Democratic Off-Year Caucus
March 5, 2001
at Muscatine Community College

At the Muscatine County Democratic Party off year caucus on March 5, 2001 the following resolutions were adopted:
1. We oppose providing state or federal funds to faith based (religious) organizations unless they are held to the same standards of delivery of services, accountability, and licensing as any private organization and there is no religious content in their programs. In doing so we support the continued separation of church and state.
2. We oppose making English the official language of Iowa because it is divisive, discriminatory and implies that those who speak another language are somehow inferior. Greater effort should be made in teaching English as a second language in the schools..
3. In 1998, the voters of Iowa rejected amendments to the Iowa constitution proposed by David Stanley to set limits on local government taxing ability by complex formulae. We oppose the legislature now trying to pass this as law and further including restrictions on fund balances
4. We oppose the system of electing the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors by requiring them to run from a district but being elected at large. This prohibits 80% of the population from running in opposition to any one individual candidate. We believe they should all run at large and be elected at large or all run by district and be elected by district.
5. We believe the County Board of Supervisors should have oversight in the siting of large livestock confinement operations.
6. We support the elimination of the income tax on Social Security benefits.
7. We oppose the legislature spending additional time on death legislation because the death penalty has been determined to not be a deterrent, is more expensive than life in prison and too many death row inmates are wrongly convicted.
In addition the party voted to again pick up trash on the bike path after a potluck lunch at the Riverside Park shelter for Earth Day, April 21, 2001.
These are pictures of some of the people who attended the caucus. Click on the small photos to see larger views. Use the arrow at the top of your screen to arrow your way back to this location.