Approval of the $790-billion economic-stimulus bill in Congress and a signature by President Obama will set the stage for the Iowa legislature to establish its budget targets and determine how much will still need to be cut, Democratic leaders said Thursday.
"We believe it will, in fact, provide some flexibility for state budgets and that will need to be taken into account before we make final judgments on our budget," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs). "All of us knew from the start that that was a moving target. None of us made any kind of judgments and now, once we get those numbers from the feds, we can start to make those judgments."
Income
guidelines prevented Shannon and Jeff Gardemann from qualifying for
assistance from the state's Jumpstart program after the flood
destroyed their home in Cedar Rapids, so they're hoping a $56-million
disaster-relief bill signed into law this week by Iowa Governor Chet
Culver will provide them some much-needed help.
Political
commentator Eleanor Clift's Wednesday lecture at St. Ambrose
University is titled "America at a Crossroads - Politics or
Partisanship," but many will likely be more interested in inside
baseball, particularly considering the unusual uncertainty
surrounding the Democratic party's nomination for president.
The
race for Congress in Iowa's First District is already bordering on
the ridiculous - with the national Republican party trying to tag
Bruce Braley as a Communist, for instance - so why not throw a
pirate into the mix?
