Iowa Democrats suggest special session to override funding vetoes for schools, mental health facilities

DES MOINES - Statehouse Democrats want to bring lawmakers back to the Iowa Capitol.

The response from Republicans was clear: It's not happening.

'Senate Republicans will not sign such a petition,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix said Tuesday in a statement. 'This puts an end to the discussion on the topic.”

Statehouse Democrats on Tuesday circulated petitions calling for a special session of the Iowa Legislature to restore Legislature-approved funding for the state's public K-12 schools, each of the state's three public universities and mental health facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda.

Branstad vetoed the funding measures on Thursday.

A special session must be approved by two-thirds of the legislators in both the Iowa House and Senate, and any veto override must meet the same criteria. Democrats would need Republican legislators' help - 10 votes each in the Senate and House - to override any of the governor's vetoes.

'In the end, it is schoolchildren, college students and Iowans needing mental health treatment who will suffer because of the governor's actions,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said in a statement issued Tuesday. 'I believe there will be bipartisan support for overriding the worst of Gov. Branstad's vetoes.”

Republican House Speaker Kraig Paulsen said some of his members have said they would be open to a special session, but not enough to garner a two-thirds vote of support.

'I do not see a special session,” Paulsen said.

Branstad confidently predicted there was not enough support to call legislators back to Des Moines.

'There's not going to be a special session,” Branstad said.

Leaders from both political parties spent a large portion of the 2015 legislative session negotiating funding for public education and mental health.

Their compromise agreement for K-12 schools was $55.7 million in one-time funds to supplement a 1.25-percent budget increase.

For the universities, legislators agreed to $6.3 million in one-time funding spread out to all three state schools to supplement small budget increases for the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University.

After Branstad decided to close the mental health facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda by halting funding June 30, the end of the fiscal year, legislators approved funding to keep portions of the facilities open through the end of the calendar year.

Using his line-item veto authority, Branstad late last week struck down all three compromises.

'Gov. Branstad's surprising vetoes of one-time funding for K-12 schools, community colleges and state universities continues to make no sense to a majority of Iowans,” Gronstal said in his statement. 'The governor's vetoes are especially egregious in light of the fact that the Legislature worked in a bipartisan fashion to avoid using one-time money to fund ongoing needs and the Legislature's overall spending level was actually below the governor's.”

Branstad cited budgeting principles for his veto of the extra funding for public education, saying one-time funding should not be used for annual expenses such as education costs. But the vetoed legislation dictated the money could not be used for annual expenses such as salaries.

'From the perspective of House Republicans, those were one-time dollars expended on one-time uses,” said Paulsen, who shares that budgeting principle. '(Branstad's) analysis apparently was a little bit different.”

Branstad said that in his view education costs such as books and supplies qualify as ongoing expenses.

Branstad and Paulsen agreed the language constricting use of the funding would have been difficult to enforce.