Statewide Iowa — The top Democrat in the Iowa House says the State of Iowa wouldn’t have had a more than one BILLION dollar surplus at the end of the last fiscal year in June, if it weren’t for federal pandemic relief. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst is among the Democrats citing Biden’s signature on bills that did things like increase the federal child tax credit and extend Medicaid coverage to at least 75-thousand more low-income Iowans.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has said with a budget surplus of more than one-point-24 BILLION, lawmakers should cut income taxes — with the long term goal of completely eliminating the state income tax. Konfrst says Democrats will lobby for targeted tax relief.
And Konfrst says some state agency budgets have been trimmed too far.
As an example, she cites the Department of Human Services which does things like manage food stamps and Medicaid and investigate allegations of child abuse.
Konfrst made her comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program which aired Friday on Iowa PBS.
