By Zach Jensen,
Iowa District 32 State Sen. Mike Klimesh (R-Spillville) and District 63 State Rep. Michael Bergan (R-Dorchester) are ready to get busy in the new year.
Serving the Iowa House since 2017, Bergan said he’s looking forward to getting to know and working with the state’s newly-elected freshman representatives.
“Over half of the House members have two years’ experience or less, but each member brings valuable insight, skillsets and varied perspectives that will enhance our collective work,” he said. “A typical bill may take three to five years to be adopted by both chambers to become law, if at all. Our work must be thoughtful and deliberate, with a large measure of patience during the process.”
Klimesh, who previously served Spillville’s mayor, said he’s working on a variety of issues for the people of his district.
“All of them have the common thread of making rural Iowa the best place to live, work and raise a family,” Klimesh said. “From health care issues to energy policy, I am excited to work on all of them.”
Looking back on 2024, Klimesh said he was hoping to “move the needle” a bit more on the issue of energy policy.
“I was, and will continue to be, a strong advocate for the state requiring an Integrated Resource Planning process for our investor-owned utilities that operate in our state,” the senator said. “This process would allow some oversight to ensure that decisions are being made to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable energy for their customers.”
Klimesh said he was “extremely happy to finally bring some regulations to the traffic camera issue that had been debated for over 10 years.” He said he was able to find a solution which factored for local control, while providing some regulatory oversight to ensure public safety remains the primary concern — rather than using traffic citations as another form of taxation.
Bergan said he and his legislative peers also invested in education by adding a 4 percent increase in state-funded support, setting beginning teacher salaries at $47,000 per year for the 2024-25 academic year and increasing that amount to $50,000 per year beginning in the fall of 2025.
“We continued on the process of reorganizing our state executive branch agencies, making adjustments to boards and commissions,” said Bergan. “I expect this reorganizing process will continue, to some degree, over the next two years, working to refine departments’ roles.”
One 2025 priority for Iowa’s House and Senate will be further work on the impacts of House File 718, which was signed into law by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds with bipartisan support in May of 2023. The bill relates to several aspects of government funding, but a number of elected officials in the region are concerned about limits the bill places on a county’s ability to generate property taxes.
“HF718 placed some limitations on the growth of spending by local governments,” Bergan said. “There is broad concern that property taxes are growing at a high rate, (and) that concern continues. While many would prefer to see a reduction in property taxes, that will only occur with a decrease in services provided by our cities and counties. I recognize the expectations constituents have for services, so limiting growth is a moderate approach that was endorsed by both parties in adopting HF718. Both the House and the Senate will be looking at our property tax system in the coming session.”
Klimesh added that legislators are just starting to get statewide data on HF718, and he looks forward to reviewing that information.
“As for the conversation to come, at this point I have no idea as to what a work product between the House and the Senate would look like,” he said.
On the agricultural front, Bergan said he maintains communication with Iowa’s congressional delegates and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig on farmers’ needs — one area of concern being last year’s outbreak of avian influenza in the western part of the state and another potential outbreak of African Swine Fever.
“We have supported the development and expansion of our veterinary laboratories and rely on the federal government for emergency funding and support in a crisis,” he said.
Bergan serves on several committees in the Iowa House, including the Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Labor and Workforce and State Government Committees. He said he’ll be focusing on mental health and substance abuse issues during the coming legislative session — as well as improving support for families’ needs.
“I will continue to be involved in early childhood initiatives including preschool, childcare and improving support for families in need,” Bergan said. “Appropriations will focus on developing a budget that allows for an appropriate rate of growth in our state budget.”
Klimesh has served on a number of Iowa Senate committees, such as the Commerce Government Oversight, Local Government, Transportation and Ways and Means Committees, and some of his committee assignments will be changing as lawmakers reconvene.
“One of the biggest changes is that I will now be serving as the chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee,” he said. “I have one of the largest workloads in the Senate. I chair both HHS and the Administrative Rules Review Committee. I am the vice chair of local government and serve as the vice chair for the HHS budget sub-committee. I have seats on Commerce, Ways and Means, Transportation, and the Rules committee. I was also elected to the majority whip position by my colleagues.”
Regarding the upcoming inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, Bergan said the change in administration will likely have little effect on state-level legislation. But, Klimesh said the turnover of presidential leadership always has a significant impact on state legislation, and he’s looking forward the new regime’s changes.
“We are always adjusting policy to meet new federal program requirements that always have some form of funding stream attached to them,” the state senator said. “I am looking forward to the new administration having a much more logical approach than the previous one.”
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