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.
A panel of experts announced Friday that Iowa’s revenue would once again shrink this fiscal year, but additional layoffs, furloughs or program cuts will not be needed.
The Revenue Estimating Conference, a three-member panel of experts whose revenue predictions are used to guide the governor and state legislature in setting a budget, announced Friday that the amount Iowa will collect in taxes and other revenues this fiscal year will be down from $5.438 billion to $5.401 billion.
However, state Budget Director Dick Oshlo said because of Gov. Chet Culver’s 10 percent across-the-board budget cut that was ordered in October, which was deeper than required at the time, the state will not need to make deeper cuts to balance the state’s budget.
The REC also lowered the revenue estimate for FY2011, which starts July 1, from $5.416 billion to $5.403 billion.
Reaction from Republican leadership was swift, blaming the state of Iowa’s budget on previous Democratic spending, not a national recession.
“The new projections today once again serve to underscore how short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible it was for Governor Culver to sign and legislative Democrats to pass the largest amount of spending in the state’s history when Republicans were consistently warning them to control their overspending addiction,” Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, said in a statement.
Iowa Farm Bureau Federation President Craig Lang said the REC figures are “yet another reminder that our state budget process is broken.”
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