Words From Windschitl

Governor Culver Release Budget Proposals

On Wednesday January 27, Governor Culver released his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. My initial reaction to the proposal was a mixture of disappointment and frustration. By law the state can only spend 99 percent of projected revenue for the coming year, this is to help protect against overspending, but it has still failed in the past to protect Iowans from bloated budgets.

The current estimate for how much money the Legislature can spend this session is             $5.32 billion. Governor Culvers proposed budget will spend $5.707 billion. Now, I am sure you are asking “how can the Governor spend more that what the state takes in?” The answer is the Governor is once again proposing to use over $387 million in one-time monies for ongoing state expenditures.

As I have said before we should be using a pay as we go budgeting process. Using one-time monies for ongoing expenditures is not a sound budgeting practice and is fiscally irresponsible. Below is a list of the one-time monies that Governor Culver is proposing to use in order to fund the budget.

·         $207.5 million from our states Cash Reserve Fund which will further erode our states savings account.

·         $37.7 million from the Senior Living Trust Fund which was created to help our seniors stay at home longer, but is being proposed to pay for Medicaid.

·         $48 million in Federal stimulus money for general purposes and portions of education.

·         Another $92.2 million in Federal stimulus money to pay for our underfunding of Medicaid expenditures.

Now another question I have been asked this week is will the Governor’s proposed budget raise our taxes?  Unfortunately, the answer is yes, if passed as proposed you will see your property taxes increase this year.

The Governor said in his Condition of the State address that he intended to fully fund the K-12 education formula for allowable growth at 2 percent.(Allowable growth is what schools throughout the state use to plan their budgets for the upcoming year).  The Governor has proposed to fund allowable growth at $333 million for the coming year. This breaks down to $233 million from the state general fund and $100 million from the Cash Reserve Fund. The non-partisan Legislative Service Agency has estimated funding a 2 percent allowable growth will cost $514 million for the coming fiscal year.  This means that under the Governors current proposal he will be underfunding the 2 percent by roughly $170 million.

Schools will still have the authority to spend the additional 2 percent even if the Legislature does not fully fund it this means the $170 million the Governor does not fund can be made up with property tax increases. 

I will continue to stand for the taxpayers of Iowa and vote against any budget that spends more than the state takes in or raises taxes in any form to balance the budget.

Veterans Update

On Tuesday of last week the House took up debate on a bill that had come out of the House Veterans Affairs committee which produced a partisan debate which is unusual when it comes to veterans legislative bills. 

The intent of the bill would be to provide unemployment benefits to the spouse of a military member who voluntarily quit their job. The language in the bill says if an individual quits their job voluntarily because of a relocation of the individual’s spouse by the military, they are eligible to receive unemployment benefits. 

While the intent of the bill is a noble one, there are numerous problems with the language in the legislation.  There are thousands of military families who face hardships when deployments occur, and I know that from firsthand experience. I was deployed to serve a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005 while my wife was 8 month pregnant with our first child.  The bill does not work to address the specific situations in which a spouse would need to quit their job due to another spouse’s deployment.  Overall it is a poorly crafted bill with little focus on the actual problems that occur, and a very broad scope of application.

The bill had previously passed out of the Veterans Committee where numerous concerns were registered by committee members and it was assumed that the bill would be referred to the Labor Committee where the provisions of the bill could be examined and discussed by experts on unemployment benefits. Unfortunately, the bill was brought to the floor for debate without the Labor Committee’s input and therefore did not receive the proper vetting the bill deserved.

The benefits paid to a spouse covered in the bill would come from the Unemployment Trust Fund, a fund that all employers pay into in the State of Iowa.  With 115,000 Iowans out of work, the trust fund has been getting pushed to its limits, requiring a 50% tax increase to employers recently to help replenish the fund.  Speaker of the House Pat Murphy, of Dubuque, stated at the beginning of the year that his number one priority is job creation in Iowa, but taxing the state’s employers and continuing to add to the cost of employing Iowans does nothing to encourage business growth in Iowa. Adding to that burden by making more Iowans eligible for unemployment benefits with such a broad scope does not encourage businesses to hire, it does just the opposite.

We all want to support or service members and Veterans in every way we can regardless of party lines, but the bottom line is the bill is too broad in scope and needs to be narrowed down to address specific hardships. We should not pass poor Legislation simply because it makes us feel good or because it is politically expedient to do so. I chose to not support the bill, but it did pass on a 55 to 44 in the House. Hopefully the Senate will have a better opportunity to give this bill the full vetting it deserves to best help our veterans and their families while also protecting jobs at the same time.

Share Your Thoughts

If you or a friend would like to receive this newsletter by e-mail I would be more than happy to add you to my newsletter list.  Please contact me with any questions or concerns, the district number is 712-642-4334 or e-mail me at matt.windschitl@legis.state.ia.us.

Matt Windschitl

Iowa State Representative

House District 56