House Journal: Page 1516: Friday, April 12, 2002
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, It's day
89. For those along press row, this has been the shortest regular session of the General
Assembly since 1972. It certainly doesn’t feel like the shortest session in twenty years,
in fact it feels like the longest.
In preparation for this moment, I took some time last night to look at the two other
"closing remarks" I’ve given from this spot. Their beginnings are remarkably the same.
Last year I remarked that "the fiscal predicament this General Assembly has faced
is unprecedented. The state of Iowa has not seen a revenue shortfall of this magnitude
in the last thirty years." Well, it’s no longer unprecedented. We’ve had to deal with
two very difficult years. States across the nation have been strapped by an economic
recession that depleted their resources. While many of them responded by raising
taxes Iowa resisted that idea. We responded by using our emergency funds to protect
our local schools from further across the board reductions. We have asked other areas
of state government to sacrifice funding so that it could be spent on our children. We
leave here today with a smaller state government - but one that reflects our priorities;
educating our young people, growing our economy, and protecting our environment.
Mr. Speaker I have no doubt that after the gavel falls today Governor Vilsack will
issue a press release accusing Republicans of not spending as much money as he wants.
Ladies and gentlemen, "guilty as charged." Three times now Governor Vilsack has
claimed that the Legislature wasn’t spending enough money only to reverse himself a
few months later and either ask us to send him a deappropriations bill, or make
sweeping across the board cuts himself. How many times do Tom Vilsack and Sally
Peterson have to be proven wrong before Iowans say "enough is enough?"
Colleagues, for the last three weeks the Governor has asked publicly and privately,
that we fund the teacher quality program, Hawk-I, and provide more money to fund
the largest salary and benefit package ever provided for state employees. At our
meeting with the Governor on Monday I told him "I get it. I’ve heard it a dozen times
already. Those are your top three priorities. Now tell me what is number four and
number five." The Governor replied state universities and community colleges.
Governor Vilsack, all five priority areas were addressed in House File 2623. We have
stretched the taxpayers dollar as far as it will go, farther in some areas, and there is no
more.
When all the dust settles, and the political press releases finally fall to the bottom
of the waste can; local school districts will receive a net increase of 41 million dollars,
at a time when other states are retreating on the education front. Just as important,
we made policy changes that some would call a tool box for innovative schools - such as
the creation of public charter schools.
Mr. Speaker with all my heart I wish Representative Russ Teig was with us in the
chamber today. When this legislative session is remembered, one of the items for
which it will be known is Representative Teig’s work on our venture capital initiative.
If we as Iowans are going to see our state thrive and grow we must all be willing to
take more risks, more initiative. This General Assembly led the way this year with an
ambitious five part plan to encourage more entrepreneurship and more capital
investment in our economy. It is no quick fix to our current problems, but it is no
© 2002 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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