House Journal: Page 19: Monday, January 13, 2003
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and ladies and gentleman. Let’s get down to business.
REMARKS BY MAJORITY LEADER
Gipp of Winneshiek addressed the House as follows:
Thank you Mr. Speaker! Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House.
Welcome to the Iowa House. After 12 years of serving in this body and after 12 years of
opening day sessions, I have yet to tire of hearing that greeting. It is still exciting to
drive up Grand Avenue, view this magnificent building and think that I actually get to
work here. Think about it! Iowa has been a state since 1846. Of the millions that have
called Iowa home, we are the few that have ever worked in this chamber and sat at
these desks. It is a great honor to do so, but with that honor comes a tremendous
responsibility to those that have entrusted us with this office. For those of us that are
returning, we begin anew our service to Iowans; to the many whose names appear on
the voting machine board for the first time, welcome to the team.
While many of us are new to the job, many of the problems we will face are not.
Once again we will struggle to find ways to balance state revenues with expenditures.
Not only does our constitution require us to do so, Iowans demand that we do so. With
built-in spending obligations approaching $400 million and new revenues of $100
million, we have a difficult job ahead. I contend that we can no longer use stop gap
methods of the past-using one time dollars and across the board cuts. Instead we must
identify and prioritize the essential functions of state government. What are the
statutory and constitutional responsibilities of state government?
The top priorities for everyone should be public safety and education. It is the
primary responsibility of state government to ensure the safety of its citizens as well as
providing educational opportunities that allow for productive taxpaying citizens. All
other programs are in descending order on the priority ladder. Somewhere on that
ladder we will have program number 88, 89 and 90. In order to preserve resources to
appropriately fund our priorities of public safety and education, we are going to have to
eliminate, albeit good stuff, programs lower on the priority list. From 12 years of
serving in this body, I know that is easier said than done, but we must do it!
In the long term, we have to spur growth in this state. We can ill afford to remain
last in business start-ups, capital formation, and population growth while states
around us are moving ahead. We must improve our business climate by changing our
tax structure and regulatory environment. It is not a matter of offering more business
incentives as much as removing obstacles for those wanting to do business in this state.
Job growth will result in population growth as our young return to this state after
finding that the grass is not greener someplace else.
As always, there will be dozens of other issues, some expected and some
unexpected, that will be considered in this chamber.
Representative Myers! I look forward to working with you and the members of your
caucus. In my years of service, I have never assumed that the majority party had sole
ownership of all the good ideas. We will work with you on issues that we agree on as
well as attempt to bridge the differences on issues on which we do not agree. Be
© 2003 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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