Iowa Budget with Sen. Tom Rielly

Iowa Senator Tom Rielly talks about issues facing Iowa during a recent Eggs and Issues at Smokey Row

Oskaloosa, Iowa – With news about the Iowa budget, or a lack of, constantly in the news; the two parties are getting down to the business of making a budget.

Senator Tom Rielly (D) of Oskaloosa has been staying busy keeping up with and participating in those talks.

“We got to get beyond the politics of it and from my point of view, I think what’s finally happening is one of the best things that could happen; we’re having conference committees. Out in the open. I’m very encouraged by this.” Rielly said of the progress that has been taking place in the budget talks between Democrats and Republicans of both houses.

“Rather than having Gronstal (D), Paulsen (R) and not even Branstad, and that’s a little disappointing.” Rielly stated about how the open committees have been pushing the budget along versus the private ones that had been common until recently.

He expressed his disappointment that Branstad has had others at the table doing the negotiation versus he, Branstad, being there.

“What I like now is, this week, we been passing budget bills.” Rielly stated about legislation the Iowa Senate passed. Those are then sent to the Iowa House, where they are rejected and then they end up in a conference committee, “and there we sit in the public eye, and we hash it out, and I think that’s the way it should be done.” Rielly went on to say about the process of passing the budget.

Iowa Capitol

I was curious as to why, all of a sudden, there was movement on the budget. Why, after weeks of back and forth and the impending state shutdown, the machine had actually broken it’s deadlock and started to move. Rielly believes that more of the process being open to the public, including journalists, have helped to add pressure to get the ball rolling. “It’s really easy to sit behind closed doors and try to do things through the papers, but when you have to sit across from somebody with a newspaper, and people sitting there, your gonna hash it out in the public, I think that changes the tenor of things.” Rielly remarked on his belief of why budget talks are progressing at the pace they are now.

One of those points agreed to was the 5.99 billion dollar budget for the next year. Republicans have accused Democrats of over spending on the budget. Rielly says, “I don’t have a problem with budget cuts. I’ve made budget cuts. We made significant cuts.” He says that over the last 3 years they have reduced the FTE’s (Full Time Equivalents) by almost 1500. “We have fewer employees now (State of Iowa) than what we had in 2001.”

“I’m just getting a little concerned about what effect these cuts are going to have on community colleges for example.” Rielly used that as an example because they are concerned about tuition increases. He went on to say he’s concerned about the closure of Workforce Development Offices, but he’s not afraid of trying something new, that was proposed, such as having a partnership with colleges such as William Penn to help find work for those needing employment. “Why don’t we try to transition into doing something, as opposed to a knee jerk reaction, and just have everybody go to the library and jump on the internet.”

Crumbling Iowa Infrastructure

He also expressed concern about the commercial property tax. Rielly says that it needs to be reasonable, “I was mayor when they didn’t fund the property tax credits.” Rielly said of concerns that not only he has about commercial property tax rates, but also that of mayors and other city officials. Without those dollars being back-filled by the state, cities would need to cut back on their staff and/or services.

I posed the question to Senator Rielly then, “Where is the money now?” He stated that we have fewer full time employees now than in 2001, but our budgets are greater than at that point. So I did some digging in past budgets to get some answers to find out where our tax dollars in Iowa are going. As you can tell, Education has taken the biggest hit of all the services being paid for by the State. My question then is, “Are the entitlements sucking the money away from other programs?”

One thing is for certain, government entities need to learn to operate more efficiently. During Vilsak’s time in the governor’s office, a study was done to rate the efficiency of various offices in the state. Some such as Legislative Services Agency had a 57% efficiency rating, and was one of the best in the State. The Department of Inspections and Appeals had a dismal 9% efficiency rating. This number was only outdone by Teacher Excellence Program which was operating at an astounding efficiency rating of 2%.

Iowa’s infrastructure, especially for those of us in rural Iowa, is quickly falling apart as the DOT spends more and more money on the metro areas of Des Moines, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Iowa’s schools are not even funded at the level of 2001. Why is that? During the same time, Human Services have expanded.

I believe that, now, Democrats and Republicans are stepping up to the plate, putting that (I) after their name, and being Iowans once again. I want to thank Senator Riley for taking time out of his busy schedule to sit and talk. I look forward to listening more to his thoughts about the State, and what they hope to accomplish.

I have broken down a rough overview of the State’s budget for a comparison between 2001 and 2010.

Hang with me while I toss all these numbers out to you.:

• 2001 Fund Receipts (Money In) $5,352,600
• 2010 Fund Receipts (Money In) $6,527,500

So where did they spend that money and what percentage of that pie went to what program?

• 2001 Unassigned Standings – $2,339,200,000.00 or 47.9% of the budget
• 2010 Unassigned Standings – $2,555,600,000.00 or 48.2% of the budget

I wasn’t sure what Unassigned Standings were, but according to the Legislature’s site: Unassigned Standings are standing appropriations that were not considered at the appropriations subcommittee level.

Moving on to how our money is being spent.

• 2001 Ag & Natural Resources – $43,900,000.00 or 0.9% of the budget
• 2010 Ag & Natural Resources – $36,300,000.00 or 0.7% of the budget

• 2001 Economic Development – $37,200,000.00 or 0.8% of the budget
• 2010 Economic Development – $40,600,000.00 or 0.8% of the budget

• 2001 Education – $980,000,000.00 or 20.1% of the budget
• 2010 Education – $856,700,000.00 or 16.2% of the budget

• 2001 Health and Human Services – $874,200,000.00 or 17.9% of the budget
• 2010 Health and Human Services – $1,116,500,000.00 or 21.0% of the budget

• 2001 Administration and Regulation – $87,000,000.00 or 1.8% of the budget
• 2010 Administration and Regulation – $61,500,000.00 or 1.2% of the budget

• 2001 Justice System – $491,300,000.00 or 10.1% of the budget
• 2010 Justice System – $633,700,000.00 or 11.9% of the budget