House Republicans approve $500 million in spending cuts

DES MOINES – On a party line vote, Iowa House Republicans approved more than $500 million in spending cuts over the next three years and established a taxpayer relief fund that could return more than $327 million to taxpayers.

“This bill begins a process of putting our fiscal house in order,” said Rep. Nick Wagner, R-Marion, floor manager for House File 45, which was approved 60-40 after more than eight hours of debate.

“The voters in November sent us here for a multitude of reasons: reduce state spending, reduce the size and cost of state government, live within our means by not spending more than we take in and make sure we're not using one-time dollars for ongoing expenses,” Wagner said.

Instead of a $900 million budget surplus, as Democrats have claimed, Wagner said $600 million of that must be used to refill the state's cash reserve and economic emergency fund. The remainder is one-time dollars, which, Wagner said, “we can't use for ongoing expenses because it exacerbates the problem we've seen in the last couple of years”

In addition to the cuts, the bill includes supplemental appropriations to clear the waiting lists for mental health services and fund indigent defense services.

However, the fight was over a provision that eliminated the funding stream for statewide voluntary preschool for four-year-olds, a Democratic priority in recent years.

That, Rep. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, said, meant Republicans were eliminating voluntary preschool.

“When you eliminate the entire code chapter for the voluntary preschool program and then go into other code chapters and eliminate the language of the voluntary preschool program in any code chapter in the Iowa Code as well as eliminate all of the funding mechanisms, you have, in essence, eliminated the program,” Winckler said.

High school teacher Rep. Jeremy Taylor, R-Sioux City, said the GOP is simply proposing funding preschool differently. Republicans support funding preschool through local empowerment programs.

“The Ebenezer Scrooges are not taking preschool away from the Tiny Tims,” he said, explaining that by applying means testing the state could identify those families that need assistance to send their children to preschool.

The state faces other obligations, he added, such as mental health patients waiting more than 300 days for services.

Lawmakers are wrong to look at preschool as a cost, countered Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, a retired teacher, said. “I see this as an investment in our future that I am willing to make.”

Cancelling that investment is the wrong priority, Rep. Tyler Olson, D-Cedar Rapids, and would send the wrong message to Iowa businesses that proposed the program that not enrolls more than 20,000 children in 326 of the state's 359 school districts and collaborates with 465 community partners.

The council's goal was to make Iowa more attractive to employees and improve the workforce, he said.

“I have never had a single business leader or economic developer say the answer to Iowa competiveness is to do less in education.

The debate came the day after a public hearing on HF 45 that last more than three hours. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement reported that 436 of 479 public comments submitted either orally or electronically to the Iowa House Appropriations Committee oppose the cuts in HF 45. Another 35 were in favor and eight were undecided, CCI said.

The House defeated amendments to limit the bill's tax relief to households with incomes less than $250,000 and restoring funding for a passenger rail project, a position at Honey Creek State Park