The Iowa state legislature passed a bill Thursday night to spend nearly $900 million on higher education next year.

Local Iowa school districts were hoping the state would pass the K-12 education reform bill onto the Governor instead. The reform bill would allow school districts to receive an allowable growth amount.

Allowable growth gives local school districts more money, so they can deal with rising costs of supplies and salaries. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has pushed for education reform since the beginning of the session.

Davenport Community Schools have not seen that reform though, and because of that, they had to base their 2013-2014 budget on zero percent allowable growth. They had to cut $100,000 from their North and Central High School bus budget for next year.

Voters in Dixon, Iowa hit the polls Tuesday with a new tool aimed at making the process faster and more efficient.

If successful, it could be implemented throughout the rest of the state.

Voters liker Bruce Dahms seemed to like the new system.

“They didn’t have to search my name in the data registry, in the book,” he said. “I just gave them my driver’s license and they took it and they scanned it- done deal.”

He’s part of a new voting initiative that was tested out in Dixon.

The process, called “Iowa Express Voter,” is supposed to make voting a lot easier.

All you have to do is have your voter registration card or your driver’s license and give it to the election official and have them scan your information.

“I think this new electronic thing, showing the ID’s and stuff, I think it’s awesome,” said Sue Motz, another voter.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has $60 billion worth of unfunded projects to fix the lock and dam systems on U.S. rivers.

House Reps Cheri Bustos, Dave Loebsack, and Bruce Braley are all pushing for a bill that calls for infrastructure improvements on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The house reps will talk about those improvements at Lock and Dam 15 on Tuesday.

The bill is called the Water Infrastructure Now Public-Private Partnership Act. It would encourage private contractors to improve the locks and dams. The bill would hopefully speed up projects on both the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.