Iowa Lawmakers say status quo budget means fewer troopers, prison guards

DES MOINES - Key House and Senate appropriators warned that budgets totaling nearly $1 billion aren't enough to prevent to maintain proper staffing of Iowa's courts, prisons and public safety agencies.

'I think I share sentiments with most of us that this a disappointing outcome,” House Justice Systems Chairman Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, said about budget -- $181.7 million for the court system and another $748.2 million for the departments of Corrections and Public Safety. 'But this is what we have to deal with at this point in time.”

Although the Judicial Branch asked for $5.6 million to maintain current services and $2.3 million for judicial salary adjustments, its budget is unchanged from the current year.

The status quo budgets mean there will be fewer Iowa State Patrol troopers on roads, fewer Division of Criminal Investigation agents investigating crimes and fewer correctional officers at state prisons, according to Worthan and Senate Justice Systems Chairman Tom Courtney, D-Burlington. It's unlikely any trooper, agent or correctional officer who retires will be replaced, they said.

Once salary increases are covered 'there won't be any money left for anything else,” Courtney said, adding that it's been years since the Legislature passed a salary bill to cover contractual obligations.

Iowa has about 370 troopers now, Worthan said, which is an improvement from fewer than 350 a few years ago. However, it's still less than the 455 the state should have based on a formula that includes population, area and miles of highway.

'I'd be happy as a clam to get to 400,” Worthan said, but there won't even be a state patrol academy class in fiscal 2017.

Another number that worries Worthan is that 210 of the 370 troopers will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years.

Courtney blamed the 'huge tax cuts” lawmakers approved in providing commercial property tax relief a couple of years ago.

'We all voted for them,” he said, 'but those tax cuts are coming back to haunt us.” The cuts amounted to $260 million last year.

The budget likely will be amended to remove language encouraging the Judicial Branch to operate drug courts because it can no longer afford them.

'We pay $30,000 a person per year to keep them in prison,” he said. 'We ought to be doing drug courts for a fraction of that. Drug courts are how you keep people out of prison. We're not doing that. We're saving a few pennies.”

The full House Appropriations Committee took up the budget Thursday evening and the Senate committee will act on it next week.