the final bill, but only as it pertains to reporting requirements of local school boards to the Iowa Association of School Boards.<\/p>\n

The idea of having non-profit organizations that are ran by government entities to be open to public scrutiny was a hot topic in March.\u00a0 The Iowa Association of School Boards<\/a> was being turned inside out by several critics, including, but not limited to the Des Moines Register, the Legislative Oversight Committee, and many individual legislators and other elected officials.<\/p>\n

Representative Huser should be commended for her leadership on this issue.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just the IASB that needed oversight; all Section 501(c)(3)<\/a> organizations that are funded wholly, or in large part by government entities or by government employees, need to have a watchdog overlooking their actions.\u00a0 If it\u2019s happened once, it can happen again.<\/p>\n

Several government nonprofits conduct business as though they are private organizations.\u00a0 The Iowa County Attorneys Association<\/a>, the Iowa State County Treasurers Association<\/a>, the Iowa League of Cities<\/a>, and the Iowa State Association of Assessors<\/a> are just a few examples of government-funded nonprofits that have links for \u201cmembers only\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t the Iowa Legislature consider enacting legislation that prevents all government nonprofits from running off course?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t there be openness in organizational structure that is funded with all or part of taxpayers\u2019 dollars?\u00a0 Send a message to candidates this fall.\u00a0 Ask them if they will protect our interests in providing transparency beyond the normal means of access.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Fawkes-Lee & Ryan.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If our tax dollars go to nonprofit organizations that are formed and ran by government, it makes sense that those particular non-profits should be subjected to the transparency we all expect from governmental bodies. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,65],"tags":[79,80,81,83,84,82,78],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","category-open-meetingspublic-records","tag-geri-huser","tag-iowa-assn-school-boards","tag-iowa-county-attorneys-association","tag-iowa-league-of-cities","tag-iowa-state-association-of-assessors","tag-iowa-state-county-treasurers-association","tag-tax-dollars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}