Another Week of Debate and Can Redemption: Matt Rinker

By Hayden Douglas · Friday, March 21st, 2025 at 6:02 am CDT
A Weekly Update of What’s Happening in Des Moines
Another Week of Debate and Can Redemption

March 20th, 2025

This week brought more debate, occasionally going late into the day. Some of the bills we discussed this week were:

House File 544 – Passed out of the House, Assigned to Senate State Government Committee

This is an ethics and campaign disclosure board bill that does 4 things: it updates filing deadlines from the end of the business day (4:30 PM) to the end of the day (11:59 PM), thanks in part to electronic filing options. It prohibits all candidates from establishing, directing, or maintaining a political committee. Under current law, the prohibition only applies to candidates for statewide or legislative office. It requires a valid email address be included when filing paperwork to form a political committee, and it requires internet advertisers to require an attribution statement when publishing political material. I supported this bill because I believe in updating our laws to reflect new technology and providing more transparency for the public.

House File 779 – Passed out of the House, Assigned to Senate Veteran Affairs Committee

This bill would change Iowa Law to allow any veteran, regardless of the number of years of service, to be eligible to receive special registration plates with a veteran processed emblem. Currently these are restricted to veterans who served for at least 20 years. I supported this bill because I believe anyone who serves this country and is honorably discharged should be able to call themselves a veteran, regardless of how long they served.

House File 711 – Passed out of the House, Attached to SF 551

This bill creates a training program to allow barbershops and salons to hire unlicensed individuals to work under supervision while learning the trade. This training program would be managed by the board of barbering and cosmetology arts and sciences and would still maintain cosmetology standards for customers. Customers would need to consent to allowing an “apprentice” to perform the work, and after 2,000 hours of apprenticeship they can apply to take the licensure exam.

House File 793 – Passed out of the House, Assigned to Senate Judiciary Committee

This bill would require the Board of Public Safety to revise the rules relating to fire fighter training and certification to state that any individual who is on the sex offender registry cannot be certified as a firefighter.
It’s been another busy week of debate on the floor, going until 7 PM on Tuesday. Some bills can be debated for over an hour as Legislators discuss amendments and intent behind legislation, while others can be passed in 5 minutes.
Week 10 Bill Movement

Now that funnel week has come and gone, bills that passed the Senate will begin to be considered in the House

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HF 963>>>

Introduced, Referred to Ways and Means

An Act exempting the sale of laundry soap or detergent from the sales tax.

HF 964>>>

Introduced, Referred to Ways and Means

An Act exempting the sale of toilet paper from the sales tax.

SF 106>>>

Passed the Senate, Referred to House Judiciary

An Act relating to the conveyance of firearms in or on certain vehicles.

SF 315>>>

Passed the Senate, Referred to House Commerce

An Act relating to pharmacy benefits manager reverse auctions and group insurance for public employees and including effective date provisions.

 

SF 315>>>

Passed the Senate, Referred to House Agriculture

An Act prohibiting the use of remotely piloted aircraft flying over farm property, and making penalties applicable.
Thursday was Celebrate Iowa’s Outdoors Day at the Capitol! It’s always great to hear from folks who are passionate about protecting spaces for outdoor recreation and caring for our natural resources.
Can Redemption

Recently I’ve had some constituents reach out to me regarding can redemption services in the Burlington area with the closure of the Hope Haven (A Division of Imagine the Possibilities) Bottle & Can Redemption Center, and I wanted to spend some time on this issue.

During a meeting with Imagine the Possibilities in December of 2024 they informed me that they would be announcing the closure of the Hope Haven facility in the coming months. The primary reasons provided were a change in federal employment wage laws and an overall increase in the cost of providing redemption services despite the increase in reimbursement rates made by the legislature in 2023.

Currently the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has two listed registered can and bottle redemption centers located in Burlington. The first is the Imagine Redemption Center located at 1819 Douglas Street, and the second is a mobile redemption center located at 810 Maple Street. My understanding is that neither of these facilities will be in operation by the end of March 2025.

Currently the State of Iowa code section 455.1C outlines that any “dealer,” which is defined as any person who sells bottles or cans that require a deposit and operates in a county with a population of 30,000 or more, is required to accept and refund bottle deposits unless otherwise outlined in section 455C.4. Over the last 3 years many dealers in the Burlington area have stopped accepting cans and bottles for redemption because Imagine the Possibilities was operating a licensed redemption center, and they would not be required to do so under ISC 455C.4, subsection 3. With the closure of the Hope Haven facility, any dealer who doesn’t have a food establishment license under Iowa Code 137F will be required to accept and return bottle deposits moving forward.

I have also been in touch with the Iowa DNR and have asked them to update their online directory to show that no redemption center is located within the required 10 miles radius of Burlington.

With regards to the Can Redemption Tax, unfortunately with the Legislative Funnel now over and no new pieces of legislation can be introduced this year. I will be continuing this conversation with Burlington City Officials, other legislators, and constituents to examine the best path forward.

 

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