Iowa House of Representatives

The Generation Iowa Commission released their recommendations today to keep more young people in Iowa.  The commission was created by the 2007 Legislature after a record number of young people took office in the Iowa House of Representatives. 

State Representatives Elesha Gayman of Davenport, Andrew Wenthe of Hawkeye, McKinley Bailey of Webster City, and Tyler Olson of Cedar Rapids, are all 30 years old or younger and sponsored the Generation Iowa bill.

Recommendations include: (more…)

Commissioned by the Iowa Legislature and Governor Chet Culver earlier this year, the Iowa Office of Energy Independence released the Iowa Plan for Energy Independence today, which aims to make Iowa energy independent by 2025.  

State Representative Nathan Reichert of Muscatine helped draft the legislation last spring and now serves on the Iowa Power Fund Board of Directors, which governs the Office of Energy Independence and drafted the plan.

State Representative David Jacoby, D-Coralville, has been tapped to Chair the House Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee by House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque.

“Rep. Jacoby has a wide range of experience from local government to workforce development to community college. He has the skills and knowledge to make sure our job creation and training efforts are on the right track,” said Murphy. “I trust his leadership to help us create quality, high-paying jobs for the future.” (more…)

The Generation Iowa Commission will hold an open forum in Storm Lake on Tuesday, November 20 at 3:00 PM in the Harold Walter Siebens School of Business in Forum Room 4 at Buena Vista University (BVU). The goal of the commission is to help find ways to keep young people in Iowa.

The commission was created by the 2007 Legislature after a record number of young people took office in the Iowa House of Representatives.  State Representatives Elesha Gayman of Davenport, Andrew Wenthe of Hawkeye, McKinley Bailey of Webster City, and Tyler Olson of Cedar Rapids, are all under 30 years old and sponsored the Generation Iowa bill. The commission will report to the Legislature when session begins in January 2008.

State Representative Mark Davitt of Indianola won approval of a bill (House File 892) last year to boost Iowa’s film industry.  The effort is paying off in Burlington where a new casting agency held their first casting call.  A clip from the Burlington Hawkeye, which covered the casting call last weekend and comments from Susan Gorrell of RRell Production:

Making movies in Iowa has become more economical after passage of the “Film, Television, and Video Project Promotion program” earlier this year by the Iowa Legislature. The legislation gives state tax incentives for legitimate production companies that film in Iowa.

The new tax incentives have made it easier for Iowans with connections to Hollywood to bring more independent film producers to the Hawkeye state, Gorrell said.

“Iowa has one of the best tax incentives in the country,” Gorrell said. “It works out because finance people (for movies) want to be here because of those incentives.”

The full story from the Burlington Hawkeye: (more…)