The Mahout and his Flatulent Elephant
Also, badgering into the 2010 IWLL voting data
Ma·hout, /məˈhout/. A person who works with, rides, and tends an elephant; elephant trainer.
The Iowa Water and Land Legacy Act, also known commonly as the Outdoor Trust Fund or simply IWLL (“I-Will”) is a constitutional amendment passed by 63% of Iowa voters in 2010. It created a dedicated trust fund to permanently fund water quality improvements, wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, soil preservation, and other quality of life amenities for Iowans otherwise sentenced by fate and Farm Bureau to wander 400 years in the Soycorna desert.
The process for getting a proposed amendment on the ballot is rigorous and goes like this: it must first pass both houses of the Iowa General Assembly in two consecutive sessions and then be approved by a majority of Iowa voters. It does not require a governor’s signature but is subject to strict judicial scrutiny.
In its second year (2009) in the Assembly, it passed the House 82-14 and the Senate 49-1 (1). It was then sent to the Iowa Secretary of State to be placed on the 2010 ballot. Conservation and environmental groups across the spectrum lined up to support the measure. The only public opposition came from (surprise) Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, which passed a resolution opposing the measure on the grounds that the legislature would misuse the money if the trust was funded. No campaign contributions in opposition were filed.
The measure easily passed with 62.57% of the vote. And thus began the saga where an insurance company has been able to thwart the will of the voters over the next 15 years.
The hitch in all this is the voters only created a piggy bank; they didn’t actually drop the coins into it. That was to come from a sales tax increase; 3/8 of every penny collected from an increased sales tax would stuff the pig with an estimated (in 2010) $150 million per year, an amount that would be substantially larger now since sales tax revenues have doubled since 2010. If funded, the money was to be distributed as such:
Republicans have controlled state government for the most part since 2010 and have steadfastly refused to fund the trust with a sales tax increase. Depending on who you ask, especially if that person is me, Democrats haven’t tried to collectively run on the issue. As far as I can tell from Google, conservation groups were most confident about getting the trust funded in 2015, when the Quad City Times ran a story with the hopeful headline “Natural Resources Trust Fund sees strong support at Capitol.” To my knowledge, there has never even been a vote to raise the sales tax since the ballot measure was approved.
Hope for a better natural environment in Iowa likely peaked with passage of the amendment in 2010. Seriously, it was “damn, 63%!” If there ever was a clearer message that Iowans wanted something better when it came to natural resources, I don’t know about it. Unfortunately the vote also foreshadowed the coming present day where large public support for policy change is squashed by either a vocal minority or brazenly sidestepped by well-funded special interests.
The euphoria environmentalists felt in 2010 quickly devolved into a gnashing of teeth as anti-tax conservatives and ag interests led by Farm Bureau were able to do an end run around democracy through control of elected representatives and voter distraction with hot button social issues. The Ag oligarchy has been pulling the levers in Iowa for a long while and mastered its craft long before the word oligarchy entered the public’s consciousness. There are multiple reasons I titled my book The Swine Republic, and it has more to do than just the state’s hog population.
Over the years this gnashing of the teeth has caused many to schedule an appointment with Dr. Letter T. Editor, DDS, for relief. You could easily assemble a book of these submissions but reading it would hurt more than a root canal. There was one letter each in the Des Moines Register and Cedar Rapids Gazette just this past Sunday and Gazette columnist Todd Dorman posted another today (3/5). Some folks I know have authored several such letters since 2010 and although I don’t recall writing a strictly IWLL-themed letter, I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in at least a couple.
While such noble correspondence is necessary in a democracy, I’ve come to the conclusion that these letters are mere gnats on the smelly ass of the elephant, the elephant in this case being the GOP being led around by a mahout wearing a Farm Bureau t-shirt.
In fact The Mahout has been feeling so power drunk during this legislative session that he’s trained the elephant to flatuate gassy ideas about repealing the trust fund amendment altogether to make way for property tax reform by raising the sales tax sans the encumbrance of nuisance environmental junk. And no, you’re not a genius if you just had an epiphany about who owns most of the property in Iowa.
These days the anti-IWLL rationale isn’t that the legislature will misuse the funds, it’s the preposterous idea that all this wild blue yonder Iowans own in great excess (just kidding, we’re 49th in public land ownership) jacks up the price of farmland for young and/or aspiring farmers (3). Big Ag would have you believe they have more right to the land than you, and government shouldn’t do anything to get in the way of that.
