Common Good Iowa is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization built on a collective 50 years of experience of two respected Iowa organizations — the Child and Family Policy Center and Iowa Policy Project. Their team of policy advocates and researchers leverage reliable data, solid analysis and collaborative relationships to craft people-centered policy solutions for our state’s most pressing issues.
Visit WebsiteCo-released with Immigration Research Initiative (IRI), Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and Common Good Iowa.
A half-century removed from the high-tide of the civil rights movement, progress on racial equity has slowed or stalled on many fronts. Nowhere is this more starkly evident than in the […]
The proposed Alliant rate increase is a sweeping denial of equitable treatment of customers and a rejection of environmental responsibility. Alliant Energy, called Interstate Power and Light (IPL) in Iowa, […]
Science is ever changing. It is now possible to show that some of the increase in rainfall from storms and consequent flooding has a human fingerprint.
Iowa is becoming hotter and wetter because of climate change, putting a policy response in the hands of leaders who already are dealing with problems of more frequent flooding that […]
Solar power not only saves on current generation of high-cost power; it reduces the need for future generating capacity. My own home system shows that.
Last year, we issued a report on toxic algae and three weeks later the city of Greenfield lost its drinking water. Now we see that the Environmental Working Group has […]
Iowa’s investment — or lack of investment — in water quality is a perennial issue driven by growing attention to pollution by the state’s most prominent industry, agriculture. Nine years […]
Expand existing state programs to improve waters and overall balance in Iowa tax system.
Recent initiative fails to meet needs to improve Iowa water quality
Policymakers need to acknowledge both the magnitude of the water quality problem in Iowa, and the role of nonpoint-source nutrient pollution. Financing has been inadequate. We pay lip service to […]
Iowa has a rich history in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The 1983 requirement that investor-owned utility companies utilize renewable energy for part of their production portfolio was the first […]
Working full time, year round is not enough to guarantee a middle-class standard of living. Nearly one in five working Iowa families, in fact, does not earn enough to meet […]
What does it take to get by these days? This latest edition of The Cost of Living in Iowa answers this question. The report details how much working families must earn in […]
Our 2012 report Wage Theft in Iowa characterized wage theft as an “invisible epidemic” affecting thousands of low-wage workers in Iowa. Since 2012, numerous media reports, an uptick in worker organizing to […]
Inaction by Congress and state legislatures has led many cities and counties to adopt a local minimum wage. We show that a $15 county minimum wage, phased in by 2020, […]
Each year at Labor Day, we survey the “State of Working Iowa.” This annual report card examines trends in wages, job growth, and job quality in Iowa. This fall, when […]
Due to Tropical Storm Francine, EARNCON 2024 will be virtual only. Details will be shared via email with the EARN community.