The Iowa House of Representatives and the Iowa Senate provide a large amount of information for the public to peruse in the form of fiscal briefings, bill analysis, and other background material.  All of this is produced by a professional, in house, non-partisan staff called the Legislative Services Agency (LSA). This material can help members of the public know what is going on in the legislature, the fiscal impact of various pieces of legislation, and help them find contact information for various agencies and legislators.

Periodically, throughout the year, we will also be posting analysis of legislation produced by the House Democratic Research staff.  The House Democratic Staff has over 100 years of collective experience related to writing and researching legislation.

There are a number of resources for information related to state/local budgets, but here are just a few:

Fiscal Services – Provides fiscal and budget analysis, state government oversight evaluation, and staffs all standing, statutory, Council, and interim study committees.

Custom reports on appropriations bills – with line item detail – http://www.legis.state.ia.us/prod2.0/tracking/BuildTracking.aspx

Sales tax rate look-up – https://www.idr.iowa.gov/salestaxlookup/
Department of Management – http://www.dom.state.ia.us/index.html
Local Budgets – https://www.iowaonline.state.ia.us/localbudgets/default.aspx?cmd=gotopublicsite

From the LSA website:

Divisions of the Legislative Services Agency (LSA)

Administrative Services – Provides administrative services to support the legal, fiscal, and computer services functions of the LSA, distributes print and electronic copies of LSA work products, provides public information and library services to legislators, staff, and citizens, and provides personnel and finance services to the LSA.

• Legislative Information Office and Capitol Tour Guides – Informs the public about the General Assembly and legislative process. The Capitol Tour Guides conduct tours of the Capitol and provide general information to building visitors.
• Legislative Library – Maintains a collection of publications of special interest to the General Assembly and archives information produced by the General Assembly and its staff.

Computer Services – Operates the legislative computer systems used by the Senate, House of Representatives, and central legislative staff agencies.

Fiscal Services – Provides fiscal and budget analysis, state government oversight evaluation, and staffs all standing, statutory, Council, and interim study committees.

Legal Services – Provides legal drafting, legal analysis, and staffs all standing, statutory, Council, and interim study committees.

• Iowa Code Office – Publishes the official statutory publications: the Iowa Code, the Iowa Code Supplement, and the Iowa Acts.
• Administrative Code Office – Publishes the official legal publications: the Iowa Administrative Code, the Iowa Administrative Bulletin, and the Iowa Court Rules.