Governor Kim Reynolds

Kay Henderson

Increasing teacher pay, restructuring, special education and more tax cuts. Just a few of Governor Kim Reynolds legislative proposals. We'll talk with the governor about her 2024 agenda on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

 

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For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, January 19th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Our guest today was last on this program in May. Since then, she welcomed most of the presidential candidates to the Iowa State Fair for conversations. She endorsed Ron DeSantis in November. And this past week, she unveiled her legislative agenda for the Iowa General Assembly. Governor Kim Reynolds, welcome back to Iowa Press.

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Oh, it's great to be with you. Thank you. Kay.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Joining our conversation, Steven Gruber-Miller of The Des Moines Register and Erin Murphy of the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Governor, part of that legislative agenda was a proposed overhaul of the state's area education associations. And this week you've announced some tweaks to that changes based on feedback you're hearing. Could you kind of describe the feedback you've heard from educators, parents, whoever it might be?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Yeah. Well, first of all, let's just start with the AEA system is failing our students with disabilities and it's unconscionable. It's been going on for quite some time and we need to get it fixed. So despite even spending $5300 more than average on an average than other states, we have poorer results, when you look at the NAPE scores. Iowa students with disabilities ranked 30th or below in nine out of 12 assessments over the last five years and over the last 20 years, students with disabilities have been, on an average, underperforming compared to other kids across the country as students with disabilities.

And so, you know, it's time that we do something to the system that can improve the scores and accountability and help these children. So we put a bill together. We've been working on it all summer. When you take a look, it’s $529 million that goes into the system. Very little accountability. We continue to see the scores where they're at. Not only federal, but not only national, but state scores as well show that there's a disparity between students with disability and other students.

And so we put a bill together that we thought would be fair to the school districts. We're the only state in the country that puts that that the entire funding goes through the school districts to the AEAs and then mandate that they use the services, so there's no accountability. So what we did was so we said that the school districts should have the choice.

They should be the ones that are in charge of the funding and hold the AEAs accountable. They can use the AEAs if they like the service that they're getting. They can use a neighboring AEA if they would rather do that or they can bring it in-house. I think the bill that we rolled out, the biggest change that we made really it wasn't a lot to what the existing bill was. But there was just a lot of confusion on the opt in and opt out and what that looks like in the two year commitment.

I was trying to be respectful of them to give them the option, but it just caused a lot of confusion and just a lot of issues were raised. And so when I sat down and thought about it, the one thing that we're different when you look at all of the other states in the country is, we're the only one, again, that runs the funding through the districts to the AEA and then mandate that they use the services.

So the new amendment that we're proposing says that all of the money, the state, the federal - and this is the other change to the bill - and the General Education service dollars that were funded by property tax, the total of that amount goes to the school districts. Goes directly to the school districts. No pass through anymore. And then they will decide how to utilize those funds for special education.

That's the biggest change.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Okay. And you mentioned the services and wanting the AEAs to focus on special education.

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Yeah.

 

 

Erin Murphy

We have heard from some educators in some districts who like some of the other services that the AEAs provide. Why should they not also be able to have those?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, they can with this new bill. So basically, the money goes to the schools for state, federal dollars, which a lot of times even were that weren't they weren't aware of the federal dollars. And then the educational services will go to the school districts and then they can utilize those dollars for special education and the education services component that's generated by property taxes based on approval by the Department of Education on various programs.

They can continue to use those dollars for education services and media services as well. We'll put a list together of approved programs that they can use it for. Again, it's good that we do that because there's no consistency between the nine AEAs. So they can talk about school districts wanting to utilize their services, but not all of them offer those services.

It's very hit and miss. And I heard that, you know, continually as I traveled across the state. Some people really liked what they the services they were they were getting and some were just absolutely unhappy with it. And it wasn't consistent. There's no strategy to a lot of the priorities that we're working on.

Literacy would be another great example of that. So the bottom line is no money cut from special education. All of the money goes to the schools. Schools drive it. If they like what they're getting, absolutely nothing changes. If they want to do a hybrid and utilize some of the AEA or a neighboring AEA, they can do that. Or if they want to bring it in house, they can do that too.

Really what we're doing is kind of eliminating or reducing some of the overhead. Right now we have nine AEA districts, nine chiefs, and they were making on an average when you look at their total compensation package, about $310,000 each. And we don't need nine. We're a small state. Again, varying degrees of what they were offering. We want to simplify it. But that money will go back into the system and into the classroom.

And most importantly, it will help the students with disabilities who are being left behind.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Do you think we need nine AEAs, or do you think?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

No, no. And you know, honestly, I've heard people say they should do a study. Well, we did a study in 2011. That's the you know, the danger of the study. The study gets done. It recommended that time, I think, going from nine down to five. We used to have 15. We went to nine. Again, we're a small state.

