Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 10
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 10, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high of 27 degrees. The wind will be calmer Wednesday, with a 5 to 10 mph wind that could gust as high as 20 mph.
After snowfall totals nearing a foot in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City through yesterday evening, there could be still more snow on Wednesday. There will be a high chance of snow at around 5 to 11 p.m., with a potential of up to two more inches of snow.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds used her seventh Condition of the State speech Tuesday to call for accelerated income tax cuts and to express grief over last week’s deadly school shooting in Perry — and her gratitude for law enforcement and school officials who responded to it.
The Republican governor, in her annual address to a joint session of the Iowa House and Senate, also outlined plans to increase teacher pay, reform the state’s Area Education Agencies that serve children with disabilities and create a network of nonprofits to connect Iowans in need with assistance.
Reynolds began her address by acknowledging the shooting Thursday at Perry High School that killed 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff, a sixth-grader, and injured seven students and school staff. The 17-year-old shooter, a student there, killed himself.
Reynolds and lawmakers took a moment of silence to honor those affected by the Perry school shooting, and also an Algona police officer and Ionia firefighter who died in the line of duty last year.
Reynolds’ priorities and policy proposals for the year includes accelerating income tax cuts passed in 2022 that started to take effect this year. The law would gradually reduce personal income taxes to a flat 3.9 percent in 2026.
Reynolds’ proposal would expedite that transition. Most working Iowans would pay a 3.65 percent state income tax on their 2024 wages, and then a 3.5 rate in 2025. The proposal would reduce Iowans’ state income taxes, and thus limit future state revenue growth, by $3.8 billion over the first five years.
Reynolds also is asking the Iowa Legislature to invest $96 million in new money to increase starting teacher pay by 50 percent, to $50,000, and to set a minimum salary of $62,000 for teachers with at least 12 years of experience.
Saying they are not overly restrictive of free speech, two of Iowa’s so-called “ag gag” laws — which create penalties for individuals who trespass on agricultural property with intent to create financial harm — are constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled this week.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit delivered similar rulings Monday in two cases, reversing a lower court decision in both. A district-court ruling on a third lawsuit remains pending, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office said.
The appeals court rulings mean those state laws could soon become enforceable. But an attorney for one of the plaintiffs expressed confidence opponents would prevail upon appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Republican-majority Iowa Legislature has made four different attempts since 2012 to pass such laws, which supporters say are needed to protect farmers from individuals who unfairly portray their farming practices in undercover recordings. Animal welfare advocates say the laws restrict the ability of advocates to shine a light on the mistreatment of animals.
