(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have agreed on a more than nine-point-four BILLION dollar state budget plan for the next fiscal year. House Appropriations Committee chairman Gary Mohr of Bettendorf is one of the negotiators.

The plan will require withdrawing about 900 MILLION dollars from state reserves because state tax revenue is dropping due to tax cuts. Mohr says using some of the state’s sizable surplus for the next couple of years was part of the plan when Republicans voted a year ago to cut the state income tax to three-point-eight percent.

Representative Brian Meyer of Des Moines — the next Democratic Leader in the House — says dipping into the state reserves to cover ongoing expenses is the wrong approach.

House Republicans successfully pushed to include money in the budget to boost pay for paraeducators and nursing home employees, but accepted an overall lower level of spending that was closer to the initial offer from Senate Republicans. Representative Mohr says the budget plan will pay for priorities with the dollars that are available.

Governor Reynolds says the deal puts taxpayers first and keeps the state of Iowa on a fiscally sustainable path. The Senate is scheduled to debate Friday, with three budget-related bills on the list.

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats in the Iowa House have selected a lawmaker from Des Moines as their next minority leader. Once the 2025 legislative session ends, State Representative Brian Meyer will replace House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, who is running for congress. Meyer says House Democrats will have a different conversation with voters over the next couple of years.

Meyer says this weekend he’ll start traveling the state to recruit Democrats to run for seats in the Iowa House.

Meyer said…

Meyer, who is 51, is a former member of the Iowa National Guard, a former Des Moines City Councilman and a former assistant Iowa attorney general.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines police have made an arrest in an armed home invasion case which contains a lesson for all Iowans about posting photos on the internet. Police were called to Des Moines’ Oak Park neighborhood where a family reported four people burst into their home, one of them carrying a gun, and they were robbed of $60,000 in cash.

Detectives later learned a teenager in the home had posted images of the cash on a social media platform before the robbery. Officers served a search warrant on Wednesday and recovered a substantial amount of cash and charged 18-year-old Mohamed Abukar with robbery.

The search warrant was served on Wednesday, leading to an arrest. (DMPD photo)

More arrests are pending. Police say having cash on hand may be helpful, but it also means risks — like fire and theft — which may not be covered by insurance.

(Radio Iowa) – A Vietnam-era military jet flew over Sioux City for the first time in years with the help of two Iowa National Guard Chinook helicopters. The A-7 Corsair jet was moved Wednesday from the old Martin’s Airfield to the 185th Air National Guard base, where it will be restored and then be on permanent display at the Siouxland Freedom Park. Park board member Marty Hogan says they are excited to see the project happen.

A-7 jet getting prepped for flight to 185th Air Guard base. (KSCJ photo)

He says they had to get ownership of the jet and then figure out how to get it moved and refurbished.

Two Army National Guard Chinooks from Boone carried the plane from the airfield where it had been for the last 22 years to the 18th Airbase. This A-7 was used for training pilots at the 185th and was never flown in combat. The repainting is expected to take two or three months to complete.