State of Iowa Legislature begins 2010 Legislative Session

The challenges facing the State of Iowa will fall on the shoulders of the Iowa Legislature and Governor Chet Culver as they began the 2010 Legislative Session on Monday, January 11, 2010 at 10 a.m. The Iowa Legislature plans to cut off business two weeks early in 2010.

Iowa Legislature opens 2010 session facing budget challenges - The Gazette

Iowa Legislature Opens Shortened Session on Budget - ABC News
AP The Iowa Legislature convened Monday for a shortened session with legislative leaders promising to make deep cuts needed to ...

Iowa Legislature set to start brief session focusing on big budget problems - WQAD
Culver stands to gain from shortened legislative session - DesMoinesRegister.com
LAWMAKERS RETURN: Legislators are getting back to work Monday and their focus ... -WHO-TV

Iowa Legislature: New session, old tactics - DesMoinesRegister.com (blog)
Iowa could get as much as $175 million, which looks mighty appealing in such a tight budget year. But there are significant strings attached, ...

In Cedar Rapids, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) meets with the Chamber of Commerce, speaks at the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids at a Noon luncheon, then heads to Anamosa for a Town Meeting.

Businesses tell Grassley that failures will accelerate - The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS — Business failures from the June 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids will be higher than necessary because of the slow and ...

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On Iowa beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl; but let's not forget our government's love for size and fat budgets today

We may be getting excited for the 2010 Orange Bowl tonight on FOX from Miami, Florida between #10 Iowa vs. #9 Georgia Tech, but what good stories are out there regarding our Local, State or Federal public policy ...

Time for Iowans to tell regents 'enough is enough' press-citizen.com Iowa City Press Citizen - http://www.press-citizen.com/
Guest opinion by Jeff Kaufmann and Pat Grassley.
We would go further and suggest the Board of Regents should cut lobbyists for the Regents and high education as well to save money.

Today's article from the Tuesday, January 5, 2010 edition of USA Today titled States braced to tighten 2010 belts amid $14.8B in shortfalls is worthy of your time. For more on this issue, read: Institute Brief: Iowa's State Budget: Spending Our Way to a Crisis Again.

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The Run Away Train that is our Government in America

Our governments at the Local, State and Fedaral levels have certainly lost their way.

An interesting article in 2009 was the article titled Earning, Saving and Giving: Have We Lost Our Way? by Ken Washer, DBA, CFA Associate Professor of Finance at Creighton University.

Further, the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, January 2, 2010 published an article The States and the Stimulus. The story points out how a supposed boon has become a fiscal burden for states. The State of Iowa is certainly a part of that mess, when in 2007-2009 the majority party in both houses, the Democrats, and Governor Chet Culver rode the supposed boon.

Local articles on the local concerns in the State of Iowa ...

12 questions that will shape Siouxland - Sioux City Journal
Facing a likely reduction in funding from the state, district officials will have to get creative. Last year, federal stimulus funds came to the rescue. ...
More budget woes ahead - TheReporter.com - Judy Lin
The stimulus funding and temporary taxes will begin to end at the end of 2010, leaving less revenue for the second half of the fiscal year that will begin ...

The challenges in Sioux City will not be much different for communities like Cedar Rapids and others throughout the State of Iowa. The second article is about the State of California and while the State of Iowa doesn't face the same woes as California, we face the same problem as Wall Street Journal article pointed out.

Unlike Nebraska and the promises given to Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), how will the State of Iowa fare in Health Care Reform? As a 100% rural state, whether we want to admit it or not, Cedar Rapids by Federal Standards is rural, and would be urban, if over 500,000 people. The impact in the past on Federal programs, including Flood Recovery, has been challenging for rural states.

An article worth a look was supplied by a friend this weekend. It's on Heath Care Reform ...

“VIP” Treatment Under Nationalized Health Care - Hot Air (blog)

Really, the discussion in Washington D.C. is really a topic of National Heath Care Insurance Reform. Is it really Health Care Reform that will push toward encouraging and implementing programs to make all Americans healthier ... nope!

Health care reform – one physician's view - San Diego Union Tribune - Eileen Natuzzi
When the Senate voted for the third time to pass what it calls “sweeping health care reform,” the media splashed it out. ...

Mines dot health bills: Public option among concerns for business - Crain's Detroit Business - Jay Greene
Health care and business leaders in Southeast Michigan have mixed reactions to a 2700-page health care reform bill approved Christmas Eve by ...

