Common Good Iowa

Iowa HHS dropped a bill last week that would eliminate our state’s longstanding early-childhood system, Early Childhood Iowa, and replace it with a centralized structure called the Early Childhood and Family Services system. It would compress what are now 38 ECI areas (overseen by local governing boards) into seven ECFS districts with wildly unbalanced populations. Each district would have an ECFS advisory council, which — regardless of district population — would have ten members appointed by HHS. And, concerningly, it would expand ECI’s distinct focus on children birth to 5 to broader focus on children under 19 "with an emphasis on children under six years of age.”

Read our bill summary here: https://prod.cdn.everyaction.com/emails/van/EA/EA017/1/105938/ChG3diKb9VQbE4b6Kfh-CQA-1PvxDYPKw2JirlNrsoK_archive

Iowa's new House Majority Leader this week called for increasing legislators' pay base, which has been $25,000 since 2007.

That might make sense, writes CGI policy analyst Sean Finn. But only if accompanied by an increase to Iowa's minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2008.

"Kaufmann makes a solid point that low pay for legislators makes it hard for non-wealthy, working-age Iowans to serve.

"But somehow, that logic only extends as far as the State Capitol grounds."

Republicans admit the need for minimum-wage hike — but only for themselves Iowa House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann is calling for an increase in legislators’ base salaries to $35,000. The same proposal failed to make it to the Governor’s desk in 2024. Legislators’ current pay of $25,000 went into effect in 2007 and hasn't been adjusted for inflation or the rising...

Iowa has put its tax code on autopilot with the federal code. That means when Congress adopts changes to benefit the rich, Iowa does, too. The Trump tax cuts are costing state services — education, public safety, health care — over $400 million this year. That contributes to the structural deficit already created by state-passed tax cuts. Reckless choices by the Governor and her legislative allies.

Vouchers leave out students in the majority of the state, because private schools aren't available statewide. In 42 of the 99 counties there is no accredited private school, and in 19 more there is only one. Vouchers divert about $8,000 per student -- over $300 million -- from public schools and other public priorities, just to subsidize tuition for families who for the most part can already afford it. Meanwhile, the state budget is beginning an era of chronic shortfalls. Iowa cannot afford the unaccountable voucher giveaway.