Cuts on the way

Iowa Power Fund and disaster recovery safe, other areas face ‘flat budgets’

By WES KAPPELMAN

OSKALOOSA — Democrats in the state legislature are looking to make cuts to make up for a drop in revenues, and areas ranging from early childhood education to county mental health will likely be affected.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal joined local state Sen. Tom Rielly and local state Rep. Eric Palmer at Smokey Row on Tuesday afternoon to go over challenges and goals for the 2009 legislative session, beginning on Jan. 12.

“It’s going to be a difficult year,” Gronstal said. “We’re going to get used to saying ‘no’ to a lot of people.”

There are two areas that state Democrats want to protect from cuts — the Iowa Power Fund and disaster recovery. Gronstal said the power fund has put Iowa five years ahead of others on renewable fuels and that Iowa is also ahead on wind energy.

“We’re going to figure out how to create a renewable fuel economy, we’re going to figure out how to not use foreign oil, we’re going to figure out how to solve global warming, right here in Iowa, and we’ve got to stay on the cutting edge,” Gronstal said.

Some areas likely to be hit with cuts include early childhood education and school district budgets.

Oskaloosa Community School District officials, along with districts from across the state, had lobbied for an increase in allowable growth from 4 percent to 6 percent. That is most likely not going to happen, and there may be a drop to that percentage from 4 percent during the session.

District Superintendent Carolyn McGaughey asked if districts should anticipate additional cuts. Gronstal replied that it was possible.

Plans to expand funding for the early childhood education program will also most likely be abandoned for the next session.

“One of my concerns is that we do maintain funding for the new pre-school program,” Palmer said.

“I think it is very important to the future of this state. I want to make sure that if we don’t expand the program this year that we at least maintain funding for it as it already was.”

For post-secondary education, Palmer wants the regents to keep tuition increases at the rate of inflation.

Palmer also said it’s critical that the Legislature does not go backwards in efforts to cover all children in Iowa with affordable and accessible health care.

“It’s going to be a flat budget year,” Palmer said.

To meet the demands of a Department of Transportation study that found the state needs to invest $260 million more into its roads and bridges, an increase to the gas tax and user fees is possible. Sen. Tom Rielly, who is the chairman of the Transportation Committee, said an increase of $0.10 would raise $110 million.

The Legislature will also look into whether the state has too many roads and bridges.

“We need to make sure we’re running as lean and efficiently as we can,” Rielly said.

“We need to have this discussion, this is crucial,” Rielly said.

Gronstal said that county mental health is an area that will likely not see increases. Funding for economic development is also likely to not increase. Gronstal said updating incentives for businesses is important, and a shift toward information services like Google from manufacturing has helped diversify the Iowa economy.

Gronstal plans for the Legislature to bring the list of cuts of state funding to cities, counties and school districts before they turn in budgets for the next fiscal year.

In addition to budget cuts, Democrats have stronger union rights as a goal for the next session, including changing Iowa’s “Right to Work” law.

“The strategy for this state of weak unions and low-wage jobs has not worked well in this state,” Gronstal said.

Rielly had a different view and said there are a lot of good employers in the area that take care of their non-union workers.

Tax cuts are not likely, but not out of the question if they could help the economy. Gronstal said there will have to a good argument that a cut would spur considerable economic growth. Rielly said an example is when Iowa cut the premium tax on insurance, which has led to Iowa leading the nation in insurance.

“If we can make cuts in certain ways that are going to spur economic development, I’m all for that,” Rielly said.

Sustainable funding for natural resources is also something legislators will likely work on this year, Gronstal said. Sustainable funding would increase the sales tax by less than 1 percent and commit the funds raised to Iowa’s natural resources.

A new state prison is still a priority, but plans to build a new state office building will most likely be placed on hold, Gronstal said.

The Legislature will also have to take a look at the Glenwood Resource Center after last year’s deaths at the facility.

Gronstal warned against closing Glenwood too quickly.

“There’s a chicken-and-egg problem,” Gronstal said.

“Build the nest at the local level for community-based before you kick them out of the state institutions.”

The problems at Glenwood have spanned Republican and Democratic governors and legislators, with periods of improvement followed by drops in quality, Gronstal said.

“We ought to be able to make the place run and run right,” Gronstal said. “I don’t care how bad the budget problems are, we’re going to find a way to do what needs to be done for those kids.”

Herald City Editor Wes Kappelman can be reached by e-mail at news2@oskyherald.com

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