Floor debate occupied much of our time this week in the Iowa Senate. On Wednesday we spent significant time discussing the need for legislative oversight in regard to Medicaid Modernization. I voted for an amendment that would provide legislative oversight of the Medicaid Modernization, but could not support the final version of the bill because […]
Providing Certainty to Iowa Taxpayers Last weekend, Governor Branstad extended the tax filing deadline for farmers to April 30. This will provide Iowa’s farmers some extra time while Senate Democrats figure out whether they want to pull the rug out from under more than 177,000 Iowa taxpayers. Pressure continues to build on Senate Democrats thanks […]
Dear friends in District 80. The House has offered a realistic and responsible budget plan with nearly the entire proposed increase targeted to Supplemental State Aid for K-12 schools and school related property tax relief. The House budget plan spends 99.9% ($7.320 billion) of on-going revenue ensuring that government does not spend more than it […]
How to find which candidates have successfully filed DES MOINES – The filing period for Iowa’s state and federal office seekers began Monday morning, February 29, at 8 am and runs through 5 pm on March 18. Candidates must file their paperwork with the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. The petition requirements for each office […]
The Iowa Senate finally got down to the business of floor debate and voted on over fifty bills this week. This is quite a contrast from last week when we had a heavy load of subcommittee and committee work due to the first funnel deadline. Much of the debate covered non-controversial bills passed out of […]
Numbers Don’t Lie – Senate Democrats’ Budget Still Doesn’t Work With Tuesday’s announcement that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had finally given approval to Iowa’s Medicaid Modernization plan, the pathway for developing the FY 2017 General Fund budget gets a bit clearer for Iowans. But it still does not fix the fact that […]
The Mahaska County Auditor’s Office is announcing a change in voting place location for voters in Oskaloosa Third Ward/University Park and Spring Creek Township. The new polling place locations will take effect beginning with the upcoming LOST Special Election on May 3, 2016 and also pertain to the Primary and General Elections later this year. […]
We are nearly halfway through session and just passed through the first “funnel” this week. Funnel week is a self-imposed deadline for the legislature to get bills passed through standing committees in either the House or the Senate in order to keep those bills alive for the rest of the session. Funnel week helps us […]
Funnel week at the Capitol has come to an end. We pushed through legislation to be sure we can debate the issues that matter to you most later in session. Below you will find information about the most recent happenings here at the Capitol. If you have any questions, I encourage you to contact me […]
More than 560,000 Iowans are covered by Medicaid, the $4.5 billion federal/state health care administered by the state of Iowa. Since 2003, the annual cost to Iowa taxpayers for the state portion of Medicaid has increased from $430 million to $1.718 billion. That kind of increase simply is not sustainable. The rising Medicaid costs prompted […]
