Legislators predict budget crunching, right-to-work laws to top session

Rep. Chuck Soderberg, speaking Thursday, predicts that taxes and labor issues will be hot topics in this year's legislative session. [Click to enlarge]

Newly-elected Feenstra and re-elected Soderberg, both Republicans, gave a preview on the upcoming session during a Thursday lunchtime forum to about 50 local residents at American Bank.

The meeting was hosted by the Le Mars Lions Club.

Sen.-elect Randy Feenstra, elected to fill the Iowa Senate seat vacated by Dave Mulder, speaks Thursday at gathering of local residents. [Click to enlarge]

The state's budget is heavily lopsided right now, Soderberg told the crowd.

"There's $569 million new dollars that we will be spending if everything is fully funded, with $7 million dollars of new revenue," he said. "That's not including the flood relief and assistance we need to get eastern Iowa back on their feet."

Feenstra said he and other newcomers to the Senate and House met with Governor Chet Culver Wednesday.

"He realizes that we have some economic hardships headed our way," Feenstra said. "Our budget has some shortfalls."

Feenstra pointed out that legislators don't have much room to play with the budget.

"Because 56 percent of our budget goes to education and 33 percent goes to health and human services, all of a sudden you're in your upper 80s," he said. "You've got this little pie that you can affect, and it's not that much money."

The good news, Feenstra said, is Iowa has about $400 million in the 'rainy day' fund -- a fund created to be used in case of natural disasters and the like.

"I think we're probably going to take some money out of there, and that's a good thing," he said. "We haven't used the rainy day fund since 1993 when we had the floods, and this year again we have the floods. That really caused economic hardship."

Cutting the budget

Culver recently announced some budget cuts, including the construction of a $36 million government office building in Des Moines, Feenstra added.

Later, Soderberg gave these cuts a nod as well.

"Governor Culver did reduce the actual spending by $40 million," Soderberg said. "It's not going to get us there, but it's an awful good start."

Budget cuts will mean tough choices, he noted.

"We have to really separate the wants and the needs," Soderberg said.

One audience member asked if the Iowa government could simply hold the budget line steady from last year."

"One of the first things we should do down in Des Moines is asses the pork barrel projects that were approved last year," Soderberg answered. "From flowerpots to an AmTrack station where they don't even have Amtrack service. The first thing we should do is repeal anything that is not spent on projects. It may not amount to a lot, but it's a way we can live within our means."

Feenstra suggested the state should also cut back government jobs.

Over two years it was almost 600 new state employees

"That's just crazy," Feenstra said. "You gotta look at it from the private sector and say, 'OK, government, we've gotta pare back. Where is it going to hurt the least. Where are we overstaffed."

Flood waters

Flood relief in eastern Iowa will be a burden on the budget this year, both legislators said, but a necessary one.

"This is truly an emergency. That was an emergency when it happened, and it hasn't gone away," Soderberg said.

He suggested tapping into Iowa's "rainy day fund" to give immediate help to those affected by the floods.

An audience member agreed.

"If that happened over here we'd be begging you to get us what we need," one audience member told the legislators. "I think that if we ever needed to tap it (the rainy day fund) this would be that time."

Workers rights

Another topic the legislators predicted would come up early in the session was labor issues and the right-to-work law in Iowa. That law maintains that employees are not forced to join or pay dues to a union.

"They're really big, controversial issues," Soderberg said.

Last year Governor Culver vetoed a bill that made significant changes to both.

"If they change the right-to-work law, it's going to impact every local government to a terribly adverse position," said audience member Patrick Murphy, a member of the Le Mars Community School Board of Education.

The legislators agreed.

Property taxes

When one audience member raised a question about property taxes, Soderberg told the crowd that a committee has been set up for the past two years to study Iowa's property taxes and decide if they should be changed.

"I would guess that there will be some recommendations," Soderberg said. "It creates some real problems to make significant changes without increasing somebody's taxes. It's really tough to balance, saying, 'We're going to decrease your taxes but increase yours.'"

Within five years, he noted, Iowa's Department of Revenue is estimating that homeowners' rollback will increase from the current 44 percent to 50 percent.

Tax at the pumps

Feenstra predicted that a 5-cent Iowa gas tax will come up this session.

"Here's the kicker," he added. "It might not come out if the federal government comes out with their 20 cents per gallon gas tax. They're talking about it. If that would happen, it would probably have the state of Iowa stand down."

More talk on smoking

Soderberg noted that some possible legislation on the smoking ban is already filed. They range from putting casinos under the ban to giving an exemption for local age-restrictive establishments so people could smoke there.

Lopsided legislature

Feenstra and Soderberg, as Republicans, face an uphill battle this legislative session. They are both in the minority party: the Senate is Democrat dominated with a 32-18 split, and the House of Representatives is a Democrat heavy 56-44.