How to Trim $760 Million from Iowa's Budget

On Monday, the Iowa legislature will convene for the 2010 legislative session, and Iowans across the state will hold their breath, waiting to see if Governor Chet Culver and legislators will increase taxes. Iowans are all painfully aware the state budget is in terrible shape with a billion-dollar spending gap.

In October, the governor issued a simplistic 10-percent across-the-board budget cut, subjecting Iowans to property-tax increases, reductions in services, and a bigger budget disaster for next year. The state budget cannot be fixed by short-term reactionary measures; I chose to suggest state-budget-savings measures to Governor Culver and the legislature, with the following criteria for each recommendation:

• cumulatively reduce state spending by 10 percent;
• hold K-12 education funding harmless;
• hold-public safety funding harmless;
• no mass layoffs; and
• no property-tax or any other tax increases.