Push to adjourn Iowa session continues

DES MOINES - Leaders of Iowa's split-control Iowa Legislature are preparing for intense negotiations next week that they hope will resolve budget differences and enable lawmakers to adjourn by month's end.

The session already is 24 days past its adjournment target.

'There's no reason we shouldn't be done this month. We'll be here as long as we need to be here,” said House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha.

Paulsen and Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said their caucuses still have not reached agreement on how much state spending will be authorized for fiscal 2016, which begins July 1. But both sides have offered ways to bridge the gap - some by identifying areas where one-time surplus money or other sources might be used to fund expenses that are not ongoing.

'They have been open and respectful of some of the issues we have brought to them, and we have been open and respectful of the issues that they have brought to us. We are diligently working through those,” said Gronstal.

One example of an effort to bridge spending gaps between House Republicans and Senate Democrats has been a hybrid option for funding K-12 schools next fiscal year by increasing supplemental state aid by 1.25 percent and adding $55 million in one-time money not built into the funding base that moves close to the 2.625 percent compromise that Democrats offered.

Gronstal said his members still favor a 4 percent increase but are pragmatic in trying to deal with GOP representatives who set a $7.176 billion spending target that was about $166 million below what Senate Democrats and Gov. Terry Branstad wanted.

Paulsen said the K-12 compromise gets mixed review in his 57-member GOP caucus, with some supportive, some 'lukewarm,” and some opposed.

Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock said he hoped the best interests of Iowa taxpayers will be the foremost consideration as budget decisions come together, recognizing there are limits to available resources that should be used in ways to promote economic growth and job creation.

'What I think is good news at the moment is everyone to me appears to be trying to work in good faith and trying to find common ground where they can. We'll just see where it goes from here,” Dix said.

With majority-party members slated to be absent next week, partisan leaders from the House and Senate plan to hold closed-door negotiations with Branstad staffers in hopes of resolving differences and returning after the Memorial Day holiday to finish their work in the final week of May.

House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, said she expects conference committees to work toward agreement on smaller pieces of the fiscal 2016 budget and the full House will reconvene near midweek to debate the $3.5 billion standings appropriation bill passed Thursday by the Senate on a 26-21 party-line vote.

'We are going to work diligently to do the things that are Iowans' priorities,” Gronstal said of next week's planned negotiations. 'It could all fall apart. Anything's possible.”