Governor Reynolds' Condition of the State Address

 Governor Kim Reynolds introduced some disturbing proposals from Iowa tonight. From what I could tell, none of them were grounded in evidenced-based practices. 

    She suggested a flat income tax at around four percent, eliminating taxes on retirement income, and cutting taxes on shares of corporations given to employees. This is largely regressive. 

    She attacked electric vehicles and suggested more biofuels and carbon capture. None of that will help the climate crisis. It will just help big agribusiness.

    She said that items in school libraries should be published online, and that what was being taught in school should also be published online, so parents could approve of it. Parents aren't experts in education- teachers and administrators are. 

    She said that she would be cutting unemployment benefits, and that the social safety net had become a hammock. She said that people on unemployment would be given six months to find work. She didn't guarantee that people would have safe places to work, she just said to get back to work. She also didn't suggest that employers raise their wages to get people back to work.

    She proposed a school voucher program, where seventy percent of state funds per pupil per year would be available to students. This will decrease funding for public education, and will not help students.

These plans are the solutions Republicans have to every problem, cut taxes, deregulate, and privatize. There are not grounded in evidence.