Local lawmakers look to make inroads on state spending plan
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By Whitney Woodward | Monday, March 31, 2008 |
DES MOINES — With the legislative session winding down, Iowa lawmakers will shift budget negotiations into high gear as early as this week, as they try to divvy up an estimated
$6 billion in spending.
Because Democrats hold majorities in both chambers and occupy the governor’s office, they’ll be largely responsible for crafting the state’s spending plan.
The budget Democrats are poised to create will mirror, in many respects, the one Gov. Chet Culver proposed in January, state Sen. Roger Stewart, D-Preston, said.
The chiefly nuts-and-bolts budget will fund established programs, such as those Democrats created last year, while putting a modest amount into new health care and education initiatives, he said.
“Those two budgets are going to be bigger than last year. We’re going to cut back on the other budgets,” Stewart said.
Lawmakers do not plan to fund two Culver-backed education initiatives: a teacher training school at the University of Northern Iowa, and a program to provide all high schoolers with the opportunity to earn up to 30 hours of college credit, state Rep. Cindy Winckler,
D-Davenport, said.
Both programs have merit, but there isn’t enough new money to spread around, said Winckler, who co-chairs the panel that oversees education spending.
“We just didn’t have the money to fund it all,” she said.
Democrats will send about $2.6 million to school districts to implement a statewide core curriculum, which the Legislature is poised to create, Winckler said.
But with the Legislative session scheduled to end April 22, Democrats have yet to release their proposed spending targets.
Without those figures, GOP lawmakers — who have requested the numbers multiple times — can’t determine where state money is coming from and whether they’re looking at a balanced budget.
“We don’t know what’s going to where and how much we’re looking at,” state Sen. James Hahn, R-Muscatine, said. “We’re very apprehensive about what’s going to come down in this final bill.”
Whitney Woodward can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or whitney.woodward@lee.net.
Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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