Editorial: Economic development for rural Iowa

The Iowa House has wrapped up week nine of the 2024 Legislative Session. It was another productive week full of passionate debates and common-sense solutions.

Economic development across Iowa

This week we passed a bill to spur economic growth across Iowa. There are two important pieces of policy in this bill.

First, this bill establishes a major economic growth attraction (MEGA) program under the Iowa Economic Development Authority. This program would use tax credits and a sales tax refund to incentivize major projects to come to Iowa to do business. We've seen too many businesses choose to go to other states because they can offer more incentives like this. I want to see these businesses come to Iowa.

The second piece is what made me even more excited to support this bill. This bill appropriates $300,000 to the IEDA for certification costs of certified sites in rural Iowa. This money must be spent on sites that are in counties with a population of less than 50,000. This money can be used on two certified sites per congressional district each year, up to $30,000 each.

House Republicans want to make sure that we're making economic development a priority everywhere in this state, not just near the big cities.

Parental consent for social media

In a bipartisan manner, we passed a bill through the House to help parents and kids navigate the ever-changing world of social media. As social media has gotten more popular, we’ve seen the mental health of children decline. Social media can have negative impacts on kids’ self-esteem, result in cyberbullying, and expose kids to inappropriate content.

Right now, it’s tough for parents to keep up with all the new, trending social media apps. This bill would require social media apps to get parental permission before anyone under the age of 18 could create an account on their platform. Under this bill, it would be against the law for social media companies to gather data on kids without permission from parents.

This bill puts parents back in the driver’s seat when it comes to their kids’ data and the impact social media can have on their mental health.