Eggs And Issues Wraps Up For 2012

Eggs and Issues came to a close for 2012 on Saturday morning with a small presentation by Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt

Oskaloosa, Iowa – A Saturday morning ritual has come to an end once again for the year. Along with it comes the retirement of two senators, one from each side of the political arena.

Senator Tom Rielly (D) of Oskaloosa was handed the microphone to lead off the session. “I truly think we’re going to be out of here [End of legislative session].

Rielly thinks that things should be wrapping up around the 100th day, saying “the key to that is, that’s when we stop getting paid. That I think is April 17th. So when we don’t get paid, we tend to get a lot of stuff done; with the exception of last year when we took forever to get done. Hopefully this year’s not going to be the same.”

“I wouldn’t characterize this session as tons of bills passing between both chambers. We’ve done some bills, we’ve done some good bills I think,” Rielly said, but pointed out that they are at the point in the session where the budget bills have made their way to the top of the list.

The issue will come up when one house passes a bill and it heads for the other chamber, each controlled by a different party. “Ultimately every one of these budget bills is going to end up in conference committee. I’m OK with that. I think we need to get there, I think we need to get there as soon as possible. We need to in the light of day, instead of at midnight or three o’clock in the morning. We need to be in these conference committees with the newspapers there, the cameras on and we need to discuss these budget bills. We need to set our priorities in the light of day. I think it’s good that we have this give-and-take, and it’s my hope, and I’m still optimistic, that we’re going to get done and have a balanced budget.”

“Our economy is doing good. The Ag economy, thanks in large part to the Ag economy. We still have plenty of money in our cash reserves, still have plenty of money in our emergency reserves. We have a large surplus. Now it’s just down to where we need to set our priorities. In the senate, education is probably one of our biggest priorities.”

“We went through 2009, 2010. We went through arguably one of the worst recessions we’ve seen in generations. We came out of it… OK. We balanced our budgets, and we want to start helping those things we think are going to create the next great workforce down the road;  that’s education. From universal preschool through K-12 through community colleges, small colleges, and regent universities, we need to have a well-educated workforce. We think investing in these kids today is our number one priority.”

Rielly handed over the mic to Representative Guy Vander Linden (R) for his opening statements, for the final time of the year. “Tom pretty much summed up the situation, as it exists right now, in the legislature.” Vander Linden said based upon it being a slow week at the state house. So much so, in fact, that they adjourned a day earlier than normal and went home on a Wednesday night. A first for almost all.

“One of the big events that’s happened since last we got together here is one of our community leaders announced he will no longer be in the legislature, and I’m sure you share with me the disappointment in that. I think Tom Rielly has been a tremendous leader in this community. It’s been a pleasure for me to learn from him, serve beside him up there and we’re going to miss him. Fortunately he’ll still be here in Oskaloosa and I look forward to him continuing his leadership here and I’m sure you do too.”

“You know Tom and I can ‘get it on’ pretty good up here sometimes, but I truly respect Tom and he’s represented you very well,” was the first words from Sen. Paul McKinley, who is also retiring after this session.

“Though he will be missed, you’ll have a very good replacement, and I anticipate your interest being observed and continued to lobby for what’s best for the citizens of Mahaska County.”

“The Revenue Estimating Conference met yesterday [Friday]. Remember, that’s the group that estimates how much revenue the state will be taking in.” McKinley said the group looks at all the different revenue streams when doing their estimation. “That is what we base our annual budgets on. They meet four times a year, by law we have to use the December estimate which was right around 6 billion dollars.”

“There’s some decent news. Iowa, like much of the country is beginning to show signs of stabilization and a little bit of improvement. Revenues are going to be up just a little bit over two percent. It’s not what we would like, but it’s certainly better than the decline that we have seen in some years. Jobs continue to be an issue, and employment has not raised like they had hoped. So we will have new numbers to work with and hopefully the economy, based largely upon agriculture in this state, will continue to be steady.”

After the question and answer session had completed, Oskaloosa Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt presented the 3 members of the Iowa Legislature with maps of the City of Oskaloosa as a thank you for their years of service; especially since two of them will not be returning next year due to retirement from the Iowa Senate.

Eggs and Issues is slated to return once again in January of 2013, with some new faces.