The State Legislature is three weeks into the 2014 Session and members of the legislature are very busy as the decision was made to move the first funnel date for bills up by two weeks for this session. Being an election year, members of the Legislature are interested in a short session so that campaigning for office can commence.
For school districts in Iowa, one of the major legislative actions of importance is setting the Supplemental State Aid increase for FY 2016. By Code, the legislature is to set the SSA within 30 days of the Governor's Budget. It does not appear that there is consensus for this to be accomplished in a timely manner. The SSA increase is essential to know in making short-term and long-term budget projections for school districts. It is very difficult to be effective in planning a budget when there is uncertainty as to the resources that will be available from the State of Iowa.
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