Government : Hello District 75 from the State Capitol!

The Iowa Legislature finally finished the 2022 session on May 26th at about 12:15 A.M. and passed several pieces of legislation that will help all Iowans. We passed the Fiscal Year 2023 budget appropriations of Administration and Regulation, Economic Development, Education, Health & Human Services, IDALS/DNR/EFF, the Justice Systems, the Judicial Branch, and the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund (RIIF).

In the last couple of days of the session, we passed more tax relief for mothers with young families and childbearing-age women, respectively making diapers and feminine products tax exempt to help take a little of the harsh sting out of high prices. This will save these consumers about $11 million per year.

The 2022 session accomplished some monumental legislation for Iowans! Some of the major highlights for the 2022 session are:

--We passed and Governor Kim Reynolds signed the law to cut taxes for EVERY IOWAN.

--We passed and Gov. Reynolds signed into law making retirement income TAX FREE.

--We passed and Gov. Reynolds signed into law to reform corporate taxes to promote a more business-friendly state.

--We passed and Gov. Reynolds signed into law the protection of girls' sports in Iowa

--We passed and Gov. Reynolds signed into law increasing Supplemental State Aid by 2.5%.

--We passed and sent to the Governor the elimination of the deadline for open enrollment from one public school to another public school.

--We passed and Gov. Reynolds signed into law expanding biofuels availability to Iowans

--We passed and sent to the Governor several bills to help child care providers and help with their shortages in Iowa.

--We passed and sent to the Governor several bills addressing Mental Health Care shortage - one example - by incentivizing psychiatrists to stay in Iowa.

--We passed and sent to the Governor a bill to increase penalties for elder abuse.

--We passed and sent to the Governor a bill to help improve Iowa's beverage can & bottle deposit law, especially helping the redemption centers.

--We passed and sent to the Governor a bill banning "Zucker Bucks". This will ban actions of people such as Mark Zuckerberg, the leftist CEO of Facebook from donating almost a BILLION dollars nationwide to election offices in Democrat areas to basically get-out-the-vote efforts, ballot harvesting, etc.

These are just a few of the bills we passed this year, and with your help, we can do even better next year!

A few comments on the Bottle Bill, which has been a very polarizing issue. Some people say we need to increase the deposit return to 10 or 15 cents or even higher to get people to return an even higher percentage, while others say we should do away with the deposit and have people recycle them with other recyclables. I know it can be a hassle to recycle these bottles and cans. But, on May 27th , the billboard above the Redemption Center in SW Cedar Rapids read that from 1997-2022, Iowans have recycled 2.7 BILLION containers or 90,210 tons! That's an incredible amount that otherwise almost all would've ended up in the landfills or our ditches. Let's keep Iowa beautiful!

Looking ahead, most of Benton County will be in the new District 84 starting in January 2023, along with the northwest and southwest corners of Linn County. If I'm fortunate enough to be re-elected, I will miss representing the wonderful people in Bruce, Cedar, and Monroe Townships. They will be in District 76 which will include parts of Black Hawk and Tama Counties.

Feel free to email me at Thomas.gerhold@legis.iowa.gov with any questions or comments. I plan to check my emails every week.

Stay safe and healthy and have a great summer