Warme

I’ve never been a big fan of youth lock-ins or slumber parties, but there was something magical about our marathon ending to the legislative session last week. All that downtime between debates and votes as we worked from Wednesday morning straight through to 6:05 am Thursday offered opportunities for reconciliation within and across chambers. I witnessed and participated in some surprising conversations. There’s something very humanizing about falling asleep in chairs next to people you’ve been so mad at or standing at the restroom mirror next to women from the other political party lamenting the fact you’ve all been in the same suits for 20 hours and the news cameras are still rolling. We had an impromptu sing-along with one senator on guitar, celebrated a birthday, and paced around the rotunda reminiscing with lobbyists and staffers.

It occurred to me that at the end of the (very long) day, we were 150 Iowans who just spent 123 days trying to make our state better. Sometimes we agree how to do that, and sometimes we vehemently disagree across chambers or parties or within our own caucus. I think we completed a lot of good work for Iowans this session, and in some cases succeeded by not advancing an idea.

I’m still reflecting on the biggest things we accomplished across the full session, so I’ll start with three highlights from that final night:

1. We passed a $1.2 billion tax cut for businesses of all sizes (majority to small businesses). The cuts are made possible by reforms to Iowa’s unemployment system over the last several years, cutting the number of people on unemployment in half and getting Iowans back to work faster. Helping Iowans find fulfilling work, expanding our workforce, and reducing costs to employers will grow the economy in our state.

2. I completed my work on the $2.8 billion Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs budget. A responsible budget was important this year as we adjust to the first year of our historic flat tax and ensure it is sustainable for future years. The point of cutting income taxes for hard-working Iowans was to keep more money in their pockets, and that means less money is coming into the state, as intended. On the HHS budget, we found a balance between many worthy requests and continued above benchmark funding to mental health services, increased dollars for home-based community services and dental care, and expanded a program providing home buyer credits for veterans.

3. We allocated $56 million from the opioid settlement funds to proven programs providing treatment of and prevention from the ongoing opioid epidemic. The funds include $2 million for a new workforce development program at the recently opened YSS Ember Recovery Campus in Story County. It also creates a framework for future distribution of the funds which I hope will enable monies for innovative programs like the MPACT police co-responder program in Marshalltown.

As we move into the interim season, I look forward to connecting with constituents across the district and hearing from you what you’d like at the top of my list for next session.

——

Kara Warme, a Republican from Ames, represents District 26 in the Iowa Senate.