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."

For the sake of argument, let's say that the Promise program will be the panacea for Davenport that its backers claim it will be. People will flood into the city because they've been promised college tuition, vocational training, or (if they're in the military) a homestead grant. Enrollment in the Davenport Community School District will reverse its nearly-two-decade-long trend of decline - thus ensuring a greater amount of state education funding, which is distributed on a per-pupil basis. And the increased aggregate property value will bring new riches to city government and the school district through property taxes, thus allowing them to lower the property-tax rate.

Even if all that is true, the backers of the Davenport Promise have structured the program all wrong.

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.

"We basically are paying for two places now. We've got the damaged property in Cedar Rapids, and then the new home," Jeff Gardemann said. "The passing of this bill will help people like us pay help pay down SBA loans and get back on track in life and just get Iowa moving again ... and we're grateful. All we can say is thank you. Appreciate it."

Culver and Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge hailed the unanimous legislative approval of the relief bill, calling it a "bipartisan success story" and "one more step forward to our state's disaster-recovery efforts" as Culver signed the bill into law.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is in the throes of a massive budgetary crisis, with a current shortfall of just under $3 billion. As a result, a reduction in services, job losses, and funding cuts for secondary and higher education are expected. Lawmakers, officials, and state employees also face the difficult task of paring down their budgets in the face of dwindling financial support from the Commonwealth. As Delegate Terry G. Kilgore stated, "Everyone needs to be concentrating on the budget this year. The budget transcends everything."