House Journal: Page 14: Monday, January 11, 1999

COMMITTEE FROM THE SENATE

A committee from the Senate appeared and notified the House that the Senate was duly organized and ready to receive any 
communications that the House might desire to transmit.
REMARKS BY MINORITY LEADER
Schrader of Marion offered the following remarks:
To all of my colleagues returning as veteran legislators, welcome back.  To the freshman class of 1998, congratulations on being chosen by your neighbors to 
represent them.  I predict that we have an exciting year ahead of us.  For the first time in sixteen years we have a new governor.  For the first time in thirty years, 
the governor is a Democrat.  We live in a time of perhaps the greatest economic prosperity in history.
We all know, though, that even in the best of times things can be better.  In some areas in Iowa things must be better.  Our system of public education must 
produce test scores trending up instead of down.  Methamphetamine, scarcely heard of five years ago, has become a major threat to people all across the state.  
Iowa's chart showing test scores dropping and meth use rising is unacceptable.  We have the resources and I believe we have the will and ability to yet turn these 
trends around.  
We face these tasks while assuming new roles.  We have all worked with and repect Senator Vilsack.  Democrats wish Governor Vilsack good luck and are excited 
as he takes the reins of our state.  We have enjoyed helping Governor Vilsack put together his program.  We will be working hard to help him enact it into law.  The 
majority party has to work with a Democratic Governor and provide their alternative to his agenda.  These new roles will require hard work and responsible 
decisions from all of us.  I hope we can work together better in the next two years than we have in the past.  I've already seen what I think are signs of cooperation.  
Representative Siegrist, for example, wants to eliminate straight ticket voting, a sure sign that he wants to vote for more Democrats.
In recent weeks I've heard a lot about taking bold steps and about going fast versus going slow.  I hope that's the case.  Last year Democrats proposed a bold plan 
to fight meth.  Republicans opted to go slow.  Last year Democrats offered aggressive plans on school reform, Republicans offered a plan which Governor Branstad 
called a halting, half-step before he vetoed it.  Democrats also offered a plan to eliminate the middle-class tax penalty, but that too, was rejected for a more slow-
going approach.
This year we do need to go faster.  Governor Vilsack has some great ideas for making our schools number one again - reducing class size, restoring discipline, 
improving infrastructure.  We should embrace them.  We should make insurance companies more accountable to the people they insure.  We should make property 
tax cuts.  We should invest in our independent family farmers.  We should return local control to neighbors and communities threatened by large hog operations.  We 
should reform our sentencing laws so that a kid doesn't spend seven years in prison for hitting another kid.

© 1999 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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