"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the $871 billion cost of the bill would reduce the future federal budget deficits by $132 billion between 2010 and 2019." Of course, look at government's expectations in the past with Medicare when it was unveiled and the costs that came about. Further, look at our State Budgets today, when everything was a supposed boon, but it turned about to be a bust.

Prudence is needed today more than ever ...

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Wow! Is it actually December already? Where did the year go?

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving wherever your travels took you.

By the way, hopefully, you didn't forget to Vote on December 1 in Cedar Rapids for the municipal runoff election ...

Election turnout hottest in four District 3 precincts - The Gazette

Cedar Rapids City Council runoff election is today - The Gazette

How can we get more participation in Local, State and Federal elections in Cedar Rapids and throughout our State?

On Monday, November 30Th, Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks announced that she will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2nd U.S. Congressional District of Iowa to face current incumbant Dave Loebsack (D-IA).

Miller-Meeks returns to challenge Loebsack - Muscatine Journal
Mariannette Miller-Meeks, center, announced Monday at the Quality Cobbler at Muscatine Mall that she plans to run for Iowa's 2nd ...
Miller-Meeks jumps right back in - Burlington Hawk Eye
Miller-Meeks to seek 2nd District seat again - UI The Daily Iowan
Miller-Meeks stresses 2008 lessons learned - Ottumwa Courier

IowaPolitics.com (press release) - Quad City Times

Mayor-elect Ron Corbett in Cedar Rapids wants feedback from Flood victims.

Mayor-elect Corbett to meet with flood victims on Thursday evening - The Gazette
Mayor-elect Ron Corbett will hold what he’s billing as a “listening session for flood victims” on Thursday evening from 6 to 8 at IBEW Local 405, 1211 Wiley Blvd. SW.In a news release announcing the event, Corbett says he promised during his recent election campaign that he would make helping flood victims a first priority.He calls the listening session “the first step toward fulfilling that campaign promise.”He wants to hear about gaps and needs and how the city can improve ...

It's not all Flood recovery business in the City of Cedar Rapids.

City open house on trails set for Monday evening - The Gazette
City Hall is holding an open house on Monday evening to give the public a chance to weigh in on a Comprehensive Trails Master Plan.The event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in Ballroom #2 at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel.Residents also can provide feedback at www.cedar-rapids.org/publicworks or www.shive-hattery.com/CRTrails/index.htmlThe comments will help the City Council prioritize trail construction in the next 10 years ...

Local candidate for Governor suspends campaign in Iowa.

Fong suspends camapign, but promises a second act - The Gazette
The first act didn’t end well, “but the play is still being written and I’m looking forward to taking the stage again,” Cedar Rapids gubernatorial hopeful Christian Fong said Tuesday.
Fong suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor, but promised he’ll be back.Fong, 32, who was making his first run ...

The State of Iowa has a Budget Gap to clean up come January 2010.

Iowa lawmakers will return in January to a billion dollar budget gap - The Gazette
State lawmakers will be required to close a billion-dollar funding gap when they return to the Capitol next January to fashion a fiscal 2011 budget, according to an analysis issued Wednesday.The nonpartisan Legislative Service Agency released projections for the upcoming budget cycle that estimated built-in spending commitments of $6.466 billion and available revenue under the 99 percent spending limitation law at $5.396 billion – leaving a projected budget gap of $1.07 billion.“It’s about what we expected,” said Senate Majority Leader ...

Closing thoughts on Government:

• Limited Government


• Limited Spending


• Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

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State Spending outpaces State Revenues in most States

No sooner had state lawmakers around the country gone home after spending
months plugging ...

The Monday, August 31, 2009 edition of The Washington Times features a story titled, State, local services hit as revenues fall. For more on the importance of cutting taxes to raise revenue, read Public Interest Institutes's brief titled, Historical success of tax cuts.

Other reviews of state spending vs. state revenues across the USA.

Conn. and Pa. state budgets still in limbo -The Associated Press
Erik Arneson, a spokesman for the Senate Republicans in Pennsylvania, frames the debate as a choice between cutting spending to match revenues, ...
What Now for State Budget? - Industrial Laser Solutions
Pennsylvania lawmakers begin to make concessions to pass budget ... - The Patriot-News

Mo. cuts $7 million from tourism budget -Bizjournals.com

Missouri has had to cut spending and lay off workers as tax revenue dropped and shoppers pulled back on spending. The state expects nearly $7.4 billion in ...
Your letters, Aug. 30, 2009 - St. Joseph News-Press

It's time to bring back the virtue of limited spending.

