Funding to expand passenger rail service in eastern Iowa and upgrade rail freight lines in Iowa fell victim to 11th-hour budget wrangling in the Iowa Legislature. House Republican negotiators stripped plans to spend $5.5 million in each of the next two fiscal years for Iowa’s multimodal transportation system from an infrastructure bill that got final [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad signaled Tuesday that he believes the issue of expanding health care coverage for low-income Iowans is too complicated to fix now and he favors calling lawmakers back into special session later this year once a bipartisan accord can be forged in the split-control Legislature. “We have a lot of [...]

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad reiterated his contention Monday that residents at the Iowa Veterans Home are getting top-quality care and expressed concern that criticism of leadership at the Marshalltown facility is becoming increasingly political. However, a key Democrat who has raised concern about quality of care and safety issues at the veterans’ home [...]

Language in a large appropriations bill approved by the Iowa Senate could give Johnson County more freedom in borrowing money to put toward jail and courthouse improvements. The provision, which faces an uncertain future in the Legislature, would allow Johnson County to borrow up to $1.2 million through a bond issue for a project of [...]

DES MOINES — A fairly open-ended, catch-all budget bill has touched off a feeding frenzy among interest groups and lobbyists hoping for one last shot at getting their pet project or idea into state law before the Iowa Legislature’s 2013 session adjourns. The standing appropriations bill, Senate File 452, was formally sent to a House-Senate [...]

DES MOINES – Iowa communities would be able to designate special 25-acre development zones and use a share of sales tax and hotel-motel tax revenues to assist private projects of at least $10 million under legislation that’s getting bipartisan support. House File 641 would establish reinvestment districts designed to spur development of “big ideas,” said [...]

DES MOINES – The Iowa Senate voted Wednesday to give law enforcement expanded authority to take DNA samples from people convicted of less-serious crimes classified as aggravated misdemeanors over objections the change would chip away at constitutional rights. A total of 19 Democrats joined 10 Republicans in approving a House-passed bill to require DNA samples [...]

DES MOINES – Democrats who control the Iowa Senate passed a $119 million infrastructure bill Tuesday that channels mostly state gambling profits to a wide range of environmental and building improvements next fiscal year. “This bill is about moving Iowa forward,” said Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, floor manager for House File 638. The measure [...]

The Iowa Senate approved a standing appropriations bill Monday night by a 26-21 party-line margin after debating a number of stalled policy issues that backers made a last-gasp effort to revive. Banning traffic enforcement cameras, exempting savings income from taxation and farmers from liability, expanding criminal background checks to businesses catering to children, and using [...]