Thursday, April 30, 2015 N/Warren Town and County News Page Eleven
NORWALK HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS TEAMS
NHS Boys Soccer Varsity
NHS Boys Tennis
NHS Boys Track
Photos by Toni Johnson Photography.
Senate News
By State Senator Julian B. Garrett
Julian.Garrett@legis.iowa.gov.
Budget Proposals he would prefer. He said I thought that the original
Both Senate Democrats should use the word prcposal would have cre-
and House Republicans "shortfall." I will try to re- atet a lake much larger
have released their budget member to say they havethai was required for
targets for the coming fis- a "shortfall" in the future drilking water and was
cal year. As you might ex- instead of "deficit" when int,nded also for recre-
pect, the Senate Democrats referring to their proposal, atioal purposes. The alle-
propose spending more It is true that they can le- gaOn was that the land
than estimated new rev-gally spend the amount wold be condemned and
enues of $7.175 billion, they propose since we do the part of it would be
They propose to spend have enough money in our sol4o private developers.
$7,341,019,838 and makesavings account to cover In Tior years I supported
up the difference by the shortfall. I do not be- legiation to limit the use
spending money from ourlieve the House will agree of ainent domain to the
surplus fund from priorto the Senate number, but lanneeded for the public
years, that you might think if it did, we would use up puDse, in this case drink-
of as a savings account, all our savings next year if ingvater. Another pro-
The House Republicans we engaged in this samepost project is the Baaken
propose spending kind of budgeting then.pipine that would trans-
$7,168,144,634, roughly Eminent Domain por: rude oil across Iowa
the amount of ongoing I am a member of a fro northeast to south-
revenue that is expected. Government Oversight easfowa and into Illinois
The Democrat chair of the subcommittee that will be thrugh a 30 inch pipe.
Appropriations Commit- looking at the eminent is- Thcpipeline would not
tee became a little emo- sue. There are several parts sere anyone in Iowa di-
tional (I am trying to be of the state that could be recty.
nice) when I referred to affected. One issue is a lie third project is the
their proposal as contain- proposed lake in Clarke Roc Island Clean Line, an
ing a deficit. He objected County. Its main purpose elecric transmission lir e
to my use of the word deft- is to provide drinking wa- to nove wind generated
cit. I asked him what word ter for the area. Manyelecricity from Iowa to I1-
linois by a private com-
pany. No Iowa customers
would be served by the
line. I was interested to
learn that the line would
transfer direct current
electricity, not alternating
current. I understand that
it is more efficient to trans-
port DC electricity and
change it to AC electricity
when it reaches its destina-
tion. The issue presented
in both the pipeline case
and the electric transmis-
sion line is whether a pri-
vate company should be
able to use eminent do-
main to take land for its
project. The argument in
the last two cases is that
even though no Iowans are
directly served, the
nation's energy supply
will be enhanced. I will
examine these proposals
carefully to decide on how
to proceed.
The Iowa Utilities
Concluded p. 12
Legislative Newsletter
Stan Gustafson
Iowa House Representative
District 25
Budget: House Republicans released their FY 2016
General Fund budget targets on Wednesday. And for
the fifth year in a row, House Republicans have pro-
posed a budget that spends less than the state will take
in. For FY 2016, the state would spend $7,168,144,634
out of the General Fund. This amounts to a 2.48% in-
crease in state spending and spends 99.9% of the Rev-
enue Estimating Conference's latest estimate for ongo-
ing revenue in FY 2016.
Under the Budget, the General Fund will be spent as
follows: Administration & Regulation - $49,800,000
(decrease of $1,995,769); Agriculture & Natural Re-
sources - $42,000,000 (decrease of $1,111,995); Economic
Development - $41,400,000 (decrease of $1,181,886);
Education - $977,578,044 (decrease of $8,558,321);
Health & Human Services (decrease of $14,859,686);
Justice Systems (decrease of $3,380,575); Standings (in-
crease of $204,905,562). Standings includes Supplemen-
tal State Aid. Individual line-items in each budget sub-
committee area will be determined shortly by each of
the appropriate budget subcommittees. This session the
House starts Admin & Reg, Education, RIIF, Transpor-
tation and Block Grants. The Senate starts Ag & Nat Res,
Econ Dev, HHS, Justice and Standings.
The House Republican budget plan does not use the
ending balance, the Cash Reserve or the Economic Emer-
gency Fund. Ending Balance: The non-partisan Legis-
lative Services Agency considers excess funds in the
ending balance one-time revenues that can carry-for-
ward from one fiscal year to the next. "Reliance on these
revenues for ongoing operational expenses of govern-
ment programs can result in budget shortfalls if an eco-
nomic downturn causes a drop in annual tax revenue."
Back in 2013, the state had an ending balance of roughly
$900 million. That revenue has been used to pay off state
debt and invest in key infrastructure projects in our
Regents institutions and improving water quality. The
ending balance of FY 2015 on June 30 is estimated to be
$420 million. If that money is spent, there is no auto-
matic source for it to'be replenished. In FY 2012, the
legislature approved a budget that spent just-95% of
ongoing revenue. In FY 2013, it was just 92% of ongoing
revenue. In FY 2014, it was 99.9%. Last session the Leg-
islature approved a budget that spent 99.9% of ongoing
revenue. Then the economy worsened and revenue
dropped, meaning the state actually spent 103.3% of
ongoing revenue. To pay for that overrun, the state's
ending balance was tapped. Cash Reserve: The state's
Cash Reserve Fund is used to cash flow the state bud-
get during the year and must equal 7.5% of each year's
budget. Taking money from it jeopardizes timely pay-
ments to school districts and local governments. In the
1980s, the state did not have a cash reserve fund and
payments to schools were not made on time. Schools
were forced to borrow money to make payroll as they
waited for school aid payments from the state. Schools
were forced to incur additional costs because of the
state's lack of fiscal responsibility. Economic Emergency
Fund: The Economic Emergency Fund is used for cata-
strophic problems such as the floods of 2008.
State Revenue: Projected Ending Balance at the end
of FY 2015 on June 30:$420 million; Current Cash Re-
serve: $522.2 million; Current Economic Emergency
Fund: $174.1 million; FY 2015 Revenue Estimate: $6.767
billion; FY 2015 Actual Spending Amount: $6.994 bil-
lion; FY 2016 Ongoing Revenue Estimate: $7.175 billion;
FY 2016 New Revenue: $180.9 million (2.6%).
Property Tax Reform's Impact on School Funding:
The latest narrative being built is that the commercial
property tax reform bill approved in 2013 is strangling
school districts by reducing the amount of property tax
revenue they receive. This argument is not supported
by facts. According to the non-partisan LSA, the 2013
bill did several things: Created a business property tax
credit. This has no impact on school finance; Rolled in-
dustrial, commercial and railroad property down to 95%
and then to 90% of assessed value. This is 100% reim-
bursed by the state for the first few years of the bill's
implementation so it also has not had any impact on
school finance. This is to make Iowa's tax structure more
inviting to new industry coming here and thus creating
more jobs and more tax dollars to help fund education,
for example.
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