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Special
Session: Debunking Governor Vilsack’s Budget Myths
Governor
Vilsack’s decisions on employee pay raises in FY 2003 will cost
about $80 million in new general fund money.
The total new general fund revenue available is $90
million. It would
appear that when it comes to money, the Governor’s top priority
for Iowa is to have well paid state employees.
The Legislature is $14 million below the Governor's recommendation
for teacher professional development and $4.3 million below him
for K-12 technology. The differences between the Legislature's
budget and the Governor's will have no impact on the number of
teacher's, the size of classrooms or the amount of local property
taxes.
In the last two budgets Governor Vilsack presented to the
Legislature in his State of the State addresses, he proposed four
different property tax increases and zero dollars in property tax
relief.
Corrections and Public Safety may or may not be under-funded in
the Salary Bill. According
to Legislative Fiscal Bureau, it is up to Department Of Management
to determine what portion Corrections will get.
Governor is also publicly stating that "100 Correctional
Officers" will be laid off.
This statement is not true.
According to the Department of Corrections, approximately
100 FTE's will be eliminated.
Many of these FTE's are funded but VACANT.
Thus, actual people would not be laid off by eliminating
these FTE's. The
Department has stated that it will avoid laying off actual people
if possible.
The "talk" is that Department of Public Safety (DPS)
will need to eliminate 35-40 troopers if the Salary Bill is under
funded. DPS received NO CUTS for FY03.
Their budget remained status quo. DPS has been exempt from
the last two rounds of cuts.
If they cannot find a place to cut back without laying off
troopers, it is simply BAD MANAGEMENT.
When recruiting companies to the State of Nebraska, all Nebraska
does to compare itself to Iowa is to show a slide of Governor
Vilsack marching with Titan Tire employees.
Those investing to grow the economy want to make sure the state is
conducive to business. Marching
with unions is not supportive of economic development.
If beds are closed at the Veterans Home, it will be due to an
issue the Vilsack administration has more control over than the
Legislature - setting and negotiating the salaries of state
workers.
The budget bill (after adjustments for the change to net budgeting
are taken into account) gave the Veterans Home about a $20,000
increase over estimated FY 02.
While the Governor calls this "nothing less than
outrage", where was his suggestion for an additional $1
million in budget cuts to offset state worker salary increases?
The Governor is supposed to be in control of the
bureaucrats that determine and negotiate state salaries.
The Legislature increased funding for the HAWK-I program by $3.5
million in the FY 2003 budget.
The program will have $11.7
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million
in new money, which will be added to what is remaining in the HAWK-I
Trust Fund.
We project that there will be around $2.7 million left at the end of
the current fiscal year. For
providing health care coverage to lower-income children
Governor Vilsack and Department of Human Services (DHS) Director
Jessie Rasmussen are claiming that they will have to remove children
from the program on July 1 because of the inadequacy of the
Legislature’s HAWK-I proposal.
No child will have to be removed from the program, and they
know it. These
threats are not about fiscal responsibility.
Instead, they are about diverting attention from
Rasmussen’s miserable record as DHS director.
The Governor and Director Rasmussen should not be playing
politics with the health of children
The budget bill increases the co-pays on brand-name prescription
drugs to $2 or $3, while maintaining the $1 co-pay on generic drugs.
Why is this important? One
of the fastest growing parts of the state’s budget is the cost of
prescription drugs in the Medicaid program.
Without making some changes to this, the growth in drug costs
to Medicaid will force Iowans to choose between schools and
providing the vital medical services Iowans need.
By encouraging the use of generic drugs, we hope to slow down
the growth in drug costs.
Vilsack
Letter in Support of Road Funds Contradicts Own Policy of Reducing
Road Construction Funds for Iowa
Republican
legislative leaders today released a copy of a letter signed just
two months ago by Governor Tom Vilsack, calling on Congress to not
reduce federal government spending on road construction.
The letter contradicts the Governor’s repeated calls to use
$60 million out of the state’s road fund to balance the state’s
budget.
Vilsack joined forty-five other Governors in February of this year
in writing Congressional leaders, urging them to protect road
construction from budget cuts.
The letter reads, “Given the weak economy, this is not the
time for a major reduction in highway funding.”
Later, the letter states that protecting road spending will
“prevent any job losses.”
According to U.S. D.O.T.’s Federal Highway Administration, for
every $1 billion spent on highway construction, 42,100 jobs are
created. Using that
number, if Iowa was to lose $60 million in highway projects that
would result in a loss of 2,526 high paying jobs held by Iowans.
“Surely Governor Vilsack knows how important road construction is
to Iowa’s economy,” added House Majority Leader Christopher
Rants. “He also knows
that his plan to cut road spending will put more Iowans out of work
at a time when Iowa’s unemployment rate is already growing.”
“Everyone recognizes that for us to be able to invest more in our
schools, we need to get our economy growing again,” said House
Speaker Brent Siegrist. “That
starts by continuing our investments in good roads.
The Governor knows this and its time for him to drop his
anti-growth, anti-good job proposal to raid the road fund.”
Ways
& Means Update
Bills
Passed Out Of The Ways & Means
Committee
This Week:
No
bills passed out of Ways & Means during Special Session.
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Week
in Review Archives
