WINDSOR HEIGHTS – State environmental regulators were blistered Tuesday by organized critics who blasted their inaction in curbing corporate farm pollution and demanded more enforcement of clean air and clean water standards. A dozen members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) took turns berating the state’s Environmental Protection Commission for failing to live up [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad’s support for federal legislation to bolster state efforts to collect sales taxes on Internet sales may land him on the wrong side of a “generational divide” with young voters, opponents of the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act said Monday. Branstad has written Iowa’s congressional delegation, urging them to support legislation that [...]

DES MOINES – Fiscal 2013 is turning out to be a jackpot year for the Iowa Lottery. The state-run gambling enterprise already has posted a record $314.8 million in gross sales through May with one month remaining in the fiscal year, lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said Monday. The prize payout also has hit a record $186 [...]

DES MOINES – Some Iowa schoolchildren may be enjoying longer summer vacations next school year. Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters Monday that the state Department of Education is formulating new rules that likely will alter the practice of automatically granting waivers to school districts that seek to begin fall classes before Sept. 1. “I believe [...]

DES MOINES – Former Lt. Gov. Patty Judge recalls as coordinator for state emergency operations in June 2008 getting river crest data for eastern Iowa waterways from weather forecasters and thinking something was wrong. “I can remember saying to them, ‘That can’t be right. Something’s wrong here. Your gauges are wrong. Your projections are wrong.’ And, [...]

DES MOINES – Divided government continued to dampen the output of Iowa Legislature in 2013. Republicans in the Iowa House and Democrats in the Iowa Senate who hold controlling majorities in their respective chambers managed to agree on 146 bills and joint resolutions that passed both chambers in the same forms this year. That compared [...]

State governments are seeing their financial situations improve moderately, but two national experts warned Thursday the fiscal progress could be short lived in the face of some formidable economic challenges. After several years of slow recovery, states are beginning to see some fiscal relief, said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State [...]

  DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad announced Thursday that Iowa will form a sister state relationship with the Republic of Kosovo. During a Statehouse meeting with Hashim Thaçi, the prime minister of Kosovo, Branstad also announced the he plans to travel to Kosovo in early July to officially sign the sister state agreement – [...]

State lawmakers ended up authorizing $554 million in increased one-time and ongoing spending from the state’s general fund for the current fiscal year that ends June 30. Action taken by the politically divided Legislature that precipitated the half-billion dollar jump spanned two legislative sessions and included about $275 million in one-time commitments from the surplus [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad signed “e-fairness” legislation Tuesday designed to level the playing field for Iowa businesses by closing a loophole that allows out-of-state, online-only retailers to offer customers a purchase price without collecting the state’s sales tax. “By signing House File 625, the governor has helped the state make a huge leap forward [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad expressed hope Monday that interim appointments he has made to several key state panels will fare better in the 2014 Senate confirmation process after senators rejected two of his nominees in April and two others were pulled back and resubmitted after lawmakers adjourned. “People have had a chance to [...]

Gov. Terry Branstad said Friday he expects to sign into law a compromise provision that would allow him to decide whether taxpayer money will be used to pay for a limited number of abortion procedures for low-income Iowa women who are covered by the federal Medicaid program. A compromise struck by the split-control Legislature that [...]

Gov. Terry Branstad says public support for a gas tax increase has evaporated and he favors looking at state gambling profits or a dedicated share of the state sales tax as alternative sources to fund critical road and bridge upgrades in the future. With gasoline and diesel fuels diminishing as reliable funding sources and more [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa’s state treasury posted its first-ever billion-dollar month in May. Iowa taxpayers paid nearly $1.023 billion in state taxes last month, topping the previous record month for tax receipts by more than $200 million. State tax collections previously totaled $794.5 million in May 2012, $791.1 million in May 2007 and $782 million [...]

DES MOINES – Federal “sequestration” budget cuts are taking aim at the Iowa National Guard. Guard spokesman Col. Greg Hapgood said Wednesday about 1,100 military federal technicians – many on dual status with the state guard and the federal Department of Defense – will be required to take 11 unpaid furlough days. The time without pay [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa’s Democratic race for the 2014 gubernatorial nomination is expected to pick up now that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has taken himself out of the running . Vilsack spokesman Matt Paul confirmed Wednesday that the former governor will not be a candidate for public office in Iowa in 2014. Meanwhile, long-time State [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad has chosen a Hiawatha business as the backdrop next week when he signs the largest tax cut in Iowa history into law. Branstad announced Wednesday that he will sign Senate File 295 at 1 p.m. at Hawkeye Ready-Mix, Inc. in Hiawatha next Wednesday, June 12. The historic, wide-ranging bill provides [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa’s Democratic race for the 2014 gubernatorial nomination is expected to pick up now that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has taken himself out of the running. Vilsack spokesman Matt Paul confirmed Wednesday that the former governor will not be a candidate for public office in Iowa in 2014. Meanwhile, long-time [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa Democrats kept their promise to help middle-class Iowans during the just-completed 2013 session, party leaders said Wednesday. “Democrats delivered,” said Rep. Tyler Olson, a Cedar Rapids Democrat who also serves as chairman of the state Democratic Party. That was especially true on issues related to health care, education and tax policy,’ [...]

DES MOINES – Even with a limited agenda pared even further by divided government, the 2013 Legislature managed to touch a lot of Iowans. Laws passed during the 130-day span that the General Assembly was convened will have immediate effects as well as reverberate for years to come. See also: Some of the things the Iowa [...]