Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Legislators expect to make deeper cuts than Gov. Chet Culver asked for in his budget proposal, cuts that could include programs the governor left out.
Photo by Lisa Yarost, Flickr
“We’re going to continue to tell our caucus members to look for deeper cuts,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said. “We don’t know when the strain of funds at the national level is going to end. We don’t know what the impact is going to be, so we’ve asked the chairmen of all the budget subcommittees to have very sharp pencils and make cuts beyond what’s in the governor’s budget.”
Areas such as statewide preschool, corrections, teacher pay and Medicaid were exempted from the 6.5 percent budget cut Culver announced Wednesday, but Gronstal said that doesn’t mean those areas are safe.
“Everything is on the table,” he said.
All opinions are welcome, Gronstal said, even those of GOP gubernatorial hopefuls. Gronstal said he is sending a letter to Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, who announced Monday he is running for governor, and state Auditor David Vaudt, who said his is considering a run, asking them what cuts should be made.
“Vander Plaats, in particular, indicated that the governor should have been more specific in his cuts and was concerned about him suggesting a six and a half percent cut for state departments,” Gronstal said. “I want to hear what his selective cuts would be and I’m going to ask them for that.”
Democrats will soon launch a Web site where state employees or the general public can anonymously suggest ways to cut costs.
“It’s going to be a very tough budget year,” Gronstal said. “We’re going to struggle through it.”
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