The Carroll Chamber of Commerce hosted its first legislative forum of the 2022 session on Saturday with District 6 Senator, Craig Williams, providing updates and answering questions on bills moving through the statehouse. Due to illness, District 12 Representative, Brian Best, was unable to attend Saturday’s forum. Gov. Kim Reynolds identified her priorities during her Condition of the State address earlier this month, which includes substantial changes to state income taxes and overhauling Iowa’s unemployment benefits program. One of the questions posed to Williams was how well his priorities aligned with the governor’s, starting with taxes.
Reynolds is encouraging the legislature to reduce how long Iowans can be on unemployment. Currently, the maximum is 26 weeks, but data from Iowa Workforce Development suggests there are currently more job openings in the state compared to unemployed Iowans. There are several bills in the statehouse working their way through subcommittees on this topic, so its not clear how much of a cut will be proposed. Williams agrees with Reynolds’ assessment that Iowans need to get back to work but does not want to see a hard deadline set on unemployment benefits.
As of last week, more than 1,700 pieces of legislation have been introduced so far this session, and those bills are currently making their way through the subcommittees with Feb. 18 being the final date for bills to be reported out of their respective House or Senate committees. The 2022 session will be Williams’ final term as he has decided not to run again due to an unfavorable redistricting last year. Current District 9 Senator, Jason Schultz of Schleswig, has already announced he will be running for reelection in the new District 6, which includes Ida, Crawford, Carroll, Shelby and Audubon Counties and a small section of northeastern Pottawattamie County.
