Former Republican Governor Terry Branstad raised $1.55 million in the two and a half months after the start of his campaign and had $1.36 million left at the end of the year, while Democratic Governor Chet Culver raised $2.15 million in the past 12 months and ended the year with $2.59 million in his campaign chest.
"These fundraising numbers posted by the two governors forebode a very vigorous and spirited statewide campaign ahead," observed Pete Jeffries, senior counsel for Republican Jim Nussle's 2006 gubernatorial campaign.
The Culver and Branstad campaigns revealed their 2009 fundraising totals Thursday in advance of this month's campaign-finance deadline to the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board. Further details of their contributors and the size of their donations are expected to be revealed after the three-day weekend.
Information provided by the two candidates shows that Branstad had 3,044 contributors, while Culver had more than 1,000. Ninety-four percent of Branstad's fundraising dollars came from Iowans, while 85 percent of Culver's donors are Iowa residents.
Republican gubernatorial candidates Chris Rants of Sioux City, Rod Roberts of Carroll, and Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City had yet to release their campaign finance numbers as of Friday. Former Des Moines school-board member Jonathan Narcisse, who said he will run as either a Democrat or independent, also had not released his numbers as of Friday.
Legislature Starts Work on Government-Reorganization Bill
The legislature began work this week on what's expected to be its landmark bill this session -- a sweeping government-reorganization and -efficiency act designed to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years.
"We have so much in one bill that it scares me," said Senator Randy Feenstra (R-Hull).
Dozens of stakeholders packed a standing-room-only Senate subcommittee meeting to discuss the bill, which is scheduled to go before the Senate State Government Committee on Wednesday and is expected to be on the Senate floor the week after that.
Those representing state agencies were there, along with universities and private-sector entities such as Microsoft and the Iowa Newspaper Association (INA). The representative from Microsoft called the merging of information technology "significant" and "fruitful."
An INA official opposed a provision of the bill that would move public notices from newspapers to government Web sites. "I just don't think it's realistic they're going to do that," she said of Iowans looking for the notices online.
But Larry Pope of the Iowa League of Cities advocated for the change. "People are moving daily to the Internet," he said. "This is the future. ... We believe the savings to cities is substantial."
Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) said the legislation would be "the first big bill" of the session, setting the tone for Fiscal Year 2011 budget discussions.
Gronstal said there's "deep, broad support" among Democrats for government reorganization that realigns state government with available revenues, as well as "great cooperation from the Republicans in this effort." That bipartisanship stems from the fact that Republicans last year offered many of the ideas for cost savings included in the bill.
Gronstal acknowledged that there will eventually be opposition to portions of the reorganization bill that includes e-government innovations, purchasing consolidation, and the merger of several state agencies. "Certainly, there will be push-back, and some of that will be legitimate," he said.
"There are pieces that could end up in the bill that would preclude people from supporting it," said Representative Scott Raecker (R-Urbandale), a member of the House State Government Committee. "I have no expectation that any of the four labor bills would end up in the reorganization bill. If one was to end up in there, obviously, that would be pretty much a line in the sand that, all right, the bipartisanship is over."
Culver Plans to Use $100 Million from Reserves to Backfill Cut
Culver's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2011 will: include the last installment of the four-year, $60-million commitment to preschool; fully fund the 2-percent allowable growth for schools; and use at least $100 million from the state's reserves to restore some of last year's 10-percent across-the-board budget cut.
"This will be a real shot in the arm for some of our schools, especially in rural districts, which are already cash-strapped with depleted reserves," Culver said in his Condition of the State Speech before a joint session of the legislature.
Culver used his third Condition of the State speech to outline his top 10 legislative and budget priorities for 2010. They include :
- Jobs: Fully funding community-college job training, adequately funding Iowa Workforce Development, fully funding the Iowa Power Fund, and allocating remaining $100 million of I-JOBS;
- Efficiency: Enact remaining recommendations of the Government Efficiency Report to save more than $200 million next year and nearly $1 billion over the next five years. This includes early retirement or a four-day work week for some state employees, reducing the state vehicle fleet and eliminating redundant information technology.
- Flood recovery: Fully funding the Rebuild Iowa Office.
- Public safety: Explore every option available, including transferring money from the road fund, to ensure adequate funding for the Iowa State Patrol and the Department of Public Safety.
- Tax credits: Acting on the recommendations of the Tax Credit Review Panel to make sure tax credits work as intended.
Culver said the state must fund the Iowa National Guard, noting that 3,500 people will soon be deployed to Afghanistan -- the largest single overseas deployment since World War II. He said his budget will continue the investment in children's health insurance. And he asked legislators to require school districts to spend down a portion of their reserves before increasing property taxes.
Culver described the condition of the state as "resilient" and used his speech to argue against those who say there's a $1-billion shortfall, to outline 10 steps he's taken to manage the state through the economic downturn, and to tout I-JOBS, his signature $830-million bonding-for-infrastructure program that lawmakers approved last year.
