regional public policy
At the state level, we helped advocate for a number of significant legislative
successes during the 2005 session of the Iowa General Assembly. Among these
top priorities was the reenactment of a bold Grow Iowa Values Fund with a
longtime funding source to ensure access to economic development tools that
encourage business development and create new,high-wage jobs. Other key
legislative successes the Partnership supported included:
- raising the cap on historical tax credits in cultural entertainment districts
- creating a Statewide Assessment Appeals Board to help provide property tax relief
- permitting the sale of enterprise zone tax credits to encourage development in brown fields and
blighted areas
- preserving tax increment financing
- amending Iowa’s venture capital laws to assist more entrepreneurs
- increasing early childhood/preschool funding
We also created the Transit 2030 Task Force to carry forward the Transit 2030
Vision – a transportation vision for Central Iowa that embraces future economic
growth and accommodates the projected doubling of the overall regional
population and workforce over the next 25 years. The five-point Vision provides
that in 2030, Greater Des Moines’world-class metropolitan community will
move on a world-class transportation system.
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