The State Hygienic Laboratory (SHL) established in the Iowa Administrative Code to provide the following services, public health and environmental testing and surveillance, food safety testing and surveillance, chemical and bioterrorism response, newborn screening and testing, education and training, and applied research. Key partners include the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, hospitals and clinical labs throughout the state and region, and university researchers. SHL serves all 99 Iowa counties, in addition to providing services from clients throughout the nation.

Revenue                                                                                                     

FY 2026 projected revenue is $6,613,926 and category breakdown as follows:

The FY 2026 state appropriation ($4,822,610) is unchanged from last year.

FY 2026 budget dollars will fund laboratory support and administrative functions, infrastructure, supplies, and services.

Expenditures

Salaries:  Salaries comprise 68% of the laboratory expenses. Non-Clinical faculty and P&S staff will receive on the average 1% salary increase in FY 2026. Merit staff will receive the 2% contractual increase.

Supplies, Services, and Rentals:  These expenses constitute 32% of SHL’s budget. They include reagents and consumables, service contracts, laboratory software, UI Administrative and Shared Services, the statewide courier, and DAS leased space for the Ankeny facility. Many of these expenses see increases year over year.

Challenges and Strategies

Obtaining funding continues to be a primary focus for SHL. Funding from all sources has not kept pace with increasing costs for staff benefits, reagents, statewide courier, equipment maintenance agreements and other laboratory supplies. Recruiting and retaining staff as we move to a high through-put laboratory is critical. The job market for qualified laboratory staff is exceptionally competitive, thus it is imperative for SHL to be able to offer salaries that are comparable to other employers in the same job market. Retention is crucial to avoid the substantial cost of training new hires and avoiding the knowledge drain in the loss of highly qualified subject matter experts. Furthermore, a key strategy is for SHL to move to an updated LIMS system and obtain new instrumentations to increase testing capacity. Additionally, DAS leased space for the Ankeny facility is increasingly in need of building repairs. This will require assessment for ongoing building use.

SHL is making multiple efforts to improve its financial position despite the funding challenges. SHL continues to work on opportunities for supply cost reduction and revenue enhancement for both fee-for-service testing and increased collaborative grant funding support.