Iowa Senators Webster and Winckler review legislature’s education moves
Iowa state lawmakers wrapped up their legislative session last week after putting the finishing touches on an $8.9 billion budget About a billion dollars will go to education – that’s for public schools, higher education and other programs.
It amounts to a 2 ½ percent increases for schools and colleges.
Other legislation changes the way Area Education Agencies will be funded in the future for providing special education, criticized by opponents as cuts to the agencies.
Lawmakers also approved another cut to income taxes. The state will move to a flat tax of 3.8 percent in 2025. That’s a year earlier than scheduled for the flat tax and a 10th of a point less.
Two Constitutional amendments related to taxes passed, one to add the flat tax to the state constitution and the other to require a super-majority vote from lawmakers to approve any income tax increases.
There was never really any doubt that Republicans would adopt their priorities. Time will tell to see the impact they have in the short and long-term.
Host Jim Niedelman gets into that with Iowa State Senators Cindy Winckler and Scott Webster.
Webster said education continues to be a priority, and that includes teacher pay. “We’ve put $223.2 million to K-12 education this year,” he said.
“The one thing that we missed out on, we’ve cut several million dollars from our Area Education Agencies, which really provided supports for our schools and our students,” Winckler said.
Hear what else our panelists have to say when you click on the video.
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