I wasn’t able to attend the forum for House District 83 (Sept 19) but I want to respond to coverage of it in the Sept. 26 MLV Sun.

I applaud Rep Golding for opposing carbon sequestration pipelines. I would urge her to focus on that fight.

I would urge her to reconsider her response to Iowa’s surplus. Gov Reynolds banks tax dollars paid by working Iowans rather than spending them on water quality remediation, public education, and our public parks.

Working people deserve to live in a state that provides for them, as they contribute to the funds that support the state.

Rep Golding’s response “the minimum wage was never supposed to be a living wage” tells a sad story of wage disparity in our country. If minimum wage is just for “high school students to gain experience” is that still the case? Are there adults working those same jobs in order to pay bills and care for family?

The designation “minimum wage” perpetuates a “class” system in which some work is better than other work, and by extension, some of us are better than others.

I don’t believe some are better than others. ESA money is collected from Iowa tax payers. Should those dollars be given to parents — thousands of dollars put into their education savings accounts — if those parents previously paid private school tuition from their own funds?

ESAs are managed by a company in another state, which is not a free service. The entire ESA program is now estimated to cost more than when Gov Reynolds pitched it. States who have a similar system have seen their public schools close and small communities lose their center of gravity. Imagine Mount Vernon and Lisbon without our public schools.

I believe a governor who has a surplus of tax funds should spend them for the good of the public. I believe health care providers and patients know what’s best for them and do not need Gov Reynolds or Rep Golding interfering with those decisions, whether it’s gender affirming health care or reproductive rights. I believe our Republican-led state government interferes in local government and in personal rights as if we don’t know how to care for ourselves, as if we were inferior. I’m looking forward to November 5.

Gretchen Reeh-Robinson

Mount Vernon