Iowa House members will have a long weekend before returning to the Capitol. House members have a break of several days while we wait for the Iowa Senate to complete their work. The House has passed many bills and sent them to the Senate. We are now waiting for them to take action on the bills, add amendments, and send them back to the House. When the Senate bills come back to the House, we will be able to finish the work for this session. I will touch on some of the business that is still pending.

One piece of work left to do is to assure adequate funding for our state universities. Without additional funding, students and their parents face higher tuitions next fall.

The Governor has proposed a bold early childhood health, education and care initiative, building on what I helped start several years ago in a program called Community Empowerment. We need funding above and beyond what the House Republicans have provided, if we want to improve the success rate of our youngsters.

We need to increase funding for our student achievement and teacher quality program if we want to keep our bright young graduates teaching in Iowa.

And, now that we have tough new sexual predator laws, we need to make sure those proposals are adequately funded; otherwise, it was all empty political rhetoric.

We have not addressed issues of bullying in our schools. And we have not dealt with some of the predatory lending activities that are increasing in the state.

On the positive side, the Iowa House resurrected the Grow Iowa Values Fund, Iowa’s economic growth and job creation program. If we are going to keep Iowa students from leaving the state after graduation, or at least have them return after they check out other parts of the world, there must be jobs in Iowa that challenge their skills and reward their work ethic. Otherwise, we'll continue to see our best and brightest seek opportunities in more attractive venues on a permanent basis. We do not have the lure of oceans, mountains or tropical weather, but we can and should offer good jobs and a high quality of life.

The Iowa Values Fund has been the state's best economic development tool over the past few years. It has provided a strategic focus to Iowa's search for high-paying, high-tech jobs. The program has been credited with creating or retaining more than 17,000 jobs in the state at an average yearly wage of $37,500.

Last week the House passed a new version of the Values Fund. It contains incentives for business development, tax breaks for job creation, money for university research and community college job training, and encouragement for rural Iowa areas to act in concert to market and bring jobs to their region. There will be flexibility to provide funding for community betterment projects and for businesses that add value to agricultural products.

One of the key components is a long-term commitment to funding the program. Initially, legislative leaders would commit to only a single year of funding of $50 million. Developers warned that without longer term financing, the state would not be able to enter into multi-year agreements that new businesses need. Ultimately, the House heeded that advice and passed a ten-year, $500 million program that puts us squarely in the middle of the jobs competition.

The creation of good jobs in Iowa was my top priority going into this session. It was gratifying to see the Grow Iowa Values fund pass the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. Now it's up to the Senate to finish the work.

Iowans win when we work together. I hope to write about more accomplishments of the Iowa Legislature in next week’s article.

You can write me at the State Capitol, Des Moines, IA 50319; call 515/281-3221 or e-mail me at ro.foege@legis.state.ia.us.

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