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.
Gov. Chet Culver said Friday that he will cut an additional $60 million from the state’s budget next week. The announcement came just hours after the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference’s (REC) estimated state revenues for FY2009 will be $99.5 million below estimates made in October.
The cuts will represent one percent of the state’s general fund. Culver laid out $70 million in budget cuts Tuesday.
“The budget savings that I announced on Tuesday, which included asking the legislature to de-appropriate $37 million for a new state office building, not only met our immediate needs but also anticipated today’s new estimates,” Culver said today in a statement. “However, we are going to need to find additional savings in order to reduce spending, maintain an appropriate year-end budget balance, and continue to be fiscally responsible,” Culver said.
Friday’s figures provide a snapshot of the projected revenue the state can expect for the rest of the 2008 fiscal year and the upcoming 2009 fiscal year. The falling revenue, combined with built-in spending increases set by lawmakers more than a year in advance, could create a budget shortfall that some predict could be as high as $500 million.
By law, the state budget must be balanced.
The governor said the cuts will include administrative spending reductions, transfers of unused funds to the General Fund, and recommendations to the legislature for additional de-appropriations when they convene in January.
The three members of the REC members said that 2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is even troublesome. The state’s net income is expected to be $132.6 million less than projected in October.
State Republican leaders pounced on the new estimates, blaming Democrats for two years of “unprecedented spending increases in the face of plummeting revenues.”
“Democrats have put this state in a precarious position,” said House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha. “At a time when the national economy was on it’s way down, Democrats increased state spending by over $2,000 per family, over the span of two years they’ve hired more than 2,600 new state employees, and loaded up budgets with pork projects for their preferred constituents. The only thing they have left to show for it is a gaping hole in the budget.”
Iowa State University Economist Dave Swenson told the Iowa Independent before the budget numbers were released that the true health of the state budget won’t be known until the final REC meeting in late February or early March.
REC member David Underwood agreed with Swenson, saying today that revenue estimates could be even lower this fiscal year and that more cuts would probably be necessary in April.
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