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Senate Update: After 2017 session: It’s time to change course for better Iowa
by Bob Dvorsky, State Senator · Op-Ed · May 11, 2017


The 2017 session wrapped up on Saturday, April 22.
It was a bad year for working families and vulnerable Iowans.

Not only are the Branstad-Reynolds Administration, legislative Republicans and out-of-state special interests driving down wages, cutting health care and degrading our quality of life, they managed to turn Iowa’s $928 million surplus into a $130 million deficit.

To fill their budget hole, they took $131 million from the state’s Cash Reserve Fund. That’s nothing more than a Band-Aid. It won’t fix the problem, and paying back the money means more cuts that force students and families to pay for failed policies.

We are in this position because the Branstad-Reynolds Administration broke their promises to increase family incomes by 25 percent and to create more than 200,000 new jobs. Iowa’s economy has slowed, the state budget is in the red and it’s becoming harder to attract the top-notch workers that every Iowa community and business wants. Working families—the backbone of our communities and way of life—have been pushed aside and disregarded.

We must change course and make working families, communities and small businesses a priority again by:

• Investing in K-12 schools and preventing more school closures, especially in small towns and rural areas

• Keeping down the cost of college and job training

• Making health care accessible to all Iowans

• Paying fair, living wages to all workers

• Re-examining tax breaks for big, out-of-state corporations

To find out more about the how the 2017 session will impact Iowans, go to www.senate.iowa.gove/democrats.



To contact Senator Dvorsky during the week, call the Senate Switchboard at 515-281-3371. Otherwise he can be reached at home at 319-351-0988. E-mail him at bob.dvorsky@legis.iowa.gov.