The First Regular Session of the 89th Iowa General Assembly kicked off on Monday, January 11th. The first two weeks of a session are typically ceremonial. This year is very different, as legislators see an urgency to get moving in case a COVID outbreak shuts down the process. Last week over 100 new bills were introduced almost every day, and there are no signs of it slowing down.
 
In partnership with Professional Developers of Iowa, BILL TRACKER provides you with access to a list of bills we are monitoring (select "Professional Developers of Iowa" from the Bill Tracker dropdown box). Use this tool throughout the year to track progress on legislation we are tracking.
 
The only two things the Legislature MUST get done this session are approving a Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget and redistricting using the new census data. They are likely to do a number of additional things, including implementing some of the recommendations made by the Governor's Economic Recovery Advisory Council, COVID Relief and possibly tax reform.

Governor Reynold’s outlined her policy priorities and introduced her FY 2022 and 2023 budget recommendations on the second day of the session. The Legislature will use the Governor’s Budget as a guide in putting together their own FY 2022 budget. The priorities include:

• Aggressive broadband build-out ($150 million/year for three years - $450 million total) to address both access and speed.
• Expand access to childcare by eliminating assistance cliff and doubling income cut-off for child/dependent tax credit from $45,000/year to $90,000/year.
• Eliminate triggers to the tax reform bill passed three years ago, causing a $157.2 million reduction to general fund.
• Increase access to affordable housing
• Add $20 million to help schools that opted to have a 100% in-person option available to kids and suggesting 2.5% “allowed growth” to schools for each of the next two years (about $20 million each year). Reynolds also urged the Legislature to require all schools to provide 100% in person option and end 100% online-only instruction.
• Add $15 million each year for two years to help fill in gaps in the state’s Mental Health and Disability Services (MH/DS) regional system.
• Increase the Workforce Housing Tax Credit from $25 million to $50 million, and increase the small cities allocation from $10 million to $20 million
• Increase the Redevelopment Tax Credit program (Brownfields/Grayfields) from $10 million to $20 million while extending the sunset by 10 years
• Create of an affordable housing tax credit of up to $15 million for developers of low-income housing
• Increase the Future Ready Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship program from $13m to $23m
• Increases the Future Ready Iowa Employer Innovation Fund by $3M.
• Continue to fully fund the property tax backfill to local governments