Iowa state government will keep running July 1, Branstad insists

UPDATE: Gov. Terry Branstad assured Iowa citizens Tuesday that the full spectrum of state services will continue uninterrupted under his broad emergency powers should he and the Legislature fail to have a new state budget plan approved and signed by July 1.

At the same time, the governor said there's nothing in writing that spells out how his administration or state agencies would deal with a government shutdown and he declined to cite specific executive authority he would invoke to keep services functioning on a temporary basis, telling reporters at his weekly news conference that they can read the Constitution and code law for themselves.

“I'm not going to get into all the details of it. I just want to assure the people of Iowa that I know what I'm doing,” Branstad said.

“There is no written plan,” he said. “I do, in my own mind, understand that in times of emergencies the governor can and will act and I always have and I will if that happens and you will see that on the 30th.”

Branstad said the full array of state government services would continue if July 1 arrives without a new state budget in place, but he and top House and Senate leaders said they were confident an agreement on budget and property tax reform issues would be struck yet this month before the next fiscal year arrives.

“There's not going to be a shutdown,” the governor said, adding that lawmakers recognize that their unwillingness or inability to pass a state budget on a timely basis “would reflect badly on the Legislature.”

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, and House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said they hoped budget talks were moving toward fruition with the possibility of a tentative agreement being hammered out yet this week. Paulsen noted that House members are on call for the possibility of working Saturday if a compromise is struck and it required weekend work to get measures passed and shipped to the governor's desk for his consideration.

“I'm still cautiously optimistic that we can reach an agreement this week and then it just becomes a logistical matter of moving all the paper,” the House speaker said. “We'll do what we need to do. Right now we have to figure out the substance.”

Gronstal dismissed talk of a government shutdown, saying majority Senate Democrats had moved significantly toward the House position on the $5.999 billion general fund budget to avoid a shutdown scenario. “I'm not talking about that until next Thursday night at midnight. We will calculate whatever it is we need to do to keep state government operating” if no budget compromise gets approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor.

However, Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Sue Dvorsky was talking about a possible state government shutdown, saying such an event would have a dramatic impact on state services and the lives of Iowans that deserves explanation from the governor.

“If Gov. Branstad truly believes he has the authority to keep all government services open, he needs to explain that to Iowans,” she said. “The trust between the governor's office and the public has already been eroded by the fact that there is no contingency plan on paper. It's time for transparency and honesty, not misdirection.”