House Journal: Page 12: Monday, January 10, 2000
Good morning and welcome back!! As we once again gather in this magnificent
chamber, we renew friendships and begin to enjoy time with our second family. While
it is always difficult to leave our real homes, it is always a pleasure to come back to
work in the Iowa House.
Our legislative family has changed with the addition of three new members. On
behalf of the entire House, I want to welcome Representatives Griemann, Shey, and
Taylor. I'm sure that your experience in this legislative process will be one of the most
interesting and rewarding of your life.
After all the intense build-up to the new millennium the past year, it is almost easy
to forget that this session of the 78th General Assembly is the first of a new century. As
such, this session will be special and by working together, we can make it a special
session for Iowans.
Tomorrow, Governor Vilsack will deliver his State of the State address. Like him, I
have had the opportunity during the interim to travel all over Iowa talking with people
about our future. From Council Bluffs to LeMars to Mason City to Dubuque and Mt.
Pleasant and Chariton, and many points in between, it has been interesting and
enjoyable to visit with Iowans about how our state is doing.
>From my viewpoint, the state of the State is good, and with our hard work and
cooperation this session, it will get better. Much talk has already focused on the
budget of our state. It is important to note that the fiscal condition of our state
government is very solid. As we gather here today, we have around $600 million in the
bank in our reserve funds. That figure is one of the highest in the history of our state.
Our economy is still projected to have solid, moderate growth of 3.7% despite the
dramatic downturn in farm commodity prices. The work that this House has done the
last eight to ten years has allowed our economic base to diversify to the point that
despite these historic low prices this past year, our economy continues to grow.
However, even though our overall fiscal situation is solid, the budget we will be
working on this session is difficult and extremely tight. I got to thinking about this
year’s budget difficulty and the surplus last night while listening to some music. In his
song, L.U.V., John Mellencamp sings "I’m thinking about the government, wondering
where the money went. Into outer space, I guess." There has been discussion in the
media recently about where the $900 million surplus has gone. The fact of the matter
is that we have reduced the surplus from $900 million to $600 million by design via tax
reductions for all Iowans. The tight budget we currently face is due to revenue
shortfalls because of the farm economy, and overspending by the Governor and
Legislature. And we must share some of that blame. So, beginning today, we must
work together to get this budget back in balance without touching our significant cash
reserve.
As I visited with people around the state, I found the large majority of them felt
that Iowa is on the right track. As Representative Rants mentioned, we have
challenges facing us. Challenges that will allow us to continue to make Iowa a better
place to live. We have the opportunity this session to pass legislation which will affect
all Iowans. We will accomplish this by making sure that our students are reading at
grade level, and when they are not, making sure they get extra help to catch up. We
will touch Iowans by passing and signing into law a workforce development bill that
will train and retrain our workers for the jobs of the future. We must help our senior
citizens by removing the tax on social security. And we must make Iowa a better place
© 2000 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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