Gazette Daily News Podcast, October 15-16
State revenue growth to slow, but projections remain high
Iowa’s state revenue is expected to drop off some in the next two years but remain at historic highs, according to a state panel charged with estimating yearly receipts.
The Revenue Estimating Conference on Thursday predicted a 2.7 percent drop in revenue in fiscal 2023, which began July 1, followed by a 0.6 percent increase in fiscal 2024. The drop comes mostly from a decrease in personal income tax revenue, reflecting tax cuts championed by legislative Republicans earlier this year.
Total state revenue for each year would remain above $9.5 billion under the projection, which would be historically high revenue and an increase from previous projections.
Iowa judges up for retention get high marks from state bar association
The Iowa State Bar Association has released the results of an evaluation conducted every two years of judges across the state, which provides guidance to voters as they decide Nov. 8 whether the judges in each district should remain on the bench.
Sixty-one associate and district judges and four appellate judges are up for retention this year. Of those, seven district judges and four associate district judges are from the 6th Judicial District — Linn, Benton, Johnson, Jones, Iowa and Tama counties.
According to the bar’s judicial performance review, the bar members — lawyers — gave this district’s 11 judges high enough ratings to be retained. Two of the judges — associate district judges Valerie Clay and Jason Burns — received retention percentages of 100 percent.
Iowa has more jobs than people to fill them. What officials are doing
From launching a new business engagement division, to using federal pandemic relief money on a new marketing and recruitment campaign, to helping employers provide dual-language instruction, Iowa’s top economic and workforce development officials shared their ideas for solving the state’s workforce challenges during Thursday’s Iowa Ideas conference.
“We have a population problem in Iowa, right? We have more jobs than there are people to fill them,” state Economic Development Director Debi Durham said during The Gazette’s virtual conference, which continues Friday.
Iowa has about 84,400 open jobs and about 44,700 people unemployed, according to Iowa Workforce Development.
You can find recordings from this and all of our other Iowa Ideas sessions at TheGazette.com and iowaideas.com.
