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.
During his opening remarks Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, was emphatic that the legislature will adjourn with a balanced state budget that does not rely on tax increases.
“We will balance the budget, and we will do it without raising taxes. We will not add to the burdens of middle class families by raising taxes during a recession. To get the job done, we will have to cut almost every service provided by state government,” Gronstal said. “At the same time, we will reorganize state government for the first time in more than 25 years. By consolidating agencies and delivering services to Iowans more efficiently, we will eliminate wasteful spending and create more accountability for taxpayers.”
State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs (file photo)
During the next 80 days, Gronstal said legislators will be asked again and again to make exceptions to the budget cuts.
“As the majority leader of the Senate, I’m counting on you to say ‘no,’” he said. “There simply is no way to avoid the pain of cutbacks we will make this year. Saying ‘no’ will get us through this tough budget year.”
If lawmakers remain focused, Iowa can emerge from the “worst economic recession since the Great Depression” in better shape than it was before.
“We will come out of this recession with a newly right-sized, reorganized state government,” he said. “And we will have protected our local schools, community colleges and public universities from the kind of devastating cuts occurring in other states. When the inevitable economic recovery arrives, Iowa will be ready to respond.”
Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, shared Gronstal’s optimistic assessment of Iowa’s future, but insisted it isn’t a revenue problem that has caused the state’s fiscal crisis.
“We have a spending problem,” he said, later adding: “Some may wish to cast blame with Washington or Wall Street but that misses the mark. Had we spent at the rate of inflation since 2004, our state would not have had the $415 million dollar hole that needed to be eliminated by the governor’s across-the-board cut. Instead, we would have had a balanced budget, an $80 million dollar surplus and very few of the difficult fiscal decisions that we now must tackle in the coming weeks.”
McKinley also made the case for why the legislature should take up the issue of same-sex marriage, saying the people of Iowa want to have a say on the definition of marriage. Gronstal has already ruled out debate on a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
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