By Sam Parsons

The Mahaska Chamber put on its final scheduled round of Eggs and Issues at Smokey Row in Oskaloosa on Saturday and welcomed Ken Rozenboom and Adrian Dickey of the Iowa Senate, as well as Helena Hayes and Barb Kniff-McCulla of the Iowa House, to answer questions from local citizens.

The forum discussed issues including property tax relief, carbon pipelines, and education. On the latter issue, a resident asked the forum about recently passed legislation on book bans, bathrooms, and collective bargaining. Senator Ken Rozenboom said it wasn’t so much about stripping power away from local entities as it was establishing rule of law.

On the topic of the carbon capture pipelines, Representative Helena Hayes said that she’s been against it for a while now, but the federal government has incentivized the ethanol industry to pursue them, so the state needs to figure out how to help both the industry and landowners.

A bill recently passed by the Iowa House would require owners of 90% of the miles on any pipeline route to sign voluntary easements in order to move forward.