The 2010 legislative session will be dominated by budget cuts, government consolidation, and reorganization when state lawmakers return in January with what some say is a $1-billion shortfall and a midterm election just 10 months away.

Rather than a 100-day session, lawmakers will aim to have an 80-day session to do their part to cut spending. Shortening the session will save about $40,000 a day.

During a recent IowaPolitics.com legislative forum, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) warned that it will be a painful session as lawmakers work to realign state government with revenues. House and Senate Democratic leaders have vowed not to increase taxes in 2010 but have repeated that everything is on the table for cuts.

Iowa must look toward consolidating state agencies, school districts, and counties as a way to help balance the state budget, a key legislator said at a recent IowaPolitics.com forum in Davenport.

"What we're going to have to do is consolidate," said Representative David Jacoby (D-Coralville), chair of the economic-development budget subcommittee. "We're going to look at consolidation, streamlining, and at the same time improving services."

Jacoby said legislators are working to consolidate the Department of Economic Development, Iowa Workforce Development, and the Department of Cultural Affairs. "It makes sense to me that we move these three agencies together under the same roof," he said. "It saves an administrative cost and it saves in rent that we're paying. That is a big leap I think we'll take at the state level."

Preliminary plans to lay off 792 Iowa state employees show that while some would be laid off in November and December, the bulk would be laid off in early January.

Layoffs have been proposed by 15 of the 36 state agencies as an element of their plan to implement a 10-percent across-the-board budget cut ordered by Governor Chet Culver in October.

The bulk of layoffs would occur in the Department of Corrections under a plan not yet approved by Culver. An initial plan called for 515 layoffs in corrections. The latest plan shows 377 layoffs would occur on Janurary 1, 4, or 7.

Two-thirds of proposed state-worker layoffs spurred by a 10-percent, $565-million across-the-board budget cut would be in the Iowa Department of Corrections, but Governor Chet Culver -- who gets the final say on the cuts -- said he wants to mitigate that before the plans become final.

"I disagree with some recommendations that cut services to children and vulnerable adults, as well as in areas of public safety," Culver said. "These cuts have a very disproportionate impact on public safety, an area I vowed to protect. ... I want to find a way to mitigate that situation."

The leader of Iowa's largest union for state workers declined immediate comment on the proposed layoffs, saying that AFSCME Iowa Council 61 is still reviewing the plans released by the governor's office.

"We want to reiterate our expectation that going forward, the state of Iowa should treat this current situation the same as it would a major plant closing, and provide all appropriate support to workers who are being laid off that is available to them," said Danny Homan, president of AFSCME Iowa Council 61.