Common Good Iowa

Iowa advocates rally for kids' summertime food Iowa is one of 13 states not participating in a federal summer food program for children. The Iowa Hunger Coalition has launched a petition drive to convince the state to take part in next summer's program and the first deadline for signatures is approaching. The Sun Bucks program was established by...

SUN Bucks — until recently known as Summer EBT — provides nutrition benefits to children who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. In Iowa, SUN Bucks would bring $29 million in federal benefits to Iowa, benefiting 245,000 children. It's a tried-and-true approach based on the success of pilot projects that have helped families put food on the table and consume more healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Iowa is one of 13 states that chose not to participate in Summer EBT in 2024, but this week a state spokesperson told KCCI-TV the state hasn’t made a decision regarding 2025. Please help the Iowa Hunger Coalition meet — dare we suggest beat? — its goal of 2,500 signatures by adding your name!

Summer EBT - Iowa Hunger Coalition Sign the Petition We are calling on Gov. Kim Reynolds to direct the state of Iowa to participate in Summer EBT (also known as SUN Bucks) in 2025. We have set a goal of collecting 2,500 signatures by Friday, August 2. Summer EBT would provide $120 in nutrition benefits to 245,000 low-income children....

Propping up religious school systems — wasteful, unaccountable and inequitable subsidies that divert public dollars from public use. Vouchers come at a time we can expect revenues to drop by 20 percent because of tax cuts primarily for the rich — the same people who will be shielded from private-school tuition increases while lesser-earning families will still be shut out of those exclusive schools. It’s a failure of leadership for the common good.

Iowa Dept. of Education receives over 35,000 applications for Students First Education Savings Account program On Friday, the Iowa Department of Education announced that it had received 35,417 applications for the Student First Education Savings Account (ESA) program before the June 30th, 2024 deadline.

Focus on getting food to people who need it, and less on distortions about errors in SNAP 👩‍💼
administration by people who want to cut back benefits. Good explanation of the error rate issue by the Iowa Hunger Coalition.

IHC Applauds Iowa HHS’ Continued Efforts to Address SNAP Payment Error Rate - Iowa Hunger Coalition The Iowa Hunger Coalition applauds ongoing efforts by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reduce the payment error rate for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Iowa. Data released last week from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrit...

Food for thought: Nutrition one more part of a fraying safety net. And Iowa is one of the culprits. See Colin Gordon's post for Dissent:

The GOP Attack on Free Lunch - Dissent Magazine In an era of retrenchment in social policy, food assistance is becoming more generous and inclusive. But Republican politicians are attempting to gut one of the most popular programs: free school lunch.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2024/06/23/iowa-child-labor-law-mess-teenagers-state-must-clean/74146583007/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3On67ccCfqGg2fEE2CkYXqBjCCbNpUw_b5yWiZz5bX11uJfq6pbah26ts_aem_ukJJVWXZbyMTkpuOlZVfNw

Iowa businesses and lawmakers ignore warnings on child labor and reap consequences Opinion: This outcome was fully predicted, yet Iowa is poised to keep doubling down on its harmful errors, writes the Register's editorial board.

CGI’s Sean Finn: Restaurant lobby getting just deserts as feds keep enforcing U.S. laws on child labor.

Serving up just deserts on child labor Iowa's governor and restaurant industry should not have been surprised that federal investigators would not ignore federal law protecting children from unsafe work conditions in favor of Iowa's new, looser rules.

New report: Iowa drops below Wisconsin, Illinois and Nebraska in education rankings - Little Village Iowa scored relatively well in education rankings among the states, but with declining test scores and on-time high school graduation rates decreasing, the state has fallen from its highs of […]

What is Iowa doing to improve child well-being? Download the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a report that assesses national and state data across four domains — economic well-being, education, health and family and community factors. Despite a relatively high overall ranking, the data show Iowa leaders must do more to prepare children to learn so they are ready to earn when they reach adulthood. https://bit.ly/2024KCDB-Facebook

Independent analysis comes up with different conclusions than those of the business lobby. Common sense and math make it clear the big tax cuts for the rich will cause lasting damage in Iowa.

Opinion: Have no fear, Iowa, ‘dynamic’ tax cuts are here Economic growth will trickle down and make everyone a winner.

A welcome investment—but Summer EBT, which Iowa rejected, would have done so much more, at a bargain price. It would have cost the state about $9 per child to provide the 245,000 kids with $120 in nutrition benefits.

Digging into the Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant Award Announcement - Iowa Hunger Coalition Last Thursday, May 23, the state of Iowa announced the grant awardees for the Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant through the Iowa Department of Education. 38 school districts and host organizations were awarded a total of $900,000 to launch 61 new meal sites across the state this summer. In 2023, t...

Austin Frerick, author of Barons: Money, Power and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, is the guest on River to River on IPR at noon today. Austin will also talk about his new book at the Sierra Club Central Iowa auction on July 25th. (H/T Michael Tramontina)

We are proud to have Austin on the Common Good Iowa board of directors.

SNAP cuts mean no Farm Bill. So it’s on the hunger promoters if a bill doesn’t pass.

A fight over SNAP funding could derail the farm bill A partisan fight over federal food support programs is posing a major challenge to both chambers as they try to craft a mammoth farm bill ahead of an early fall deadline. Congress has just four mon…

Iowa’s leaders are peddling fantasy about their tax cuts for the wealthy.

Guest opinion: Iowa’s tax-and-budget fantasy world Iowans soon will realize Gov. Kim Reynolds and tax-cutting legislative leaders have Iowa on a destructive course.

"Vouchers are not a cost-free policy that simply adds on another education option for children—they are instead an intentional attack on universal public education, one of the crown jewels of U.S. society." See the EPI blog.