That's why I did the realignment bill with state government. I need local governments to take a look at the level of, you know, bureaucracy that we have in place to serve the citizens of Iowa. It's too much. We need to drive consistency. We need to get that funding in the classroom and do everything we can to improve the outcomes for these children.

I mean, 20 years, that's two generations of children that have been left behind. To rank 30th or below the 41% proficiency gap in our state assessments compared to other students. That's that's is that's unconscionable. And we need to do something big. We need to reform. And really, I think, you know, by giving the districts the ability to hold the AEAs accountable, to decide what program works best for the students that they are serving.

 

 

Steven Gruber-Miller

Governor, one of the other education initiatives you proposed this year is raising starting teacher pay to $50,000 a year. And for a teacher with 12 years of experience to 62,000. What do smaller school districts that may not have a lot of wiggle room in their budget do for a fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth year teacher?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Yeah. So, well, first of all, we put new money into the system, so I want to make that clear. There's a lot of people out there that are saying we're robbing from this initiative to pay for this one. It is not true. We put $95 million of new money in. There's also a component that we have some school districts that, you know, when we passed the legislation last year that gave flexibility to the categoricals to allow them to roll into the teacher salary supplemental piece.

So they have that component to use right now. We said you pick and choose. If you want to do teacher leadership and compensation, fine. But if you're not utilizing that program, you can take that money that you have and you can roll that into teacher salaries. So they already have the flexibility in the legislation that we passed last year that would allow them to do that.

And there's also a component in the bill that if you were a district that that started to increase teacher pay, that that had your beginning salary already at 50,000 and had some step increases, we took that into account in the bill as well. So we gave them flexibility last year. I'm putting new money in that this year. This is an amazing calling.

You know, they spend a lot of time with our children. And we want our young people to know that, you know, this is a profession that's important to our children and to our state. And our salaries should reflect that. And so I'm really proud to start that beginning salary at 50,000 and then at 12 years and more, I think it is up to 62,000.

They deserve it. They're working hard and it's a great recognition of all that our teachers are doing to help our children be the best that they can be.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Governor, your agenda in regards to taxes is to accelerate already approved tax cuts and do it retroactively. But you've also talked extensively about getting to zero, about eliminating the income tax. Why didn't you propose that?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, because I want to be sure that we're being conservative and that I can be sustainable with what we do. You know, I passed three tax cuts already. The last one, of course, as you indicated, will take our individual income tax rate to 3.9 flat, would actually take the corporate to 5.5, but it would do it in 2026.

And even with the tax cuts that we put in place and with significant, significant challenges from this administration, we ended, and with making record investments in priorities that are important to Iowans, we ended this fiscal year with $1.83 billion surplus, almost $900 million in reserve funds and close to 3 million in the, excuse me, billion in the taxpayer trust fund.

And so we can do more and we can do it quicker. But we just want to make sure that it's sustainable in the out years with the projections, with projected growth projected in revenue as well as, you know, making sure that we're applying increase in expenditures as well. And so I think Iowans know with the record that I've had, if we can go, if we can reduce it again, I will. This will be the fourth tax cut that I've implemented in seven years.

And so I think we've made it clear that if we can do it sustainably, we'll continue to reduce taxes. I just want to make sure that we can sustain it and still honor our promises and fulfill the priorities that are important to Iowans. And we can do that with this next step, and then we'll reassess, see where we're at and keep moving down.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Governor, Iowa’s one of I believe the number was 17 states that declined to participate in the summer EBT program, which is expanded food assistance for low income children during the summer months when they're not in school. It's a federally funded program. The state's only on the hook for some administrative costs. What's the downside to that? Why not participate in that?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, first of all, there's no flexibility. And this is why we're trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars in debt at the national level. Because we have an existing program in place. We actually do two programs now feeding summer summer feeding programs through the US Department of Agriculture. We served over 1.6 million meals and snacks last year. It actually has a nutritional component to it.

It also allows us to have eyes on these children over the summer to make sure that they're doing okay. So instead of allowing us to maybe supplement an existing program that we know that's working. No. What the federal government and the Biden administration wanted to do is to mandate that we stand up a whole new system. We stand up a whole new like I had to stand up a whole new, what am I want the system to run it, which would require us to bring on additional people. So they were adding employees, putting money into a whole new system, when we have an existing system, and giving us absolutely no flexibility to supplement that one. In addition to that and mailing out the cards, I mean, there's no accountability there. There was very minimal nutritional value to that. It just is ridiculous that they want to stand up an entire new program. Another oh, my gosh, I can't think of the word.

I mean, a system is what I'm looking for, another system to run it. And that's what they do. It's grow, grow, grow, grow. Instead of evaluate the program that we have in place that we know that's working and look for a way to enhance that. And I wasn't the only state that did it, didn't. There were several, including some Democratic led states as well.

