News from Every Child Counts
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5/24/13
The legislative session ended yesterday after an extended session. It was a whirlwind ending with bills bouncing back and forth between the two chambers. We are still reading through all the final bills/conference committee reports but would like to provide you with a very quick update. We will send out a more comprehensive update next week. Please remember that the Governor still needs to sign all the bills so none of this is really final until that happens.
Highlights:
SF 295 - Property Tax Reform
- Increases the Earned Income Tax Credit from 7% to 14% in tax year 2013; 15% in tax year 2014. The credit is retroactive to January, 2013.
- Each year, beginning July 1, 2014, the balance of the Taxpayers Trust Fund exceeds $30 million a tax credit will be issued to Iowa taxpayer
HF 215 - Education Reform (We are still analyzing this final Conf. Committee Report)- Increases allowable uses for preschool funding by
community based providers, allowing them to cover
their actual expenses related to the program.
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Preschool Assessment language (p. 85). (We feel
some of this language is very problematic)
SF 446 - Health and Human Services Appropriations
SF 452 - Standings Appropriations
- Supplemental weighting for Limited English Proficient Students.
- Mandates hospitals perform the Newborn Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening. This screening will now be included in Iowa's Newborn Screening Panel.
- Mental health reform - Children's Workgroup will reconvene (we are still analyzing this portion)
- Farm to Food Tax Credit
- School Employee Background Checks
- Increase for Shared Visions
HF 604 - Education Appropriations
- $400,000 - For Early Head Start expansion grants. Priority given to those who had previously received state funding for EHS expansion.
- $1,331,000 - For Reading Research Center which was created in last year's ed reform bill.
- $8,000,000- For Successful Readers Progression
- Early Childhood Iowa Local Board language (p. 21)
- Codifies Home Visitation language
We know we have not covered nearly everything all of you are interested in but we wanted to highlight some of the legislation passed related to our priority areas. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive update in the next week. Again, please remember, the Governor has yet to sign any of this legislation.
We appreciate all the work of the legislators, staff and advocates who worked extremely hard this session at passing a budget for children and families. We know this is just the beginning, we have much more to do.
And finally, don't forget to thank your legislators for all the hard work put into this legislative session. There are many to thank and we hope to highlight them and their hard work in our next updates. We hope you have a nice, restful holiday weekend! Sincerely,
Sheila Hansen & Danielle Oswald-Thole and all the other at the Child and Family Policy Center!
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