Over the last month I’ve attended four different candidate forums all across SE Iowa. The question is often asked; “what will you do if elected?”
Luckily for Iowa Republicans, you don’t have to ask what we will do, but you only have to look at what we have already done over the last two years:
- We delivered over $1 billion in income tax relief for all taxpayers by speeding up the implementation of the flat tax and lowering the rate to 3.8% starting next year.
- We delivered over $100 million in property tax relief with new exemptions specifically for seniors and service members.
- We increased the efficiency of state government by shrinking the number of state agencies from 37 to 16, saving over $214 million over just the first four years of implementation.
- We increased funding for mental health care and maternal support programs, and created a midwifery and rural emergency hospital licensure.
- We gave Iowa law enforcement additional policy tools and $2 million of new money to protect Iowans from illegal immigration and related crimes such as drug crimes and human trafficking.
- We supported Iowa law enforcement with additional investment in the Department of Public Safety and Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, and with policies such as covering costs for peace officers moving to Iowa and ensuring a person cannot receive bail for the murder of a police or corrections officer.
- We prioritized history and civics education, while directing the Department of Education to do a thorough review of all curriculum standards to ensure they are setting teachers and students up for success.
- We raised beginning teacher pay to the 5th highest in the nation by setting the minimum standard salary for teachers going into the profession at $50,000 a year, and for teachers with at least 12 years of experience $62,000 a year.
- We created the Iowa Workforce Grant and Incentive Program to fund scholarships for Iowa students studying to fill high-need jobs in the state such as teachers and nurses.
- We incentivized businesses of all sizes to choose Iowa as their home and targeted investment in rural Iowa with the creation of a new certified sites program to spur economic development in counties with less than 50,000 people.
- We protected Freedom of Religion by prohibiting government entities from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion by passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
You don’t have to ask Iowa Republicans what we will do if elected, but you only have to look at what we have already done.
This election is a choice between the common sense policies that have put our state in the strong position that it is in, or bringing the same far left policies being peddled by Kamala Harris and the Democrats in Washington DC to Iowa.
This election is a choice, but for most, it will be an easy one.
Representative Collins resides in Mediapolis and represents Iowa House District 95, encompassing all of Louisa, and large parts of Des Moines, Henry, and Muscatine Counties.
