Branstad: Iowa may need temporary spending authority to keep operating

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday he expects the split-control Legislature will have to approve temporary spending authority this month to keep state government operating once the new fiscal year begins July 1, while he reviews late-arriving fiscal 2016 budget bills still being finalized at the Statehouse this week.

State law provides the governor will have 30 days after the Legislature adjourns to take action on the bills sent to him in the session's waning days. Most often, those are budget bills subject to the governor's item-veto authority or priority policy measures that come together as part-time citizen legislators end their yearly deliberations.

In 2011, when lawmakers ended a marathon session on the 172nd day by passing bills just hours before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, they also approved a measure to temporarily fund state programs during the 30-day period the governor had to review the tardy budget bills to avoid a shortage of money to operate state government.

Branstad said Tuesday something similar probably would have to happen this year, because fiscal 2016 budget bills that get passed this week likely won't get enrolled and shipped to his desk until sometime next week at the earliest.

'I would appreciate it if they would consider giving us that flexibility. We want to make sure that happens,” Branstad said in an interview Tuesday.

'Certainly we would want to work with the Legislature on this so we have adequate time to make a thoughtful consideration of everything,” the governor added. 'We're into the month of June.”

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he expected lawmakers likely would look favorably on such a request, given that Tuesday marked the 142nd calendar day of a session that opened with an expected target date for adjournment of May 1. Disagreements over fiscal 2016 spending levels, however, have pushed the 2015 session into overtime.