The Iowa House has passed a plan to increase pay for teachers and school support staff.
Over two years, the bill (HF 2630) would increase the minimum salary schools can pay teachers from 33,500 dollars a year to 50,000.
It includes money to help districts reach a 15 dollar per hour minimum wage for hourly staff such as paraeducators.
Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights pointed out that the House teacher pay plan was separated from its proposal on Area Education Agencies. The Senate and Gov. Kim Reynolds have tied the two issues together.
The House will still have to work out differences on teacher pay with the Senate and governor’s office.
The Senate is proposing a lower minimum salary, around 46,000 dollars. And in a recent letter to superintendents Gov. Kim Reynolds said she wants to include a minimum for teachers with 12 years of experience, at 62,000 dollars.
A Senate subcommittee is advancing a bill that says providing someone with drugs laced with fentanyl could lead to a charge of first-degree murder if that person dies of an overdose.
The House has already passed the bill. The charge would apply whether or not the accused knew they were sharing something with fentanyl in it.
But Democratic Sen. Janice Weiner of Iowa City says, if the goal is to cut off the source of deadly drug, what a person knows should matter.
“If it’s a dealer, great, lock them up. If it’s something accidental, I don’t want to ruin someone’s life for something accidental.”
Republican Sen. Jeff Taylor says he’s interested in a failed House amendment that would charge a person with murder who knowingly provides fentanyl.
Democrats proposed that idea but GOP lawmakers in the House voted it down. The bill sponsor said it would be too difficult for prosecutors to prove.
Iowans favor gradually reducing the state’s income tax until it is eliminated, according to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2024/03/07/iowa-poll-majority-of-iowans-favor-eliminating-individual-income-tax/72847668007/
Nearly three-quarters of Iowa Republicans 74% favor eliminating the income tax compared with 63% of political independents and 42% of Democrats.
Summit Carbon Solutions wants to expand its pipeline footprint in Iowa by 50 percent, according to a filing made to the Iowa Utilities Board this week.
https://iub.iowa.gov/hazardous-liquid-pipeline-requests
The company filed a request Monday to hold public informational meetings in 22 counties regarding a proposal to construct 340 miles of 6- and 8-inch diameter pipelines.
The company needs approval from the Iowa Utilities Board for its initial proposal. The plan includes nearly 700 miles of pipe in Iowa that would connect to a dozen ethanol plants to transport captured carbon dioxide to North Dakota for underground storage.
The company proposes to build 18 trunk and lateral pipelines that would connect POET Bioprocessing (POET) and Valero Renewables (Valero) facilities to the proposed Midwest Carbon Express.
On Wednesday, the South Dakota House and Senate heard and voted to pass three amended pipeline bills one more time, officially sending the legislative package to Gov. Kristi Noem's desk, according to the Argus Leader.
One of the bills is a "Landowner Bill of Rights" bill with provisions that include 15 protections for property owners whose land runs along with a carbon dioxide pipeline.
Another pipeline bill requires pipeline and transmission developers to provide more detailed notice ahead of planned land surveys and examinations.
Visitors will enjoy more than $1 million of recent upgrades to state park and recreation areas in the Panhandle this summer, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
These state park system projects and more largely have been funded by Capital Maintenance Funds.
The funds were established by the Nebraska Legislature to help preserve Nebraska’s public outdoor recreation facilities and parklands; other state and federal funding sources; and Nebraska Game and Parks’ funds generated from user fees of the state park system.