Guess what inflates the price of Iowa farmland—three words: Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). When you create a guaranteed demand for a commodity (corn, in this case), guess what, the value of the capital (i.e., land) used to produce that commodity gets inflated. The average price of an acre of Iowa farmland has increased pretty much in lockstep with the amount of corn ethanol produced since the RFS became policy in 2005. I guess on some level it’s easy to see why more people want in on this taxpayer-indemnified racket.
But alas, as I write these words, Dorman reports that this effort to repeal the land trust amendment may be dying, just as I was going to propose something counterintuitive to Democrats: get behind the effort to repeal. But I’ll see this thing through to the end anyway.
Pro-environment Iowans need to wake up and smell the horseshit that Ag has been flinging for years now. The likelihood that they and their pet elephants are going to fund the trust lies somewhere between Donald Trump getting a crew cut and Chuck Grassley remembering when he lost his virginity. In other words, really unlikely. However…..if a critical mass of their own voters sent a message….maybe??
Fun fact: Chuck Grassley’s grandson is older than the Vice President.
Before writing this I badgered into the 2010 voting data and found some interesting stuff. Maybe some of you know all this—apologies if so.
The 2010 referendum had broad support across Iowa with many rural (and red) counties voting solidly ‘yea’. Pottawattamie, Webster, and Cerro Gordo Counties all voted yea at a higher percentage than Polk County (!), which, along with Johnson County, is the Democratic power base. Lee County, population 30,000, 66% yes. Mitchell County, population 10,000, 65% yes. Washington County—more hogs than any other Iowa County—63% yes.
All four congressional districts (using 2025 boundaries) were above 60% yes, even in the safest of safe red districts, the 4th district of western Iowa.
Voting yes were 77 counties; 22 counties voted no. The Nos are more interesting.
Curiously a low percentage of land in crops correlates strongly with ‘no’. Every county with less than 35% of its land area in corn and soy voted no. My theory on that: there’s a robust hunting culture in those counties and people already have places to hunt, provided they can get permission from private landowners. Many of the ‘no’ counties were in the southern two tiers of counties, and coincidentally, along with the Stephens State Forest there are several state parks near the Missouri border and perhaps ready access to this amenity created less urgency for the trust fund. Maybe an eye unassaulted by a carpet of corn-soy monocultures rests more easily at night.
The scorched-earth farming culture in the four northwestern-most counties—all ‘no.’ Perhaps the most curious of the Nos was Allamakee County in Northeast Iowa, when all three counties that border it were solidly yes. Maybe the drivers of southern Iowa Nos were relevant in Allamakee County too. Lots of hunting in Allamakee County, that’s for sure.
Also curious is Linn County—only 58% yes on IWLL, below the state average. But in 2016 the county passed its own natural resources referendum with more than 70% of the vote. Likewise Polk County, 70% yes on WILL in 2010, 81% on their own 2021 referendum. Republican legislators may not be able to spell momentum but they ought to be able to smell it, assuming their olfactory functions haven’t been numbed by the stench of their own bullshit.
Democrats: take a chance and say yes to getting it on the ballot again. And then rub Republican trunks in the resulting win. Nothing less than taking daredevil risks is going to get the attention of these smug and power drunk lunatics. And as far as looking for the golden key to unlock rural Iowa—it’s right at the end of your nose. Hint: it’s not fuel ethanol.
Almost finally, why does agriculture think they’re entitled to all our land? Nothing should agitate us more than that—the pollution and cancer notwithstanding. These sanctimonious SOBs think they can walk over the rest of us simply because the land and climate is suitable for corn. I say screw that.
Finally, why oh why do Democrats not run on a platform of more parks? Two words—MOAR PARKS. I mean seriously, it’s like hanging out a sign that says Free Beer. It’s right there with puppy dogs, rainbows, babies, morel mushrooms, John Prine’s music, real maple syrup and hungry walleyes in the list of good things a person should not have to live without. My two cents.
Cited Resources
Iowa Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, Amendment 1 (2010). Ballotpedia.
Des Moines Register, "Conservation trust fund amendment to go before Iowa voters," October 14, 2010.
Gruber-Miller, S. Des Moines Register, February 20, 2025. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/20/iowa-senate-gop-bill-would-repeal-natural-resources-trust-fund/79189538007/.
Run for office.
"Why does agriculture think they’re entitled to all our land? Nothing should agitate us more than that—the pollution and cancer notwithstanding. These sanctimonious SOBs think they can walk over the rest of us simply because the land and climate is suitable for corn. I say screw that." So many good points in this piece. If you think his book is entitled The Swine Republic simply because of hogs, come on now, open your eyes, ears and noses.