The Johnson County Board of Supervisors spoke against three pieces of proposed legislation in the state capitol that the board said could have negative impacts on Johnson County citizens, including agricultural tourism, childhood vaccines, and gender identity.
The first of these issues is an omnibus bill proposed by Iowa’s Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig. The bill, called the Iowa Farm Act, involves regulating transportation, products, and agricultural land, but Chair Jon Green voiced concerns surrounding the county authority’s ability to grant land use ordinances or aid in agricultural tourism.
“It would pretty well eviscerate any county authority to do any sort of land use ordinance on anything ag tourism,” Green stated.
Supervisor Lisa Green-Douglass said the board has already heard many complaints from neighbors of agricultural tourism in the north part of Johnson County. She said Johnson County has similar ordinances, but that this bill would take away local rights over defining what agricultural tourism is, as well as any regulations on noise, parking, and stormwater.
She said there is no recourse for complaints with this bill.
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Green said if the bill is passed, there are certain agricultural products including junkyards, animal slaughter, and animal rendering that would be permitted to a much higher degree than they are now. As someone who grew up on a farm, Green said many of those products were highly restricted.
“Hopefully, constituents with concerns might reach out to senators, and the senator who’s running this bill, Sen. Don Driscoll,” Green said.
Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz raised concern with Senate File 2003, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” They said the bill is expanding what the legislature has done with kindergarten through sixth grade to include seventh through 12th grade.
They said the bill prohibits any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for seventh through 12th grade students and would potentially remove books, curriculum, and other activities that deal with gender theory.
“We saw a lot of the really negative impacts on K-6 even when we were going through that mess, and the parts that were prohibited were kind of life saving for a lot of youth and families,” Fixmer-Oraiz said.
The final issue discussed at the meeting was brought up by Director of Johnson County Public Health Danielle Pettit-Majewski. She raised concerns about child safety with House File 2171, which would remove all K-12 vaccine recommendations.
Pettit-Majewski said Johnson County Public Health spent roughly $200,000 on communicable disease investigations in 2025 and has seen a decrease in childhood vaccines.
“This would just be absolutely devastating,” Pettit-Majewski said.