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House Journal: Page 2166: Wednesday, May 1, 1996

I especially want to thank the members of my caucus. Mr.
Speaker, you and I know both sides of the coin in this place.
Once I sat where Representative Weigel sits. I believe you were
in Mr. Hurley's seat, and Representative Halvorson, you are
sitting where you were then. We were in different roles then, it
is a tough job being in the minority party. You work hard on a
lot of issues that you care deeply about and you seldom prevail.
These thirty-seven democrats that I have had the opportunity and
the honor to lead, are people that I will never forget, because
they are not quitters, they are not people who came to this
chamber on a lark - they came here on a mission, they came here
with an agenda and they did not quit, even when it was tough
going. We feel good about this session _ we feel great about
this session. 
The property tax bill that passed  has Democratic fingerprints
all over it. We worked hard to bring that issue to the General
Assembly and we feel great about its passage. The maternity stay
bill: the Senate passed it unanimously. That is going to make a
difference for Iowa families and we are very proud of that bill.
We think we all did work that will make the streets safer for
Iowans this year. We have disappointments - we would have liked
to have addressed the problem of hog lots in rural Iowa,  This
will come back next year. 
I guess I would close again by thanking not only those members
of the Democratic Caucus, but all of you I see here, whom I call
friends. Once in awhile we strain those friendships , and I have
been part of that from time to time, because we feel
differently. We feel strongly about things, but we all care
about the same things. I believe that every one of you holds as
deep a commitment about this state as the person next to you.
And I thank you all for the work that you do here. 
For Horace and Art , I expect that you are going to  relax a
little bit. For the rest of us it's fairs, fund raisers,
parades, door knocking. And for me, it will be a few nights at
the track. So if you have a chance come on out.
REMARKS BY MAJORITY LEADER SIEGRIST
Siegrist of Pottawattamie offered the following remarks:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the House:

This is the point of every legislative session that I enjoy the
most. It's the time where we get to catch our collective breath,
reflect a little bit on the session, and say goodbye.

However, I have to admit that I wasn't sure if we would ever get
to this point.  For the last several weeks, I have felt like I
was caught inside the song by the Eagles, "Hotel California" you
can check in any time you want, but you can never leave.

Finally, we are at the end. How'd we do? I think very well. We
once again balanced the budget. We have a cash reserve of over
$400 million dollars, and a growing economy.

When I stood before you on the first day of session, I outlined
five goals for this session. All five were geared to the future
of this state. And we accomplished them all. Working together,
we cut taxes in a major way for the second year in a row. The
second goal was school technology. $150 million, front loaded,
over the next five years, positions our schools to move into the
future. Third, capping gambling and establishing a yearly source
of revenue to begin to address our infrastructure is a huge
accomplishment.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: House Journal (76th General Assembly: Session 2)

© 1996 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.

Last update: Tue Jun 25 15:30:03 CDT 1996
URL: /DOCS/GA/76GA/Session.2/HJournal/02100/02166.html
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