Senate Journal: Page 641: Tuesday, March 13, 2001

  Dear President Kramer:

  I hereby transmit Senate File 267, an Act relating to state budgetary
  matters by
  providing for reductions and supplementation of appropriations made for the
  fiscal
  year beginning July 1, 2000, and transferring, crediting, and appropriating
  certain
  moneys, and providing an effective date.

  We have some very difficult choices ahead of us as we determine next year's
  state
  budget.  Rather than create chaos with the state's budget during the last
  months of
  this fiscal year, we need to get down to the serious business of focusing on
  next year's
  budget.  With revenues down, we will need to aggressively address next
  year's budget
  in a thoughtful, planned, and bipartisan manner.

  Senate File 267 is, therefore, approved on this date with the following
  exceptions,
  which I hereby disapprove.

  I am unable to approve Division III, Section 3 in its entirety.  This
  provision
  requires a one percent reduction for most general fund appropriations.
  Under this
  Section, education and human services programs would bear the brunt of the
  cuts.  I
  made it very clear to Republicans that if they chose to move forward with
  budget cuts,
  they would assume the responsibility for determining which programs and
  services
  should be eliminated.  Instead of thoughtfully studying how these cuts would
  effect
  Iowans, they chose to make an across the board cut mandating a reduction in
  services
  without specifying which services to reduce or eliminate.

  I am unable to approve the language contained in Division VIII, Sections 17
  and 18.
  These provisions would reduce the state's contribution to the Judicial
  retirement
  system during the current fiscal year and future fiscal years.  At this
  time, the judicial
  retirement system is not actuarially sound.  Reducing the contributions to
  the fund,
  delays achievement of our long held goal of fully funding the judicial
  retirement
  system.

  In my continued effort to work in a bipartisan manner, I am approving a
  number of
  cuts to the FY 01 budget.  The Republican controlled legislature rejected
  bipartisanship
  by passing rash and not well thought out cuts that were not agreed to and
  would have
  unnecessarily disrupted services to Iowans.

  I made it very clear to Republican legislative leaders that if they chose to
  move
  forward with budget cuts, they would need to identify which programs and
  services
  should be eliminated.  Instead of thoughtfully studying how these cuts would
  affect
  Iowans, they chose a rash approach that would create chaos in the services
  on which
  Iowans rely.

  The State of Iowa has experienced a serious decline in revenues, a decline
  that is

© 2001 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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