The Democratic plan for 2018 calls for Putting Iowans First
- Investing in public schools & preventing more school closures
- Keeping job training & college affordable for all Iowans
- Making child care more affordable for working parents & those training for better jobs
- Raising wages for Iowans
- Increasing use of renewable energy & fuels
- Revitalizing rural Iowa with good jobs & a great quality of life
- Examining tax breaks for big, out-of-state corporations that put the state budget in the red & don’t create Iowa jobs
- Requiring the Senate GOP to pay for their $1.75 million sexual harassment suit instead of taxpayers
- Ending privatized Medicaid, especially for our most vulnerable Iowans
- Keeping health care affordable & accessible for all Iowans
- Fixing & investing in Iowa’s mental health system
- Cleaning up the corruption & cronyism in state government
Gov. Reynolds & Republican lawmakers: Misplaced priorities & mismanagement
- Instituting the most restrictive abortion ban in the country (SF 359)
- Slashing investment in skilled worker initiatives (SF 2117, HF 2493)
- Making record-low investments in public schools (HF 2230)
- Sending more money to out‐of‐state, for‐profit online schools (SF 475)
- Raising tuition & reducing opportunities with millions in mid‐year cuts to community colleges & state universities (SF 2117)
- Allowing unregulated health care plans that can deny people based on pre‐existing conditions (SF 2349)
- Reducing services at county courthouses with mid‐year cuts (SF 2117)
- Cutting $4.3 million from an already strapped Department of Human Services (SF 2117)
- Eliminating protections in current gun ownership laws (HJR 2009)
- Banning sanctuary cities even though Iowa doesn’t have any (SF 481)
- Putting Iowans’ safety at risk with lower inspection standards (HF 2297)
- Cutting energy efficiency programs & discriminating against renewable energy options (SF 2311)
- Passing a huge tax giveaway that overwhelmingly benefits corporations & the wealthy (SF 2417)
- Failing to extend funding for school infrastructure & providing more than $100 million in property tax relief with SAVE (HF 2481)
- Failing to take advantage of industrial help as a promising agricultural commodity (SF 2398)
- Allowing doctors to give incomplete information to pregnant women (SF 2418)
Several bipartisan bills were approved
- Requiring ignition interlocks & no temporary license restrictions for OWIs (HF 2338)
- Ensuring health care coverage for telemedicine services (HF 2305)
- Expanding mental health services for complex needs (HF 2456)
- Expanding Move Over law to make the roads safer (HF 2304)
- Expanding consumer security freezes to protect credit (SF 2177)
- Expanding Safe Haven laws (SF 360)
- Helping more veterans by expanding the Veterans Trust Fund (SF 2366)
- Creating security plans for all Iowa schools (SF 2364)
- Prohibiting shaming of students who can’t pay for their lunch (HF 2467)
- Protecting student athletes with new concussion protocols (HF 2442)
- Requiring suicide prevention training for school employees (SF 2113)
- Cracking down on electronic forms of identity theft (HF 2199)
- Licensing for genetic counselors (SF 2228) & autism counselors (SF 192)
- Enhancing funding for EMS transportation (HF 2285) & 911 HF 2254)
- Establishing Future Ready plan to train more skilled workers (HF 2458)
- Expanding work background checks for those with access to personal info (HF 2321, HF 637)
- Cracking down on electronic eavesdropping (HF 2392)
- Expanding help through Crime Victims Compensation Fund (SF 2165)
- Giving schools (HF 2441) & communities (SF 2258) flexibility with certain funding to meet local needs
- Improving teaching for those with dyslexia (SF 2360)
- Approving a plan to start combatting Iowa’s opioid crisis (HF 2377)
- Providing sharing incentives for schools to improve efficiency & save money (HF 633)
- Protecting the privacy of student data (HF 2354)
- Taking a first step toward fairer funding for rural schools with high transportation costs (SF 455)
Good news: These GOP bills failed
- Raising property taxes & reducing local services by ending the state’s property tax backfill for local governments & school districts (SF 2420)
- Shifting $200 million from public schools to private & home schools through vouchers (SF 2091)
- Eliminating the Iowa Department of Public Health (HF 2017)
- Reinstating the death penalty (SF 335)
- Instituting political discrimination for university faculty (SF 288)
- Intimidating abortion providers to limit health care choices for women (SF 26)
- Ending retirement security for public employees, including teachers, fire fighter, & police officers (IPERS, PORS & 411) (SF 45)
- Defining abortion as murder, even in cases of rape or incest (SF 54)
- Putting Bible literacy classes in public schools (HF 2031)
- Removing gender identity protections from Iowa Civil Rights Code (HF 2164)
- Making Iowa Supreme Court Justices part‐time & paying them like lawmakers (HF 2036)
- Giving Iowans a “license to discriminate” against fellow citizens who are different from them (SF 2338)
- Creating new requirements & drug testing for recipients of Medicaid, FIP & SNAP, while limiting food items (SF 2370)
- Requiring a super‐majority vote for Iowa Supreme Court decisions (SF 2282)
- Ending state accreditation for community colleges (SF 2272)
- Extending school bus riding times for K-12 students (SF 2137)