 

 

Steven Gruber-Miller

Governor, since 2018, you've been proposing expanding birth control access in Iowa. But Republicans in the Iowa House have yet to pass that. How do you convince them to get that done this year? And is there more urgency in an election year where Democrats will be running against Republicans on abortion and other issues related to that?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

No. I mean, I've as you just indicated, I've been trying to get this done for several years. I think it's the right thing to do. We're seeing some of that movement at the federal level, so I think that helps make the argument just a little bit. But we'll go back in. We're going to do everything we can to get it passed.

And, you know, I'm going to put a lot of effort into it. I think we need to do what we can to make sure that people have access to that. That's how we prevent unplanned pregnancy, unplanned pregnancies and abortions. And so that's ultimately what I want to do, is do everything we can to save lives. And that's a component of it.

Thrive Iowa is also another opportunity and then the post-partum bill that we put in place, all of that really works together to help help to help women, help families.

 

 

Steven Gruber-Miller

I wanted to ask about the postpartum care. So Iowa currently allows 60 days of coverage, Medicaid coverage for women after they give birth. You're proposing to expand that to a full year, but only for women making less than the current threshold. So there would be some women who currently qualify for two months of coverage but who wouldn't qualify. Why did you structure it that way?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, first of all, we were the highest in the nation with the requirements. And so and we only had it for 60 days. So I want to make sure that we could not only extend it to 12 months, but to make sure that we were providing these services for the people that really need it. And even with going to 215% of the FPL, we're still, I think 13th in the country.

So we're still in the top 25% and we're going from 60 days to 12. It's a drastic improvement. I'm proud to have put that out there and I think I feel really good about being able to get that passed. So I feel good about it.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Governor, we had a unfortunate incident a couple of weeks ago here in Perry with a tragic shooting that claimed two lives, we know now. Inevitably there's always the talk after an incident like that about school safety and gun control. In your view, is there any discussion about gun regulations, gun safety to address these kinds of incidents?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Yeah, Well, first of all, you know, our thoughts, hearts and prayers continue to go out to the Perry community. This is a horrible tragedy. It’s certainly nothing that any governor wants to wake up to in the morning and hear of what's happened. No additional gun laws would have prevented what happened. You know, there's just evil out there.

And but I, I am proud of what we've done. I have made behavioral health and mental health, you know, a key part of my priorities from the moment that I was sworn in as governor of this state. I was actually the governor that got the first children's mental health system put in place. They talked about it for 20 years.

We've made schools a site of service. We've increased funding for behavioral health providers. We're taking a look at the mental health regions to make sure that we're really being efficient and effective. And again, we're getting that money on the ground and to the people that need it and can access it. I was proud to highlight the Amber Recovery campus.

My condition at this state, the first of its kind in Iowa, and the largest public private investment in children's behavioral health. That's 70 new beds that will come on line for emergency shelter and crisis stabilization and addiction. And it's really a model of what we can do in other areas of the state if we really streamline what we're what we're doing.

And so, you know, and the other thing that we did that I'm really proud of and the response from the emergency managers and local police department and that's the people on at the school was incredible. So two years ago, we stood up the governor's School Safety Bureau and put $100 million of ARPA funding into the bureau. And with that we did, we made available an assessment for all of the schools so they could take a look at the buildings and find out what the vulnerabilities were. We didn't stop there. We also said, here's $50,000 per building to really fixed the vulnerabilities that you see. We put radios in. That's how they identified the local PD. We put radios in all of the school districts.

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

We did training. Safe and Sound is an app that we set up that I would encourage parents to make sure their kids are aware of it. It is an anonymous way that people can identify, and they all, it's always on social media. So this is an opportunity for them to identify a potential threat like this. Or maybe someone's that's contemplating suicide. You know, it's a great opportunity to let PD know that there's a potential risk there. But so we've done a lot to try to mitigate. The other thing, and some of the PD officers had just gone through that, is we had trained. We have training. We also train the community and then they can train, train the trainers is kind of the thought process of it process of it.

But they've actually had they had actually had some of their law enforcement that had just gone through that. So did a really good job of responding.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Governor, House Republicans say that the state is in some essence being fleeced by temp agencies that are staffing nursing homes in Iowa and they want to investigate. Do you share that concern that as the state puts more money into care for residents in nursing homes, the state pays about half of nursing home care, that there is an issue there?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, workforce is an issue across every single industry. And so, you know, it's a reality. I've tried to stand up a registered apprenticeship program for health care professionals. We're trying to do everything we can to retrain and get them the staff. What we don't want to do is exactly what the Biden administration is proposing and that is to make it even harder to get workforce into these long term care facilities, especially in rural Iowa.

