Media Center - Page 2

Children of color in Iowa fare at best modestly better than their peers nationwide — and far more poorly than their white Iowa peers, according to Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2024 Race for Results report. These findings reflect failure in Iowa and nationally to equip all children to succeed.

Governor Kim Reynolds is adding ingredients to the 2022 "recipe for disaster" that she and legislators are following in Iowa tax policy. The result will be even worse than previously expected.

Iowa’s upside-down tax system, with the wealthy paying a far lesser share of their income to tax than low- and middle-income families, is about to get worse. New research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows scheduled reductions in personal and corporate income taxes will widen this disparity, while proposals to eliminate state and local income taxes would make Iowa one of the 10 worst states for tax equity.

A time of strong revenues is the right time to use surplus dollars for critical, one-time needs that otherwise are likely to go unmet. Fixing Iowa's $1.35 billion lead-pipe problem is one example of how we can do better for our health and that of future Iowans. Tax cuts don't meet that test.

If Iowa were to eliminate the state personal income tax, as Governor Kim Reynolds and key legislators propose, it would not only wipe out about half of state budget revenues, but overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Iowans. New analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) for Common Good Iowa projects an average tax cut of $60,228 for the top 1 percent of Iowa residents by income, compared to a $1,468 average break in the middle group of earners and only $45 in the lowest one-fifth of earners.

Iowans are going to hate it. They are going to hate the crowded classrooms, loss of exceptional teachers, and ballooning college tuition. They will hate it when friends and family lose health coverage, their local hospitals slash services or close altogether, and the state does even less to protect our air and water. They’re also going to hate they were not told the hard truth about tax cuts by the people promoting them, including Gov. Kim Reynolds.

As Iowa lags its neighbors and most states, a federal minimum wage boost to $17 an hour would benefit 387,000 Iowa workers by 2028.

Sending Iowa National Guard and state patrol officers to the nation's southern border -- and using federal COVID relief to do it -- is a political stunt that detracts from initiatives that we already seeing can make a difference in boosting the Iowa economy.

New restrictions to SNAP and Medicaid access for struggling Iowa families fail tests of common sense and fiscal responsibility, while taking food and health care away from children.

Reorganization of state government should be a done in a careful, transparent and inclusive process, not the rush job Governor Reynolds and legislative leaders are making of it. It's time to push the PAUSE button and bring all Iowans to the table, to do this right.