No plan in place for Iowa government shutdown

Ask folks in state government how they'll deal with a shutdown if the governor and Iowa Legislature can't reach a budget agreement by July 1 and they say David Roederer has a plan.

"We're being told by the Governor's Office we don't need our own contingency plan because (the budget) can be resolved and the governor has a contingency plan,” said Kevin Baskins, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources. “The key here is the Governor's Office and what sort of a plan they've put together.”

So it might come as a surprise that Roederer, Gov. Terry Branstad's director of the state Department of Management, doesn't have a plan.

“Nope,” he said bluntly. “There is no plan” for what to do if his boss and the Legislature can't resolve their budget differences. That's because all of the Branstad administration plans deal with keeping government open.

“We're looking at various options,” Roederer said, but “frankly, we're focused on getting this budget resolved because that's the best ands easiest way of doing it. We're confident that will happen.”

Confident, even in light of what could be read as a constitutional prohibition on spending money the Legislature hasn't budgeted.

Article 3, Section 24 of the Iowa Constitution states: “No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.”

The Iowa Attorney General's Office takes that to mean “the state can't spend money that hasn't been appropriated,” said Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for Attorney General Tom Miller.

“We're discussing options with the Governor's Office,” he added.

Governor has options

“There's much more to the Constitution than that and there's much more in the Code of Iowa,” said Roederer, who isn't aware of those discussions. “The governor has a variety of authorities he can invoke.”

The long and the short of it, Roederer said, “with or without a budget, the life and safety of Iowans will be protected no matter what the circumstances are.”

The best-case scenario at this point would be for the budget impasse to be broken when both chambers of the Legislature go back in session this week. Majority House Republicans and Branstad have agreed to cap spending at no more than $5.999 billion. Democrats, who control the Senate, call that a starvation budget that shortchanges state priorities.

That leaves the two sides about $100 million apart with no agreement is imminent.

That has produced a spate of name-calling and finger-pointing as lawmakers and the governor jockey for position.

Branstad is on a 43-city tour of Iowa to sell his plan to voters who elected him last fall. Senate Democrats are conducting public budget sessions at the Capitol to hear from Iowans about the impact of the Republicans' budget proposal.

Anxiety low

However, talk of shutdown isn't causing high anxiety in state agencies, at least not yet.

“It's mostly just office chitchat,” said Jessica Lown at the Department of Public Safety. “It's likely there are some statewide rules that address who keeps working, which services are ‘critical services.' We, of course, think Public Safety falls into that category.”

“It's water cooler talk, more of that than anything,” added Kerry Koonce at Iowa Workforce Development. “I don't think anyone truly thinks it's going to happen.”

The state and individual state agencies do have continuity of operations plans, said Dena Gray-Fisher of the Department of Transportation. They were written to address natural disasters like floods and tornadoes, or a power outage that left the Capitol complex in the dark for most of a day a few years ago.

“But I don't think they really fit this situation,” Gray-Fisher said.

Few questions

If state government shuts down, the impact will go beyond Des Moines. Counties, cities, schools, public hospitals and other institutions that rely on state funds will feel the pain, said William Peterson of the Iowa State Association of Counties.

Known impacts

Among the impacts would be a delay in “tax replacement dollars,” better known as tax credits, and mental health funds, said Dawn Jindrich, Linn County budget officer.

Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth thinks the city can “get by” if state funds are held up for a short time.

If state agencies are shuttered, Hayworth said “any delay in permitting, the environmental reviews on the construction projects we have going or are in the pipeline, could be a major problem.”

Effect on private sector

Not only would those delays throw the projects off schedule, but could idle private sector workers.

That's why Ken Sagar, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, is calling on Branstad to disclose his plan for a government shutdown. The Iowa Fed is an umbrella group that includes the unions that represent tens of thousands of state workers as well as numerous private sector employees around the state.

Given the timing of a possible shutdown, the impact of could be immediate, Sagar said.

“How would you like to go to a state park Fourth of July weekend and find it closed?” he asked.