$13 Million for Last Dollar Scholarships; $1.2 Million for Employer Innovation Fund

April 25, 2019

The House and Senate agreed on final budget numbers and policy language for the overall budget last week. This week, key budgets ABI followed for Future Ready Iowa were finalized. First, the Education Appropriations bill includes a little more than $13 million for Future Ready Iowa’s Last-Dollar Scholarship program. The agreed to language that was adopted by both the House and Senate is found in amendment H-1288 to HF 758. The bill also includes policy language that establishes criteria for the Workforce Development Board for the Last-Dollar Scholarship program. In addition to the Last-Dollar Scholarship language, the bill includes more than $208 million for community college funding, an increase of about $1 million for the Iowa Tuition Grant and more than $481 million for general fund funding of the Regents Universities.

The House and Senate also came to an agreement on the Economic Development budget, which includes $1.2 million for the Employer Innovation Fund and $1 million for the skilled workforce grant fund–both components of Future Ready Iowa. The agreed to language to SF 608 can be found in S-3214. The House passed the amended bill on Tuesday, and the Senate concurred with the House language on Wednesday. The bill allocates $2.85 million from the interest off the reserve fund from the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund to Iowa Workforce Development for field offices. It also appropriates $100,000 for Housing Needs Assessments and $300,000 for Rural Innovation Grants–both recommendations of the Empower Rural Iowa task forces that met last fall.