Grassley hopes earlier budget talks can forestall battles at session’s end

DES MOINES - The leader of the state budget negotiating team in the Iowa House said Wednesday that money will be scarce when lawmakers craft the state budget in the next legislative session.

But Rep. Pat Grassley, the new chairman of the Iowa House Appropriations Committee, said he hopes a new approach will help lawmakers avoid protracted budget stalemates of the past.

Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford and a grandson of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, reiterated House Republicans' analysis that the state will have $175 million in new revenue for the next budget and that anticipated increases in spending total $270 million.

'We're going to have to make some tough decisions to fund some of these things that are a priority of House Republicans,” Grassley said.

Grassley said despite the budget pressures, House Republicans will maintain their budgeting principles of funding annual expenses only with current revenue, not funds in the state's reserve accounts.

According to House Republican analysis using figures from the state's nonpartisan fiscal estimating agency, the state will have $7.3 billion in general fund revenue for the next fiscal year, an increase of $175 million over spending allocated for this fiscal year.

But anticipated spending increases - in particular, on Medicaid, a statewide teacher leadership program and commercial property tax relief - will consume that extra money and then some.

Grassley also said he hopes to begin the budgeting process earlier in the legislative session. He said House Republicans already are working on the budget with Republican Gov. Terry Branstad's staff. Grassley said he would like to start discussions with leaders in the Democratic-controlled Senate after the December revenue estimate is published. That figure will drive the budget.

By preparing before the session, 'I'm really optimistic it will pay dividends once we get to Des Moines,” Grassley said.

Grassley declined to say whether House Republicans will hold up the state budget in order to withhold state funding to Planned Parenthood, the women's health services provider that has come under fire from conservatives after the leak of a secretly recorded video that purportedly showed an employee discussing payments for the transfer of fetal tissue.

Grassley said House Republicans will pass legislation that provides state funding for women's health services but not for abortions.