Have you forgotten
how it felt that day?
9/11/01
Never Forget!
Contact Ron: Mail Ron @ Iowa State Capital, DesMoines, Ia. 50319 Phone Ron @ 515.281.3371 E-Mail Ron @ ron.wieck@legis.state.ia.us
(Updated April 30, 2009)
2009 Session Comes to an End, Senate Republicans
Tout Successes and Goals for the Future
Governor, legislative Democrats end session having spent the most money
In the 163 year history of the State of Iowa
The 2009 legislative session is now over and as the dust begins to settle, Iowans are just beginning to comprehend the extent of the changes and modifications made to the state and its government. Since the people of Iowa are the employers and the legislators are the employees, how would the people of Iowa grade the work this year of their employees, the governor and legislators? The three million citizens of Iowa elected 150 legislators and one governor to act as their voice and their vote. We believe it is necessary to look back at the 105 day session and provide the people of Iowa with some needed perspective.
Throughout this session, we have listened to and corresponded with literally tens of thousands of Iowans through phone calls, e-mails, letters and legislative forums and one dominant thematic has surfaced: Iowans are wondering if their legislators actually care about their opinion and care about giving the people a voice. We must never forget what our very own Constitution says in Article 1, Section 2. The first sentence simply states, “All political power is inherent in the people.” Government is supposed to be of the people and for the people but oftentimes this session, the people of Iowa were left wondering if this was government versus the people.
When the Legislature finally adjourned after a sleepless marathon weekend of activity, the next morning’s headline in The Des Moines Register gave Iowans a pretty clear clue of what had happened: “2nd all-nighter yields biggest budget ever”. The 2009 Legislature, completely controlled by Governor Culver and his legislative allies, officially spent more money than any Legislature in the 163 year history of the state of Iowa. This $6.3 billion dollar budget crafted by the governor and his legislative helpers even trumps the record
deficit spending levels enacted during the last two years when the state’s budget grew by an unsustainable 21 percent – nearly a billion dollar increase. Because so much of this new budget was built with one-time federal stimulus dollars that will not be available next year, Iowans could easily be staring at nearly a one billion dollar shortfall next session.
However, the record setting budget spending was just the beginning of the last minute spending spree the governor and his party counterparts in the Legislature put on the state’s credit card. In the closing hours of this session, majority party members at the request of Governor Culver passed three bonding bills totaling approximately $890 million dollars. Yet, that dollar figure only tells half the story. After all the fees and interest are added in, this last minute spending spree will cost Iowa taxpayers nearly $1.7 billion dollars. This year’s college freshmen will be 50 years old before Iowans have paid off this debt.
With these record levels of spending and borrowing, it is easy to understand why Iowans are attending massive tea parties and are frustrated with their politicians not listening to them. Iowa families and employers are living within their means are making difficult decisions during these challenging economic times, yet Iowa’s elected politicians refuse to follow their lead and keep government living within its means. A recent “Iowa Poll” published by The Des Moines Register showed that a whopping 71 percent of Iowans opposed this massive spending and instead wanted state government to pay as it goes for projects.
Even though legislators dug a deep fiscal hole for the state this session, the people of Iowa and legislative Republicans were successful in stopping a bill that would eliminate federal deductibility, raise taxes on Iowa families and businesses in every tax bracket and force Iowans to pay a tax on a tax. Only weeks ago, hundreds of Iowans packed the galleries of the House of Representatives to protest this proposal and when the Speaker of the House disagreed with their stances, they were removed from the chamber and the chamber doors were locked tight. The public was removed from a public hearing – 600 employers were kicked out of the people’s house by one employee.
The current majority party focused a lot of their time on spending, taxing and borrowing but there was no time expended and no legislation enacted that would have helped the over 80,000 Iowans out of jobs. Iowans asked the Legislature for leadership in creating jobs and did the Legislature listen to the people of Iowa? The simple answer is ‘No’. We offered an ambitious solution that would begin to immediately initiate the creation of permanent and sustainable jobs, but since we are currently not in the majority, the legislation did not even receive a hearing – let alone a vote.
Instead, Governor Culver and his allies pushed four major union boss-backed anti-jobs bills that would significantly increase property taxes, severely cripple the ability for small businesses and employers to create jobs and force Iowans to give more of their paycheck to bank accounts controlled by union bosses. Iowans were staunchly opposed to these bills yet they continued to make them a focal point of their agenda. With the help of Iowans, we succeeded this session in stopping their progress, but the next legislative session will be here before we know it.
It was not just fiscal and economic issues that left Iowans feeling ignored – it was important cultural issues too.
Ever since the seven elite justices on the Iowa Supreme Court struck down Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act, Republicans have been fighting to give the citizens a chance to have a vote on this important and emotional issue. In 1998, the legislative and executive branches of state government overwhelming supported traditional marriage and then two weeks ago the third branch, the judicial branch, went in the opposite direction. Our branches of government have divergent views on the definition of marriage and we believe the only way to solve this issue is to give the three million people of Iowa a chance to be the final arbiters. Unfortunately, Governor Culver and every member of current majority party in the Senate continues to block every attempt that we have made to allow Iowans a chance to vote on a Constitutional Amendment to protect marriage as between on man and one woman. We will continue to fight to give the people a voice on this issue and many other issues.
In the coming weeks and months ahead, we will continue to push our common sense message of less spending, less taxation, more jobs and a greater voice for the people of Iowa. Yet, above all, we intend to listen to Iowans because that that is what Iowans expect us to do. Elected officials should not be afraid to listen to the people they represent – especially here in Iowa. Iowans have common sense, are hard-working and care about their communities and this state. With qualities like that, there can be no harm in listening because in every community there are innovative and practical ideas ready to be put to good use.
Though we are confident and optimistic that we can eventually be successful in returning the government to its rightful owners - the people of Iowa – this legislative session showed there is plenty of room for improvement. Our over-arching goal has been and will continue to be the need to re-establish the notion that it is Iowans who run government and not the other way around.