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Governor Chet Culver likely will have to tap State's Cash Reserves to balance budget

"I would say that it's highly unlikely that he wouldn't have to tap the cash
reserves for his authority at least to balance the budget for '09." - State
Auditor David Vaudt

Governor Chet Culver will likely tap cash reserves. Culver and the Democrat controlled Iowa Legislature unveiled a strategy of bonding to help fund Iowa's record budget.

"The rating agencies also gave Aaa credit ratings to Enron, Freddie Mac and
Fanny Mae, and we know what happened to them. So I don't place a great deal of
reliance on what the credit agencies are doing from a due diligence standpoint."
- David Vaudt

The Thursday, July 9, 2009 edition of The Quad City Times features an article titled, "Reserves likely needed to balance Iowa's budget." For more on this issue, read Public Interest Institutes's brief titled "Iowa's State Budget: Spending Our Way to a Crisis Again."

“The governor is acting like this was an accident or an oversight. That
is not what happened. The governor and Legislative Democrats made a
calculated decision to not couple with federal law and force Iowans to
payback tax returns because they needed the money for their spending plans.
House Republicans stand ready to correct this error.” - Iowa Minority
Leader Kraig Paulsen

Democrats Made Calculated Decision to Tax Iowans - Iowa House Republicans

Governor Chet Culver and the Democrat controlled Iowa Legislature unveiled the a strategy of bonding to help fund Iowa's record budget.

"The rating agencies also gave Aaa credit ratings to Enron, Freddie Mac and
Fanny Mae, and we know what happened to them. So I don't place a great
deal of reliance on what the credit agencies are doing from a due diligence
standpoint." - David Vaudt

Plunging revenue causes new problems -Stateline.org - Stephen C. Fehr
The Legislature already cut spending 7 percent for the budget year that started July 1. Iowa finished the 2009 budget year as much as $161 million in the ...

Budget tsunami warning - Denver Daily News

State Tax Surprise: Some Have to Pay Back Refund -KCRG - Rod Boshart
“It was a hit to the budget that, frankly, was not an option. “ he said. Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, who tried unsuccessfully to raise the issue in floor ...

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Bad News: 'Cap and Trade' and challanges in State Budgets

In the 220 years of our republic, there may have been worse pieces of
legislation enacted by Congress than the Waxman-Markey bill, but none readily
comes to mind. The Senate needs to take a stand and stop this disastrous act
from passing into law. - Robert Zubrin

The Costs of the Cap -and-Trade Bill - Roll Call

McKinley and other Republicans note that Culver can pull $50 million from
the state's cash reserves of about $400 million without legislative approval,
and there was a $44 million surplus in the budget approved by the Legislature.
That roughly $94 million appears far short of the expected shortfall. -
Ames Tribune

The Wednesday, July 1, 2009 edition of The Ames Tribune features an article titled, "Iowa sees budget gap as fiscal year ends." For more on this issue, read "Iowa's State Budget: Spending Our Way to a Crisis Again."

“Governor Culver has allowed the budget mess to become far too problematic
for him to handle on his own – we have gone from having a projected deficit to
an actual deficit. He needs to call the Legislature back for a special session
to balance the budget. He then needs to ask the Legislature to reduce the budget
for the coming year by an equal amount.
Everyone in the state has seen this day coming, except for Governor Culver. Taxpayers and local governments cannot afford a ‘wait and see’ approach any longer. Action is needed now.
It is time to quit worrying about the political ramifications of admitting that we have a deficit and get about the business of fixing it. Governor Vilsack put aside
partisan politics and called a special session in 2001 and 2002 to balance the
budget after revenues declined; Culver needs to do the same.” - State Rep.
Christopher Rants

Rants Call for a Special Session to get Iowa’s Fiscal House in Order - The Iowa Republican

The impact of 'Cap and Trade' and our State Budget situation don't provide a lot of confidence for future planning and expansion. We see foreclosures mounting in the USA. We see unemployment concerns and we see both the Federal and State governments living beyond sustainability.

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Transapaency and Accountablity in State Government

The Monday, February 9, 2009 edition of The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette in the Iowa Today section featured an article titled, Lawmakers want to know about bailout money. For more on transparency in government, read Iowa Economic Scorecard: Transparency in State Spending Encourages Limited Government.

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How much belt tightning will governments do in 2009?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008 online edition of the Washington Times features an article titled Unions clash with cost-cutting state legislators. For more on the cost of government, read the following Institute Brief: The burden of government from the Public Interest Institute.

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State of Iowa Officials "seek voluntary spending reductions"

A story in the November 21, 2008 printed issue of The Gazette titled "Iowa officials asked to trim $40 million from budgets" points to the impact the Economic Crisis will have on entitlements and our own State budget.

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