At 2:38 a.m., Saturday, April 26, the 2008 Session of the 82nd General Assembly adjourned sine die--my final legislative session day. This year’s path to adjournment was a little like landing an airplane with the wheels not fully extended. Filled with multiple lurches and bumps, it was finally, mercifully, over.
In the legislative process, the majority party controls the agenda, while the minority party controls the time. During the past two years of this General Assembly, both parties have done a good job of fulfilling their roles.
Many times I am asked why the Legislature must be so partisan and is seemingly unable to work together on more issues. I usually try to point out legislation where both parties did work in a bipartisan fashion. For example, this year, both parties worked together to pass health care reform and made some positive changes to election laws. And, although you do not hear much about them in the press, there are scores of other smaller pieces of legislation that pass each year with great consensus. While these are not earthshaking changes to the law, they are important to those citizens to whom the legislation will affect.
The reason the two parties have difficulty agreeing on some issues, however, is because there truly is a philosophical difference between the parties. This has certainly been abundantly clear the past two years with the Democrats controlling both the executive and legislative branches.
Republicans generally believe in limited government intrusion into citizen’s lives. Legislation enacted this year, such as the smoking ban, mandating thirty minutes of exercise for school children every day, and measures to expand public pre-schools at the expense of private pre-schools, are examples of legislation that increase the role of government into lives of private citizens.
Republicans generally support restricting the use of taxes to pay for essential services and are reluctant to raise taxes in general. Tax increases passed the last two years include the cigarette tax and the statewide sales tax penny for schools. Other legislation, such as the change to the collective bargaining laws, has the potential to dramatically raise property taxes in Iowa.
Republicans believe the primary concern with elections is to preserve the integrity of the process by imposing reasonable safeguards in the system. Democrats believe safeguards should be relaxed to in order to lead more citizens to vote. Thus, same-day voter registration legislation that passed last year met with great resistance from Republicans.
Republicans have historically been known as the party that is more conservative on spending taxpayer dollars, although that distinction has been questioned by some in recent years. Based upon the spending spree we have seen by the Iowa Legislature since Democrats took control two years ago, I maintain it is still generally true. With record revenue increases of 11% pouring into the state’s coffers, in two years’ time the Democrat majority has raised taxes and increased spending by 17 percent, an increase of just under $1 Billion dollars. By violating the state expenditure limitation laws, using multiple one time funding sources, shifting current expenditures to other budget years, and moving general fund appropriations to another fund, the Democrats claim their budget is status quo and only increased spending by 4%. This is disingenuous and the reason why I did not vote for any budget bills this year.
The bottom line is there are differences between the philosophies of the political parties. The give and take provided by these differences is valuable in the political process. Some complain about the “gridlock” which occurs as a result of these differences. Having a king who makes all the decisions would certainly eliminate gridlock. But the philosophical differences offered by our political parties are a valuable element in our democratic system.
To have one party controlling all branches of government is not a healthy scenario. Iowans would be better served if Republicans controlled at least one of the chambers in the Legislature or the Governor’s office. It is my hope this can be achieved in the next election.
E-mail: carmine.boal@legis.state.ia.us
Home Address: 3301 SW Timber Green Road, Ankeny 50023
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