Last Friday, the Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference met and set Iowa’s revenue estimate for FY22 at 3.8%. This is an increase over their last estimate and launches budget negotiations in the legislature. We still do not have concrete information on where State General Aid may land. The Senate released budget targets with a $25 million increase to education ($7 million less than the Governor’s budget increase), but no specifics on where that increase will go. We encourage you to reach out to your local legislators (especially in the Senate) with information on our ask and need while they are considering next steps. Talking points from our Day on the Hill are here. Next week is the second “funnel” by which time all bills need to have passed through committee in both chambers to move forward. This is another important deadline for the legislature, and we’ll be monitoring what moves forward. This week a new tax proposal was put forward that would impact Community College “backfill” funding for prior property tax changes. We are monitoring this bill and working with legislators to share its impact. We had a great webinar Wednesday with ACCT on their new “Strengthening Rural Community Colleges” report, which you can find here and the recording of the webinar can be viewed here.
Community Colleges for Iowa