(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s top budget advisor and two other officials agree state tax collections during the NEXT state budgeting year will drop 67 million dollars more than they predicted two months ago. Iowa Department of Management director Kraig Paulsen is also chairman of the state Revenue Estimating Conference.

“Tax cuts are clearly what are driving the reductions in state revenue,” Paulsen says, “so, to be clear, but for the tax cuts, the state would be seeing revenue growth.” Governor Reynolds has signed a series of tax reductions since she became governor in mid-2017 and the state income tax will shrink to a single rate of three-point-85 percent in January. Paulsen says with over six-point-six BILLION dollars of unspent tax money held in a cash reserve and the Taxpayer Relief Fund, there’s room for more cuts.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the full impact is of things at the federal level…so that may limit some options,” Paulsen says, “but we’re in a strong position to leave more money in Iowans’ pockets.” And Paulsen says there are positive signals in the national economy, indicating taxes paid to the State of Iowa won’t fall precipitously.  “Moody’s state level data is projecting wage and salary growth of 4.11% in FY26 and the National Retail Federation is also projecting sales to be above the 2023 levels with total sales up 2.15% year over year and projected sales growth of up to 3.5% for December.”

Democrats in the Iowa House say every week Iowans are experiencing more layoffs, while Republican lawmakers are planing for more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. A top Democrat in the Iowa Senate says while state tax revenue is declining, Governor Reynolds is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools and Iowans need more information about how the state money in Education Savings Accounts to cover students’ private school expenses is being spent.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is recommending changes in state law that he says will help identify non-citizens who attempt to register to vote. Pate proposes that his office get authority to ask other government agencies or pay private contractors to review voter registration records. “We want to deal with the qualifications or eligibility of voters when they register rather than waiting until Election Day,” Pate said during a Radio Iowa interview. “Basically we’re talking citizenship here.” Pate said the proposal is related to the situation before November’s election, when his office tried to get access to a federal database. He wanted to check whether hundreds of people who got an Iowa driver’s license when they were legal residents had become citizens at some point in the past 20 years.

“We’re still going to be pursuing our lawsuit with them to get the lists that they should already be giving us,” Pate said, “and we’ll be working with the Trump Administration to inspire these departments to do what they are already supposed to be doing.” Pate is asking the legislature to pass a law to make the process of recounting ballots uniform in every county. Pate offered similar recommendations after the recount in a congressional race in 2020, but he said major issues like tax cuts took center stage in the legislature. “To be very candid, we had some distractions,” Pate says. “The governor had her whole plan for reorganizing plan for state government, which kind of sucked the air out of the room a little bit. For some, they didn’t want to do it just before an election cycle, so I’m hoping the timing is right.”

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (RI file photo)

Pate wants to allow more populous counties to have more people on recount boards. Under current law, each county’s recount board has three members — no matter how many ballots have to be counted. Pate also wants to require county auditors to start counting absentee ballots by 9 a.m. on Election Day. “Seems like we’ve been seeing this every cycle where they’ve waited ’til later and then when they ran into a problem — it was a problem because now the clock was ticking against them and after hours trying to get, maybe, someone in to service what their equipment needs may have been or whatever the thing might have been that happened to them and when they easily could have done it at 9 a.m. and had it wrapped up before noon,” Pate says. “…Basically it’s just legislating some common sense.”

Pate also wants wording in state law that makes it clear county auditors are legally required to notify his election office of any cybersecurity threats.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue, today (Thursday), said the police department has completed its 12th annual canned food drive to support the Atlantic Food Pantry. Hogue says they teamed-up this year with students from the Atlantic Early Learning Center, Washington Elementary, and Schuler Elementary to collect items donated to the food pantry. “All together this year,” Hogue said, “3,249 items were collected. Our 12 year total is now at 48,477 items.”

Chief Hogue said also, they turned the food drive into a grade level competition to see who can collect the most items. The winning classes will be treated to a pizza party sponsored by the Atlantic Police Community Charitable Organization. Those winning classes are:

• Pre-school: Mrs. Schwarte’s class: 235 Items
• Kindergarten: Mrs. Rasmussen’s class: 193 items
• 1st grade: Mrs. Hogue’s class: 309 items
• 2nd grade: Mrs. Johnson’s class: 197 items
• 3rd grade: Mrs. Van Ert’s class: 168 items
• 4th grade: Mrs. Johnson’s class: 193 items
• 5th grade: Mrs. Harris’ class: 131 items

Mrs. Schwarte’s class

Mrs. Rasmussen’s class

Mrs. Hogue’s class

Mrs. Johnson’s class

Mrs. Van Ert’s class

Mrs. Johnson’s class

Mrs. Harris’ class

Students from the Atlantic Achievement center who came to the schools to help collect and deliver the donated items to the food pantry.

Chief Hogue says “We would also like to thank the students from the Atlantic Achievement center who came to the schools to help us collect and deliver the donated items to the food pantry. We would like to thank the students, teachers, parents, grandparents, and everyone who has supported and made this ongoing event such a success and a great boost the our food pantry around the holidays!”

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department says a resident of the community reported Wednesday, that someone has stolen his 2017 Dodge RAM 2500 pickup truck. The vehicle was last seen at around 9-p.m. Tuesday. The loss was estimated at just under $10,000.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a man was arrested early this (Thursday) morning, on an Assault charge. 35-year-old Malachi Jesus Hilkey was arrested at around 3:40-a.m. in the 1200 block of 130th Street, in Montgomery County. Hilkey was charged with Assault on persons in certain occupations – without injury (a Serious Misdemeanor).

He was taken into custody with the assistance of Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputies and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $1,000.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic School District Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnson, Wednesday, told members of the Atlantic School Board, that the district’s Robotics Team was notified they have been awarded three grants totaling $14,000, as part of the start-up process of funding a robotics course as part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program.

Board member Kristy Pellett mentioned the district has had a robotics program in the past, and asked if there was a way to incorporate the new program into a TAG (Talented And Gifted) funding and TAG programs.

A Robotics Club will be funded through grants for the first year, but that does not cover the costs of club member’s lodging, food and transportation to competitive events. The Board discussed having district patrons and businesses help defray team costs in the future. During the action portion of the Board’s meeting, Wednesday, they approved Stacey Schmidt and Andy Mitchell as Robotics Club Sponsors.

In other business, Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) Executive Director D.T. Magee presented Atlantic School Board President Laura McClean, with an award of appreciation for her service on the State board. McLean has served on the Board since 2003. Her District 7 representation expires at the end of the month. About three months ago, McLean was hired by the City of Atlantic for the City Clerk’s position.

Magee said they are excited for her new job duties, but “It came at a loss for us.”

He presented her with an award of recognition, Wednesday evening.