Branstad: Tight Iowa budget won’t hurt commitments

DES MOINES — As he and legislators wrangle to reach a fiscal 2016 budget deal, Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that those negotiations will not include any slowing down or delaying of ongoing commitments he and the split-control Legislature made to property tax relief or education reform two years ago.

Branstad told reporters that multiyear commitments to reduce commercial property tax rates and to bolster teacher leadership incentives — hallmarks of a 2013 bipartisan agreement — 'are absolutely solid commitments that I will not support reneging on under any circumstances.'

This year's budget work stalled right out of the gate when Branstad submitted a $7.34 billion budget plan that included a 1.25 percent boost in supplemental state aid for kindergarten-through-grade-12 schools as part of a $100 million boost for education. That plan required $129 million of the state's surplus to help cover the property tax and school reform commitments.

Legislative Democrats say Branstad's K-12 funding level is too low and are pushing for a four percent increase that would more than double the governor's proposal. Legislative Republicans agree with the governor on education spending, but say they will not spend more than the state takes in by using the state's surplus ending balance to finance ongoing commitments that include the property tax and education reform expenditures.

Last week Democrats tried to break the budgetary log jam by proposing to meet Republicans half way on school at an increase of 2.625 percent. But Republicans balked at that suggestion, and Branstad said any change in his budget plan based on five-year projections would have to be accompanied by specific proposals to cut spending in other budget areas.

'If you're going to recommend spending more, then you need to say what you're going to cut and how you're going to make the budget balance,' said Branstad, who noted that revenue estimates have dipped by $19 million since he made his budget proposal and that 'storm clouds' are on the horizon with projections calling for a sizable drop in Iowa's farm income.

'We have to be very cautious and I think if anybody wants to spend more than the budget we've recommended, they need to show where they're going to cut,' the governor told reporters.

Partisan leaders in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate have indicated they expect to issue fiscal 2016 budget targets soon. But they have not indicated if they will be able to agree on joint spending targets or how they expect to resolve the impasse over K-12 funding, which by law is the first budget item they are to set.

Branstad expressed interest in working with legislators in crafting a new state spending plan, but he noted they are a separate branch of government and he did not intend to comment on the details of the legislative process at this point in the 2015 session.