So, you know, we have to address it. We are working on it. We're you know, the Department of Inspection and Appeals is working with our long term care facilities to make sure that they're meeting the needs of the residents that they are caring for. But ultimately, you know, we need we need to get more people in the health care pipeline and we need to address the workforce issue, which will go a long way from the staffing issues that we're experiencing.

But, you know, it's really important that we're taking care of our most vulnerable and elderly Iowans. And so I'm not you know, we're okay with an oversight or a review. We do that every day. We're not afraid of that. But, you know, it is a workforce issue. We're trying to manage it the best that we can. And also, I just it's the same as a lot of the other industries in health care.

The bottom line is COVID took their toll. It took a toll on our health care profession. And they're tired and they've a lot of them have stepped out of the industry. And so we need to figure out a way to get them engaged again. It starts with our education and that pipeline and maybe bringing new people into the state to start to address the shortfalls.

 

 

Steven Gruber-Miller

Governor, we've got a few minutes left. We want to ask a couple of questions about the Iowa caucuses. You endorsed Governor Ron DeSantis in the caucuses. He ended up coming second. You campaigned around the state for him, and Trump ended up winning big. Why do you think that was that your message about DeSantis being the right candidate didn't break through to Iowans?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

You know, I mean, I think it did. I think he did well. He punched a ticket out of here. You know, I didn't enter it lightly. It was a personal decision for me. I got to know Ron during COVID, and I just really appreciated the stance that he took. It was very similar to the stance that I took.

He really brought in the experts. He looked at the real science. He took into account the people that he served. He decided to trust the people that he served, to give them the information, to let them make the choices that they needed to make. He kept his economy open. He kept his kids in school. We did very similar, took a very similar stance. There wasn't a lot of us out there that did that. And it was under extreme pressure from the media and from the administration, quite honestly, even from the Trump administration. I mean, weekly, when they were trying to get us to close restaurants, to close bars, to keep the kids out of school. You know, it took a lot to push back on that.

And I had immense respect for what he was able to do with that. And then I looked at his policies going forward, and he followed through with 100% of what he said he would do. So I had great confidence that he could step in, get this country back on track on day one, and most importantly, serve for eight years. So that was why I supported him.

 

 

Steven Gruber-Miller

And like I said, Donald Trump did win the caucuses. He's looking like he's in a strong position. You've said you will support him if he's the nominee. But you've also said that you don't think he can win in 2024. So does that put Republicans in a difficult position?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, listen, I, like I just said, it isn’t about President Trump. I supported him ‘16. I wish he would have, I supported him in 20, I wish he would have won. I made my decision based on the situation that we have today. But I can tell you without hesitation, whoever our Republican nominee is, I'm going to get behind ‘em, because this country is in trouble. And all you have to do is look at the southern border. It is unconscionable, the dereliction of duties, President Biden, not to secure the sovereignty of this country and most importantly, to protect our citizens. He has been AOL on that. And so any one of the candidates that we have will do a better job than he will. And that doesn't account for the economy or the weakness that we have on the world stage. So we need to we need to change direction in this country or we're not going to recognize this country.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Will your party, the national party, change direction and no longer have the Iowa caucuses first in 2028, given the fact that 110,000 people turned out, below expectations.

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Yeah, it was a little bit. It was a horrible night. A lot of credit to those that braved the weather and got out and participated. I want to give a shout out to Chairman Kaufmann and the RPI. They did a phenomenal job of running the caucus. I think it went very, very smoothly. It was very successful. I think so, because it still, I'm telling you, it's a great you know, Iowans take it very seriously. They do a good job. They ask the tough questions. It's really good for the candidates. I've seen all of them really grow with their time on the ground in Iowa, just because I think of the experience that they have with Iowans and the tough questions that they ask. They're not afraid to kick the tires and to really hold them accountable. And that's what we want from a president. And I think, you know, it was the Democrats that walked away. You know, they walked away from the first in the nation caucus and really rural America. I think it was a mistake. They did it to protect a weak leader. And then they wonder why they can't do well in rural America. Well, they should be back on the ground and really taking advantage of Iowans and their expertise and the issues.

 

 

Kay Henderson

About half a minute left.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Yeah, Governor, we have an election later this year, but then the next one in ‘26, the governor's office will be on the ballot. Will your name be on that ballot?

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Well, I'm not going to make that decision yet. We'll see how far I get with some of the priorities that I have in place. So I've got a lo,t a big agenda this year. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about helping those students with disabilities and getting them back on track, cutting taxes and really just continuing to grow our economy. So, we'll see.

 

 

Kay Henderson

That is it for this edition of Iowa Press. Thank you for being here.

 

 

Gov. Kim Reynolds

Thanks.

 

 

Kay Henderson

You can watch every edition of Iowa Press online at IowaPBS dot org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching.

 

 

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