National Service Express Tour ‘08

From Sandra Hansen, Executive Director of Iowa Campus Compact

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Iowa Campus Compact Members and Friends,

Currently campuses are able to participate in either the IACC VISTA, ICAP AmeriCorps, or M3C AmeriCorps program through their membership in Iowa Campus Compact; IACC has been awarded nearly 175 positions through these programs allowing college students and graduates to spend a year in volunteer service and earn an education award for their commitment.  Each year college students spend millions of hours volunteering to make their communities a better place to live.  During their term of service they are not able to actively advocate for policy changes; friends, family and other community leaders are able to. 

Iowa has the chance to set a new precedent for National Service by exempting the living allowance* and Education Award** from being taxed.  If you are interested in contacting your representatives about this issue, details and descriptions of the bills are below.  This is something that needs to be acted on quickly.  A spread sheet is attached with member campuses Senators and Representatives listed.  E-mail, fax (not in the database) and phone are the most viable options, snail mail is often slowed up due to past problems.

Best,

Sandra

* (the living allowance is less than $10,000 a year for a VISTA member who cannot be paid additional dollars or hold another job during that time)

** (the Education Award is taxed the year that they utilize; it is $1,000 for a minimum time member who spend 300 hours in service and up to $4,725 for a full time or VISTA member)

Request to add language to Standings Bill

Purpose of the amendment: This language would exempt from State taxes the AmeriCorps living allowance and the Segal Education Award paid to approximately 800 AmeriCorps members serving in Iowa:

Amend Section 422.7, code supplement 2007, by adding the following new subsection:

NEW SUBSECTION. 23. Subtract, to the extent included, the amount of AmeriCorps living allowance payments and federal Segal education award payments.

Fiscal Impact: FY2009 - $0, FY 2010 - $62,000

Reasons to support this amendment:

• AmeriCorps Recruitment: Iowa’s AmeriCorps programs have grown dramatically by increasing their competitiveness nationally for AmeriCorps funding.  The number of young Iowans giving a year of their life to service has increased from 150 - 900 over the last 3 years (933 members are anticipated to be serving in Iowa next year).   Programs are experiencing difficulty retaining members that want to serve a second year but cannot afford to pay off their prior year tax bill with an AmeriCorps Living Allowance of ~$800 a month (a full time member will accrue up to $650 owed on state taxes for their year of service).  Since the Federal Education Award cannot be used for taxes these young Iowans are often forced to borrow money so that they can use the education award that they have earned. 

• Brain Gain: With the New AmeriCorps NCCC* Campus in Vinton that opens in July (one of 5 regional campuses) we have a great opportunity to bring in some of the countries most talented young leaders.  The Campus will house 400 members at full capacity (160 this year, 250 next, 300-400 each subsequent year).  These young people will come from all over the country and represent the best and brightest young people (only 1 in 3 applicants is selected for this program) and while these young people will be serving throughout the Midwest, 40% of projects tend to be in the host state. Many members are fresh out of high school and college (aged 18-25) and decide where to further their education based on how the education award is matched and taxed.  Many Iowa Colleges match the education award, but with this tax provision we have the opportunity to offer another incentive. In Minnesota, their legislative services bureau estimated members pay on average of $1000 in taxes on the education award and reported many cases of members being forced to take out loans to pay the tax (since the award cannot be used for taxes).  This would be an excellent tool for college and workforce recruiters to keep a new generation of leaders in Iowa.