Government : Hello, Iowa House District 84 from the State Capitol!

Week six at the state capitol turned out to be a very busy one, as it was the first of two funnel weeks. This means that last week was the deadline to keep bills advancing to have a chance to pass either the house or the senate. The exceptions to this rule are bills that involve the committees of Appropriations, Ways & Means, and Government Oversight. Bills from these committees are allowed to continue after the first funnel week.

We voted this last Thursday on Senate File 2201, the State Supplemental Aid (SSA) bill for our K-12 students. The house proposed a 2.25% increase, Governor Kim Reynolds proposed a 2% increase, and the senate proposed a 1.75% increase. In order to get this bill passed and to the school districts so they can establish their budgets, the legislature has come to the agreement of a 2% increase and $7 million more for para-educator staff.

With SF 2201 being passed, this will bring the federal, state, and local funding of schools to almost $24,000 per student. People have said it’s not enough, but Iowa starting teacher pay is in the top 10 nationally, with the average teacher salary at about $63,500, and very competitive across the Midwest. Sure, Illinois pays more (www.ziprecruiter.com reports only about $1200/year more), but their cost of living is due to the horrible spending by their Democrat-controlled state. The relative value of $100 per state according to www.gobankingrates.com, Iowa ranks 8th nationally for cheapest cost of living. Our teacher salaries are very competitive with other similar states, and Iowa teacher vacancy rates are 1.12%, while the national average is about 3%.

I received an email from Deanna Triplett, Chief Legislative Policy Strategist with the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) on Friday. The IEDA board has approved a $3 million capital investment award to the Sewer Equipment Company of America to purchase an existing facility in Vinton to bring all fabrication operations to Iowa! This is expected to create 30 jobs, of which 22 jobs will have a qualifying wage of $24.18 per hour.

On February 17th, I visited with Brad Mertens, CEO of the Metco Credit Union in Cedar Rapids, about the priorities credit unions would like to see happen in the legislature. On February 18th, Carter Hayden of Blairstown visited the capitol before attending a function for Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn.

Have a great week, March and spring is right around the corner!