Slight of Hand

The Big Lug Nut wants to change the state's budgeting process, but doesn't think figuring out "how we got" into our budget fiasco or "what caused" it is "very productive."

Why is it politicians never want to discuss what got us into a mess to begin with?

It seems to me that you would want to find the root cause to possibly avoid making the same mistake again and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The BLN wants his office and the Legislature to both budget using the Revenue Estimating Conference projections from this month...

"Who can tell me that it makes any sense at all for a governor to use a December number and the Legislature to use a March number? Let's all use the same December number. If we have additional funds, we'll roll those into the reserves in March."

In March of this year the Revenue Estimating Conference stated the net General Fund revenues would be $129.7 million less in FY2009 and $269.9 million less in FY2010 than the Governor’s budgets.

What was the BLN's reaction?

First, Iowa is quickly putting President Obama’s economic recovery plan to work, already investing more than $100 million in transportation projects. Second, we are stimulating the economy with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to rebuild communities hit hard by last summer’s natural disasters. And third, the legislature and I are working to create I-JOBS in order to make use of Iowa’s financial strengths by investing in infrastructure and supporting jobs throughout the state.

HE SPENT MORE!

Borrowed money, $830 Million, to do it too!

At the time State Senator Paul McKinley said...

"...the revised numbers indicate that revenues are still coming in at near record levels and thus once again underscoring that Iowa does not have a revenue problem – we have a spending problem."

The only thing getting rolled in March were taxpayers.

McKinley continued...

"...we would be much better situated had Governor Culver and legislative Democrats not grown state government by an unsustainable 21 percent or by nearly a billion dollars during the last two years.”

Does this really matter when you also ignore the warning signs along the way Mr. Acted Decisively?

In August, State Auditor David Vaudt urged the Governor and leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature to consider taking corrective budget action to avert deeper spending cuts later after tax collections had fallen below projections four straight months.

This is why the BLN doesn't want to discuss what got us into this mess to begin with!