Newsletter archives

 

April 7, 2026 | Tell your Senator: Give our early learners more time to engage in the important work of play

Play is often seen as simple fun, but in preschool and kindergarten, it is one of the most powerful tools for learning and development. Research consistently shows that play-based learning improves young children's attention, motivation and overall academic readiness. A bill that would require preschools and kindergartens to offer some time for play-based learning each day has stalled in the Iowa Senate.

 

March 31, 2026 | Health-insurance tax shows the folly of short-term revenue fixes

The ruling party has had 10 years to prove their thesis that big tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and corporations will make our state stronger and more competitive. Instead they’ve failed to make meaningful improvements in the lives of Iowans and blown a billion-dollar hole in the budget. Their current gambit? Spending temporary money to defer even more long-term pain and hoping you don’t notice until it becomes the next governor and legislature’s problem.

Also: updates on codifying CCA for child-care workers, property taxes and impacts of 2022 UI cuts

 

March 2, 2026 | Coal transition is inevitable; who benefits isn't

Iowa needs a long-term state and local strategy to ensure that the transition away from coal power benefits the communities near former coal sites and the workers who sustain them. That strategy involves participatory transition governance, dedicated funding for economic transition and site redevelopment, worker support and training, and framework for community benefits agreements that empower local governments to negotiate good deals with developers.

Also: property taxes, threats of anti-democratic constitutional amendment and Early Childhood Iowa

 

February 17, 2026 | Another session, another meanspirited attack on immigrant moms and kids

A bill moving through the Iowa House would deny the basics of good nutrition — including baby formula — to young children and pregnant and postpartum women who can’t document lawful immigrant status. Iowa would join just one other state — Idaho — in barring undocumented families from WIC.

Also: More on Early Childhood Iowa, and how a constitutional amendment question would authorize minority rule on income-tax increases

 

February 6, 2026 | Senate panel advances inadequate school funding proposal — again

Fitting for Groundhog's Day week, a Senate committee advanced a bill on Thursday that would do the same thing the Legislature did last year, and the year before that: slowly starve our schools. The legislation they approved falls far below what's needed to keep up with rising costs and meet the needs of Iowa students. 

The bill, would set Supplemental State Aid — the rate of increase in general per-pupil funding from the previous year — at 1.75%. The Governor beats that figure, but barely, proposing a paltry 2% SSA increase in her budget.

Also: More on property taxes, Join us for a conversation about Iowa's energy transition from coal

 

January 27, 2026 | HHS bill would end Early Childhood Iowa

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services dropped a surprise 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. Although the bill has some strong elements, it offers the same problems that stalled a similar bill last year.

Also: Property tax updates and proposed water quality requirements for data centers

 

January 16, 2026 | Revenue: How'd we get into this pickle, and how do we get out?

To set a course for the future, it’s helpful to understand how you got where you are. After years of tax cuts skewed to the wealthy, Iowa now faces a billion-dollar deficit.

Also: Property-tax cuts take center stage, legislative leaders admit need for minimum-wage hike — but only for themselves, and challenges, controversies and new policy directions in child care

 

April 21, 2025 | Workers need dignity and a fair wage, not tax gimmicks

When work doesn’t pay, it’s time for serious economic solutions. But proposals advancing in the Iowa House — HF 1024 and HF 1030, which would remove income tax on overtime and tipped income — are shiny distractions that do little to help. While these bills may sound like a break for hardworking Iowans, they’re poorly targeted and poorly designed.

Also: UI and property taxes, minority rule on incomes tax increases, paid parental leave for state employees, federal tax and budget proposals, threats to Head Start

 

March 28, 2025 | ‘Cost shift’: How federal budget cuts would leave Iowa lawmakers in the lurch

Leaders in Congress are negotiating a budget plan that would take health coverage and nutrition assistance away from millions of people — all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest households and corporations. Although negotiations are happening among lawmakers in DC, they have massive implications for lawmakers in Des Moines.

Also: Proposed property tax cuts raise concerns

 

January 24, 2025 | Overtime and tips from taxes is wrong solution to a very real problem

Well-intentioned policy changes do not always make things better. Case in point: ideas to exempt overtime pay and tips from income taxes. Such proposals, now emerging in Iowa, aim to address a fundamental problem — that many people are working hard but still struggling to make ends meet. But tax cuts are a clumsy tool with real downsides.

Also: UI taxes, unsupervised teens in child care, dangerous SNAP cuts

 

January 17, 2025 | Lawmakers look to cut Medicaid by ramping up administrative hurdles

In 2013, Iowa was among the first states to take up the federal option to expand Medicaid to low-income adults. In doing so, we cut our state’s uninsured rates and made it possible for thousands of Iowans to see a doctor, get medications, and go to the hospital without fear of choosing between their health, buying groceries or paying the rent. The Governor and some lawmakers — empowered by the incoming presidential administration — now want to pare back Iowa’s adult coverage gains.

 

January 15, 2025 | Contact your Member of Congress TODAY and tell them to protect Medicaid

Politico last week published a leaked document from the U.S. House outlining budget cuts they are considering to pay for tax cuts skewed to the wealthy. Unsurprisingly, Medicaid — health insurance for low-income children, low-wage workers, people with disabilities and older adults in nursing homes — was the biggest target. Our Iowa House delegation needs to hear from you this week, as Congress mulls its next steps on the budget.