| Dear Senate District 48, – Session Wrap Up – Final Week of the 91st General Assembly Session Concludes This week took us two weeks beyond our expected finish date of May 2nd, but I can now report that we have finished our work in Des Moines for the year. The week included some heated debate and some very long days, but I am happy to now be back home in the district to complete interim work as it comes my way and visit with district constituents on issues for next year’s session. I am also looking forward to focusing some attention on my real estate business and spending some quality time with my family. 2025 Session Recap This year, we passed bills addressing a number of the concerns of Iowans regarding issues in public safety, health care, education, and property rights. One of the first bills sent to the governor’s desk was the “hands free bill” banning the use of cellphones while driving to better protect drivers on the road. We also banned citizen review boards in Iowa, ensuring due process for law enforcement, and protected children from having to face their abusers in a courtroom. We created pediatric palliative care centers for youth in need of respite and hospice care in our state, and expanded birthing center options and access for Iowans. We coordinated and invested in high-demand health professional workforce in Iowa. We reformed pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices to bring more transparency and protections to Iowa patients while also protecting rural pharmacies, and reformed the prior authorization process used by insurance companies so that patients and their care come first. We took additional steps to make Iowa elections more secure, such as ensuring proper voter registration and citizenship verification, and banned ranked choice voting. We put safeguards in place for Iowa’s recounts to ensure accuracy and consistency across the state and protected the voices of full-time residents in counties with large student populations. The Iowa Legislature passed bills to help ensure students could focus on learning in the classroom instead of electronic devices and helped support students and teachers as we aim to improve math proficiency in our state. We also expanded access to preschool for families and helped provide child care solutions for working parents. We passed legislation to protect the First Amendment rights of Iowans and lowered the minimum age to possess and carry weapons to protect the Second Amendment rights of Iowans. We helped ensure Iowa is better prepared to respond in a natural disaster and provided consumer protections for Iowans while they work towards recovery in those difficult times, and we prohibited local entities from engaging in DEI activities to ensure Iowans are hired based on merit. We ensured taxpayer dollars are available for those truly in need by implementing work requirements for able-bodied Iowans receiving Medicaid expansion benefits. And, the Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 11 to protect the tax relief legacy Republicans have implemented over the past several years and make it harder to take more money out of the pockets of Iowans. One of the last bills, and perhaps one of the most controversial that we passed this session was to protect Iowan’s property rights. The practice of eminent domain has always had a purpose of providing public use of lands. It was important to Iowans that we safeguard against someone’s private property being taken for corporate private use. HF 639 passes the Iowa Senate Conservative and Responsible Budgeting Continues Passing a conservative, responsible budget was once again a priority for our Republican-led legislature. In doing so, we focused on the most important priorities for Iowans and implemented a $9.425 billion budget. This increase includes a growth of $240 million in K-12 education funding for the upcoming year. A responsible budget was especially important this year as we adjust to the first year of our historic flat tax for Iowans and seek to ensure it is sustainable for future years. The whole point of cutting income taxes was to allow for hard-working Iowans to keep more money in their pockets to spend as they see fit. This could be in saving for a rainy day, putting it towards education or a home, or putting it into their community. Nonetheless, that means less money is coming in to the state, as intentioned. While others may be crying budget crisis, that is far from the truth. This is what we have budgeted for, what we have planned for, and what the goal was for implementing historic income tax reform. I’m confident that we will continue focusing on responsible budgeting as our state continues to move in the right direction. Improving Healthcare Access for Iowans House File 972 also passed out of the legislature this week and is now ready for the governor’s signature. This is a bill that I mentioned in a previous newsletter this year and it will expand access to health care in Iowa, especially in rural communities, and will help grow our workforce in this area. House File 972 creates the Health Care Professional Incentive Program to identify high demand jobs across the state and helps us make adjustments to be sure we are investing taxpayer dollars where the state needs it most. The legislation also helps train an estimated 460 new physicians through residency programs at Iowa’s teaching hospitals. Tax Relief for Iowa Businesses We also passed Senate File 607 this week, making significant reforms to the unemployment insurance tax system. SF 607 builds on our accomplishments over the last several years of helping Iowans find fulfilling work, growing our workforce, and making it easier for Iowans to provide for themselves and their families. For the last several years, the Iowa legislature has prioritized reform to Iowa’s unemployment system. Because of these changes, our state has cut the number of people on unemployment in half and has gotten Iowans back to work faster. Senate File 607 is possible because of these reforms, and it will reduce costs to the employers and businesses that are driving the economy in our state. The bill cuts the taxable wages for the unemployment insurance tax system and reduces the highest rate businesses would pay to the unemployment insurance trust fund. The unemployment trust fund is currently at around $2 billion. Over the next five years, this bill is estimated to provide nearly one billion dollars in tax relief for businesses. While the legislature focused reforms on the unemployment system, the underlying unemployment tax system remained unchanged. SF 607 is the next step forward to continue helping Iowans get back to work, to put more money back into Iowa employers and small businesses, and to help Iowa’s economy thrive. Our Work Continues Many important issues were discussed the last days of session as we focused on how best to keep moving our state forward. There were some bills that made progress and others that did not move forward. The interim will give us more time to work through some more complicated issues and get more feedback on bills, ideas and proposals. Hopefully, some of these will come before the Iowa Legislature during next year’s session. The interim will also be a time for attending important events and meetings around District 48. I am proud of the work we have done and feel like we accomplished a lot this year. First Interim Event – Muscatine Community College 2025 Spring Graduation It was an honor to attend the 2025 MCC Spring Graduation Ceremony last evening. Attendance was great, and the presentation of the graduates took place with much pomp and circumstance. I was impressed by the number of graduates and the number of degree and certificate programs represented. I was especially pleased to witness the first Nursing Program graduates from the Career Advancement Center receive their diplomas. Medical safety is something I am passionate about and knowing that these students are receiving a strong educational background at this great hands-on facility is important to me. Nice presentation, President DeWinter and Staff! Congratulations Graduates! Mark |