Vouchers undermine efforts to provide an excellent public education for all Since the early 2000s, many states have introduced significant voucher programs to provide public financing for private school education. These voucher programs are deeply damaging to efforts to offer an excellent public education for all U.S. children—and this is in fact often the intention of th...

Warning from food assistance expert at CBPP: House Ag Chair Thompson’s farm bill proposal would take away about $30 billion in food assistance from households receiving over the next decade:

House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill’s $30 Billion Cut to Future SNAP Benefits and Other Harmful Changes Overshadow Modest Improvements | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The farm bill’s top priority should be protecting and strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, our nation’s most important anti-hunger program. This proposal fails to do so and should be rejected.

Seven of the 57 workers remembered this weekend and Monday in Workers’ Memorial Day observances died as a result of motor vehicle accidents. That would not include accidents on the way to and from work. Yet, the folks running the Iowa Legislature determined the cheap labor offered by teenagers was enough to put younger workers on the road — as far as 25 miles from home — to appease business interests. More Iowa shame on child labor.

https://www.commongoodiowa.org/blog/2024/04/30/driving-teens-down-iowas-low-road

Iowa's short-sighted Medicaid postpartum coverage plan gets attention nationally. From our smart friends at Georgetown Ccf: "A policy designed to help more pregnant women access postpartum care will only happen because Iowa lawmakers removed access to any affordable coverage for pregnant women and newborns in working families. Not only will fewer pregnant women benefit from a full year of postpartum coverage but fewer will qualify to get Medicaid coverage in the first place, missing out on critical prenatal care."

Postpartum Coverage and Benefits Key, But Merely the Start of Needed Medicaid Work to Address Maternal Health Crisis Federal and state leaders have prioritized maternal health in Medicaid in recent years with welcome (if overdue) attention. As Say Ahhh! readers know, the new state option to extend postpartum cove…

The deadline for organizations to apply for the Governor's summer meal expansion grants -- May 7 -- is fast approaching. Her plan to expand the number of summer meal sites should complement, not replace, participating in Summer EBT, the new federal nutrition initiative she rejected earlier this year. Here's a quick summary of the differences between Summer EBT and the Governor's far less ambitious proposal.

Iowa is still digging a hole that won't fix itself. This graph gives a sense of the revenue loss for schools, child care, health care, public safety and water quality services under the tax bill passed today by the Senate and ready for consideration in the House possibly tonight. The cuts, added to scheduled cuts in the 2022 tax bill, will be roughly a $2 billion loss of revenue compared with 2022, over 20 percent of the budget passed that year. We'll hit that point about two years earlier than under the 2022 bill.

Legislation moving today in the Iowa State Capitol would make this picture look much worse. Instead of a "flat" tax of 3.9% in 2026, it would be 3.8% in 2025. As shown below, the costs already when current law phases in are dramatic and certain — absolutely certain — to devastate public services that we all count on without an increase in something else, such as sales taxes or property taxes or fees and fines. Very few are speaking out against this. Many will regret it later.

Right now, lawmakers at the Iowa State Capitol are debating a tax-cut giveaway that would overwhelmingly benefit the rich as it threatens our ability to build a better Iowa for everyone.

Send a letter here:

Tell Iowa Legislators: Prioritize the needs of Iowans over income-tax cuts for the rich Use this action page to contact your legislators now!

“To disrespect democracy is to disrespect Iowans. That is fast becoming the legacy of the current legislative majority.” Guest opinion by Mike Owen of Common Good Iowa in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Opinion: Iowa lawmakers: Our tax system is broken; let’s break it some more Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds reacts after signing a property tax cut bill, Thursday, May 4, 2023, at the Statehouse in …

Constitutional amendments locking in extreme tax cuts for the wealthy would assure long-term damage to Iowa’s infrastructure of public services, and enshrine unfairness in our tax code. CGI’s Mike Owen discussed the issues on Iowa Public Radio’s “River to River” program this week. The Senate is scheduled today to consider a proposal for a constitutional amendment that would make it virtually impossible to undo the damage they are doing. Here’s a podcast of the IPR program.

A look at tax cuts proposed in Iowa Iowa Republicans are currently working on a constitutional amendment that would require a flat tax rate and could raise the bar for increasing personal and corporate taxes in the future.

Neither legislators nor voters today have a right to tie the hands of future elected legislators or the voters who elect them. The House vote is a betrayal of Iowa’s democratic principles.

Republicans' superminority plan betrays democracy, voters and Iowa's future Opinion: Under this income tax plan, as few as 17 lawmakers could block an idea 133 other legislators and the governor agree on, writes Anne Discher.

Which one is the April Fool’s joke?

— The NCAA this morning announced Iowa would have to score 2 points for every 1 point by LSU to win tonight.

— The Iowa House voted last week to require 2 “yes” votes for every 1 “no” vote to reverse any income-tax rate cuts for the wealthy or corporations.

The multifaceted education bill being debated in the Senate today includes continued underfunding of education. It's a long-term problem. They pretend they're doing more but they're not keeping up with costs. The 2.5% SSA level -- per pupil funding increase -- will put Iowa at a hair above 2% on average for the last 14 years.

Let's not take the wrong turn when lawmakers return to Des Moines in January. Already, Iowa is among 13 states that have passed tax cuts IN MULTIPLE YEARS that limit their ability to maintain support for schools, heath and safety and make investments that strengthen the economy and promote opportunity. Lawmakers should not make things worse in 2024. This new report from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities puts Iowa's folly in context. https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/states-recent-tax-cut-spree-creates-big-risks-for-families-and