A sad stalemate at the Statehouse

Here we go again.

The Iowa Legislature is mired in a stalemate over the size and scope of the state's 2016 budget. A legislative session scheduled to end May 1 will now stretch into June for the second time in five years. Our elected leaders seem content to flirt with the possibility of failing to pass a spending plan before the next fiscal year starts July 1, with all the doomsday scenarios that would follow.

They say it won't happen. We hope they're right. But we can't help but wonder how we got to this sad situation when so many sticking points have changed precious little for months. A chasm lawmakers now stare into has existed since January.

Republicans and Democrats still can't agree on how much funding K-12 schools should get this fall. They've now twice broken an Iowa law requiring them to set school funding levels more than a year ahead of time. Not only can't the parties agree on funding for this fall, they're also at odds on funding for next fall. They actually moved farther apart in recent days when House Republicans lowered their funding proposal for 2016-17.

Overall, Senate Democrats and Republican Gov. Terry Branstad have proposed $7.34 billion budget plans, with differences over how that money is spent. House Republicans have proposed spending $7.17 billion. There's no agreement even on the size of the pie, let alone how it should be sliced.

Branstad, clearly, is key to any deal bridging gaps between Democrats, his own plan and House Republicans. But despite all of his experience and political savvy, we've seen little evidence that the governor's efforts are moving the needle. Iowans who overwhelmingly elected Branstad to steer the ship of state with a steady hand now expect him to be far more assertive in guiding lawmakers to a compromise.

But, of course, such a compromise will be hammered out behind closed doors, by a small group of key lawmakers and leaders. The public will have little or no access to the deliberations and debates that shape the budget, and neither will most of their elected legislators.

Conference committees, designed to reach compromises in public, are now, often, just for show. The real deals are done in private. And once those deals are done, lawmakers likely will have little time to soak in the details in a rush to adjourn.

So it's senseless stalemate, closed-door deals and hurried adjournment. Iowans deserve better.

' Comments: (319) 398-8469; editorial@thegazette.com