From Senator Amanda Ragan –
When looking ahead to the 2013 session of the Iowa Legislature, continuing to create jobs and grow Iowa’s economy tops my priority list.
We need to do what we can to help more Iowans recover from the national recession. Ensuring that workers can get the training they need must be part of our statewide effort.
This is important because the current skill shortage is proving to be a serious drag on Iowa’s economy. By 2018, 62 percent of all jobs in Iowa—1.1 million jobs—will require some training or education beyond high school. Yet nearly 10 percent of Iowa’s working-age adults do not have a high school diploma.
By investing now in worker training and retraining, we can make sure Iowans are ready to step into new jobs as the economy rebounds.
Last year, we took a step in the right direction by approving a significant increase in state general aid to community colleges. We also created new opportunities to earn non-credit skill certificates and launched the new Skilled Workforce Shortage Tuition Grant, also known as “Kibbie Grants.”
Here are other ways we can invest in Iowans and in Iowa businesses:
• Cutting commercial property taxes for every Iowa business, especially for small businesses.
• Cutting taxes for working families struggling to make ends meet, thereby boosting the local economy.
• Making it more likely that Iowa and U.S. companies will get state and local government contracts when their bids are cost competitive.
We’ve made bipartisan progress on these issues in the last couple of years. My hope for 2013 is that we’ll keep working together and take some big steps forward.
The new legislative session starts on January 14. Let me know what you think should be done to boost economic growth and job creation here in Iowa. Call or e-mail me your ideas.
I am glad we moved from Mason in 2002, people there keep electing know nothings. Regan, Steckman, Shickel cant bring no jobs. Last time MC voted in somebody understood jobs was Doc Blodgett. To bad he retired.
@Eugene-Actually Steckman is not to bad. She has a head on her shoulders and will stand up and fight even aginst her own party if she thinks she is right. I didn’t alway have this view of her as I had her lumped in with Regan but now think I was arong. I am not a democrat so I am not saying this just because of party affiliation.
Why don’t we take half your salary and give it to the needy? You only work 6 months out of the year anyway.
Why not tax the shit out of the rich like what you Dems do. Take it from the people making it and give it to those that sit on their ass and do nothing.
OR, one other way….fire yourself and make way for someone that actually knows what they are doing.
Did you even read the article? All the way to the end? Did you understand all the big words like cutting taxes for working families?
My voice doesn’t understand big words. He sure like the 4 letter ones though. He is a moron
I’ve written to her about this before, too bad it seems to fall on deaf ears. In two days, adults (21+) in Washington and Colorado will be able to legally possess and use marijuana. They are taxing marijuana, which will bring in millions of dollars in new revenue, and it will save police departments and court systems additional millions. These millions of dollars now are fueling gangsters and cartels. Prohibition of marijuana is doing the opposite of what it is intended to do. Prohibition of marijuana harms our community.
Wait until the states that legalize marijuana have a bunch of unmotivated zoned out zombies who have been smoking dope since they were 10 to support for their entire lives. Our country already has enough useless people sucking the taxpayers dry. It’s going to get a lot worse with legalized pot. I hope all the dopers in Iowa move to those states and leave Iowa alone. It will help our economy a lot.
you are stereotyping millions of responsible adults as lazy stoners. Your assumption is not based in reality. It’s refer madness republican-like scare tactics. here’s a short list of so called useless zoned out zombies that you may have heard of:
Sir Richard Branson, Michael Phelps, Louis Armstrong, Carl Sagan, Sir Paul McCartney, Bill Maher, Bill Murray, Brad Pitt, Willie Nelson, Progressive Insurance Chair. Peter Lewis, the list goes on and on….
The The only one that surprises me in the least is Carl Sagan. And he died young of cancer, didn’t he. And he was mocked for the way he talked. Now I know why. The rest of the group are entertainers who usually get a pass when they show up stoned or CEO’s who had ideas, but may have delegated to get the real work done. Michael Phelps lost his mojo when he was doping and had to clean up his act to get it back. He can live off his wealth for the rest of his life. To me it’s an oxymoron that Paul McCartney is a doper vegetarian. Emphasis on the moron.
OMG! What did you just say about Paul McCartney?? Are you a Communist??!!
And what’s with the “The The”? You need to work on your literacy skills. I just want to grab a red marker to your comments!! Lol.
LMAO. STOP IT! It be rubbin off on me.
Katie, you really do make me chuckle. Just look at you, making derogatory remarks about Carl Sagan and Paul McCartney. If you think these two guys were/are “zoned out zombies” you need to do a little more research. We should ALL be so intelligent and talented!
@Done that-There is something to what you say I think. We have spent a ton of money over the years trying to stop and control pot use and it has not worked. I think it goes back to the old thing that you can’t prohibit what people want. It just doesn’t work. So make it legal, tax it and use it for revenue. They tried it with alcohol and that didn’t work either. Time to try something new.
The best thing the gub’ment could do is get the hell out of the way and let small businesses grow.
But that ain’t in the Dem’s playbook now is it. New regulations and more taxes. That’s how we do it.