DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Television Iowa Capitol Bureau) – After January’s shooting, the Perry Community School District reached out to other schools that dealt with similar tragedies. They found many staff members often decide to leave. A bill passed by the Iowa House would allow the Perry Community School District to give teachers a bonus to come back next year. The bill also waives certain state requirements for the district like some standardized testing, graduation, and hours of instruction.

The bill passed the House in a 94 to 1 vote. Over in the Senate, it passed out of the Ways and Means Committee Wednesday afternoon. It can now be brought up on the Senate floor for a vote.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into the death of an inmate in the Johnson County Jail after an apparent medical emergency last week. According to a release from Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel, 36-year-old Nathaniel Davis Jr. was booked into the jail on March 10 to serve a seven-day sentence. On March 14 at approximately 6:10 p.m., Davis had an apparent medical emergency, and a deputy watching a camera monitor saw Davis fall over in his cell. When jail staff responded to Davis’ cell and determined he was having a medical emergency, they began CPR and applied an automatic external defibrillator. An ambulance was also called at this time.

Davis was transported to University of Iowa Hospital, where he died on March 19. According to Kunkel’s release, his office has requested the DCI investigate the incident. An autopsy will be conducted by the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office and the State Jail Inspector has been notified.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop at around 9:15-p.m. Wednesday, in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of a man from Pottawattamie County. Red Oak Police report 24-year-old Austin Keith Shannon, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the intersection of N. 8th St. and Highway 34, for Driving While License is Denied, Suspended, Canceled or Revoked. Shannon was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on bond amounting to $491.25.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans on a Senate committee are advancing a proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would make a single-rate “flat tax” the only legal kind of state income tax. The proposal cleared the Senate Ways and Means Committee with yes votes from the 11 Republicans on the panel, but none of them publicly discussed the proposal. Senator Herman Quirmbach of Ames is one of the six Democrats on the panel who voted against it.

“By flattening the income tax, which you’re principally going, what you’re doing is reducing taxaction on high income earners,” Quirmbach said. Iowa has had a graduated income tax for decades, with higher rates for Iowans earning higher incomes. Quirmbach says in a few years the state will have to raise other taxes, like the sales tax, if the state income tax is permanently flattened to one single rate.

“What cuts in services are you proposing? What increases in other taxes are you proposing?” Quirmbach asked. Senator Cindy Winckler, a Democrat from Davenport, says Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania are the only states that have a flat income tax requirement in their state constitutions.  “They all have quite different make up of industries and revenue streams,” Winckler said. “We can’t identify that one size certainly fits all.”

Under current law, Iowa’s individual income tax is scheduled to shrink to a flat rate of three-point-nine percent by January of 2026. Governor Reynolds has proposed a lower rate, to take effect retroactively to January 1st of this year. The governor has also said her ultimate goal is to eliminate the state income tax by January 1st of 2027.