Greetings once again from the Golden Dome. I hope you have had a blessed 2024 so far!
We have had a historic few years at the Capitol. As we enter into a new session, I would first like to reflect on where we have come from and where we are at from my worldview.
We have passed transformative legislation that has attracted many new people to the state as a result. Areas of our state such as Davenport and Mason City have seen some of this activity. We have to ask ourselves, which policies have we passed that are achieving this?
One could be lower income taxes! For many years we have seen many assets leave the northwest part our state for South Dakota due to their no income tax status. Now that we have enacted major tax reforms, new families are moving into our state from blue states like Minnesota and Illinois that have worse tax climates. These tax changes, as well as other factors such as health care and our low cost of living, have now given us the new ranking as number one place to retire!
This past off-season I enjoyed studying different economic situations our country has faced in the past. One thing I learned is that during high inflationary times, the only responsible thing government can do to help ease the pain for the citizens is to lower the tax rates. If a government entity is not lowering its rates during these times, they are irresponsibly taking from you, and in essence, that behavior is a form of taxation without representation! We are working as hard as we can to make sure we are delivering the services you expect and not overcharging you for them so you can withstand this high inflationary time.
Another reason new families could be moving to Iowa is due to Education Savings Accounts! When a family can receive up to $7600 per child for the education that reflects their values and needs, this is a game changer for their thought process of which state they want to live. We are the first state in our area of the country that has accomplished this. If you have kids, why would you not think about moving to Iowa to utilize this?
Now I want to highlight a couple of our weaknesses that I will be paying attention to during this session.
We must keep a close eye on our nursing homes. In Iowa, we have more beds per capita than any other state. This has caused us to have roughly a 66% occupancy rate which is not very profitable. This reality also puts a strain on the workforce shortage. The most profitable occupancy rate we can have is around 90%. As a result, there will be more closures of nursing homes. We must keep a close eye on this situation and families need to be prepared. From a state perspective, we have control over the Medicaid reimbursement rates. We have given some increases and we may need to do more to fulfill our responsibility of the situation. A positive angle on this situation is that we are seeing more in-home care of patients, which is the most desirable of the options. Most people want to be at home with their loved ones and hopefully this continues to be a part of the trend in the future.
Another situation that has caught everyone’s eye is AEA reform. We currently spend more than $5,000 per pupil on special education services than other states, but we rank poorly on our special education assessments. We must make sure that we are achieving what we need in this area. I am new on the Education Committee and look forward to studying this issue more deeply.
To close out this letter, I will touch briefly and tenderly on the Perry tragedy. I will continue to gather the facts of the situation and be an advocate for changes that may need to take place. Thoughts and prayers are the most important thing we can do right now for Perry. Why? Thoughts and prayers humble everyone and puts us all in the proper posture to learn and appropriately meet the needs of those who are hurting. We must communicate and learn in order to prevent this from happening again. Humility is the most important ingredient in public policy, if we hope to see a better tomorrow for everyone.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you. Happy trails till we meet again for the next Capitol Roundup!