"And speaking of the budget, some politicians and armchair quarterbacks appear to be confused about our current budget situation," Culver said. "Let's end their confusion! Here are the facts. Today, the budget is balanced. And it has been balanced every single day I've been governor."
GOP Sees Culver's Speech as Campaign Fodder
Republicans said the theme of Culver's speech was "I'm running for governor" and criticized him as not being straight with Iowans about the state budget.
"I reject the notion that Governor Culver has balanced the budget without raising taxes," said Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley (R-Chariton). "Iowans are faced with the reality of higher property taxes, and they know better than to believe the governor's hollow rhetoric."
House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) said: "The governor needs to be straight with Iowans. He has raised taxes to balance his budget and that is unacceptable. Balancing the budget is not good enough if it's on the backs of the taxpayer."
Paulsen agreed with Culver's idea to backfill cuts made to education. But Paulsen said tapping into Iowa's reserves for ongoing expenses is the wrong way to do it. "We need to do it not through the rainy-day fund; we need to do it by finding additional efficiencies in state government," he said.
Paulsen also pointed out that $100 million would not fully backfill the amount taken away from Iowa schools. Education took the biggest hit with the across-the-board cut, with a reduction of $265.8 million, mostly in school foundation aid that goes to local school districts statewide. Paulsen indicated that schools should be backfilled for the complete amount they were cut.
"I'm pleased to see that he has decided the property taxpayer is at least a little bit important," Paulsen said of the governor. "In fact, we need to go beyond that because right now what he's doing is just transferring the remainder on to property taxpayers."
Republican Party of Iowa Chair Matt Strawn said Culver failed to come clean with Iowans. "For him to stand up and say that he balanced the budget without raising taxes is just false," Strawn said. "The governor has repeatedly approved spending the state cannot support, and has passed the buck on to Iowans through the form of property-tax increases."
No Court Consolidation, but Chief Justice Open to Raising Court Fees Again
The judicial branch has no plans to consolidate courts in rural areas of the state and no plan to displace court reporters with digital audio-recording equipment, but it is open to raising court fees again as long as it does not further impair access to justice, Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus said in her Condition of the Judiciary address.
"At this point, consolidating clerk-of-court offices may actually increase our expenses, not lower them," Ternus said. "Notwithstanding the lack of significant savings to the courts by the consolidation of clerk-of-court offices, additional budget cuts could eventually starve us into consolidation because we simply will not have enough employees to staff 100 clerk offices.
"In the past, you have made it clear that you do not want to consolidate court services," Ternus continued. "Yet, your recent funding decisions suggest the opposite and drive us toward that result. We ask that you not force consolidation of our courts through the back door of underfunding."
And despite two favorable reports on using digital audio recording technology in courtrooms released Tuesday, "the court has no plan to displace court reporters," Ternus said. She said the evaluation of the technology is just the first step in determining whether Iowa courts should join 26 other states and federal courts in using it.
"The general theme of my previous reports has been that the state of the judiciary is good," Ternus said. "This year, however, I cannot give a favorable report. The budget cuts of the past decade have taken a heavy toll on the ability of the judicial branch to fulfill its constitutional mission. Consequently, the ability of Iowans to receive the court services the Constitution affords them has been reduced, and justice hangs in the balance."
Ternus said for years, the courts have managed the growing imbalance between resources and workload without many serious problems. "Under the current circumstances, however, we can no longer insulate Iowans from the consequences of inadequately funded courts; we must ration access to justice."
In recognition of the "grim reality" of the state's fiscal difficulties, the judicial branch has submitted a status-quo budget request for Fiscal Year 2011.
"We urge you to provide the funds we need to maintain access to justice at the current level," Ternus pleaded with lawmakers. "After a decade of downsizing, the time has come to hold the line."
Education a Focal Point of Session's First Week
Education was the top issue tackled by the Iowa legislature, with four bills quickly moved through committee and toward the floor before the end of the week.
Lawmakers took quick action on bills that would:
- Make legislative changes to help Iowa apply for up to $175 million from the federal Race to the Top program;
- Delay passage of allowable growth and categorical spending for schools for a year to avoid passing a zero-percent per-pupil spending increase; and
- Require school districts to draw down their cash reserves to make up for state's 10-percent across-the-board budget cut, rather than turning first to a property-tax increase.
In the first floor vote of the 2010 session, the Iowa Senate voted along party lines Wednesday night for a bill designed to improve Iowa's chances for the federal Race to the Top competitive grant.
The Race to the Top program could net Iowa schools anywhere from $60 million to $175 million, while a related program could provide 35 Iowa schools identified as persistently low-achieving with $500,000 apiece to improve student performance.
The bill removes the 20-school cap and the repeal date for the state's charter schools, and also provides local school districts with four models to choose from to increase student performance at those low-achieving schools.
Eight Republican amendments were turned down.
This weekly summary comes from IowaPolitics.com, an online government and politics news service. Reporter Andrew Duffelmeyer and other correspondents contributed to this report.
