(Radio Iowa) – April is national “Donate Life” month — which is meant to inspire people to become organ donors. Unity Point St. Luke’s Hospital of Sioux City recently joined the Iowa Donor Network in a “Donate Life” flag raising ceremony to celebrate donor families and transplant recipients. John Jorgensen is the donation services coordinator of the Iowa Donor Network. “We often think about organ donation as being something for the recipient only. But it is also for the family to help families in their grief,” Jorgensen says, “help families to know that their legacy will live on in the lives of others through organ, tissue, and eye donation.” he says.

Jorgensen says organ donors helped save many lives in Iowa this past year, despite the pandemic. “There were 128 organ donors who generously gave 365 organs for transplant. Thousands more were healed by the gifts of 984 tissue donors in Iowa But yet still there are more than 107-thousand people on a transplant list in the United States. And in Iowa, that number is over 600,” according to Jorgensen.

Jorgenson says every donor makes an impact on many lives. “Through organ donation, up to eight lives might be saved through an organ donor’s gift of life. One tissue donor has the ability to enhance the lives of up to 300. It is a selfless act for this gift of life,” he says. You can sign up to be an organ donor when you renew or obtain your driver’s license. More than 70 percent of adults in Iowa are registered organ donors. You may also register online at iowadonornetwork.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s popular Bottle Bill appears to be headed for major changes — or it may wind up on the trash heap. Key negotiators for House and Senate Republicans say the bottle and can redemption system has nearly collapsed and without adjustments this year, reform will likely shift to repeal in 2023. Under a plan that could be debated in the House this week, grocery stores would be able to opt out of the redemption process and Susan Collin, president of the national Container Recycling Institute, says that would make it harder for consumers to find places to take their empty containers to get their nickel deposits back.

“In short, this bill would turn what was a deposit into a fee for consumers who would be increasingly inconvenienced and de-incentivized from returning their containers and receive their rightful deposit back,” Collins says. “Meanwhile, distributors would get to keep additional unclaimed deposits as a windfall.” The wholesale distributors that deliver cases of beer, pop and alcohol to Iowa stores will keep an estimated 44 million dollars in deposits that aren’t claimed this year. Collins says the state should make it as easy as possible for consumers to get back the deposit they pay on each container.

“Consumers are just the ones left in the lurch here,” Collins says. All but one Republican in the Iowa Senate passed a bill to increase the fees paid to redemption centers and let retailers out of participating in the bottle and can redemption system. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says it’s the first time in more than four decades a bill to make changes in the Bottle Bill has made it this far.

“We understand that there are some people that don’t like the Bottle Bill, but there are a lot of Iowans that do,” Whitver says, “and if it’s going to survive long term, we have to make some tweaks to it.” House Speaker Pat Grassley says there are ways to make the program work long term that are included in the plans being discussed by lawmakers.

“I think we’ve made as much progress in the legislature this year than we have in my time that I can remember in my time in the legislature and probably before that, so we want to make sure we do this right,” Grassley says. “We want to be able to negotiate with the Senate, find some common ground.” Democrats say the G-O-P plans under consideration this year will kill the Bottle Bill and reward grocery and convenience stores that have failed to follow current law and pay deposits on empty containers.

(Radio Iowa) – State tax collections are soaring — up nearly eight-and-a-half percent in the past nine months compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. Jeff Robinson of the Legislative Services Agency says there have been increases in each of the main sources of revenue for the state.

“Individual income tax up 6.3%, sales and use tax up 9.7%,” he says, “and corporate income tax up 7.7%.” The state paid out 30 million dollars MORE in income tax refunds so far THIS year compared to the first three months of 2021.

“But it still very early in the tax filing season for any trend to be evident,” Robinson says. Iowa income taxes are due by April 30th. The tax cuts Governor Reynolds signed into law March 1st will start going into effect for the NEXT tax year. The immediate repeal of state taxes on retirement income and the first stage of reducing the income tax for individuals are projected to contribute to a nearly 15 million dollar in reduction in total tax payments to the state.