Des Moines, IA – Over the past few days, Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald hit the road on the Iowa Deserves Better Tour to talk to communities in Southern Iowa about the impact of the Reynolds Budget Crisis. Residents came together in concern about the serious cuts being made to critical local services to pay for Governor Reynolds and her Republicans’ Koch Brothers-written agenda.   Highlights from the latest leg of the Iowa Deserves Better tour:   WGEM: Iowa treasurer discusses state budget issues in Keokuk visit “ ’Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor Reynolds and the Republican legislature was in such a rush to give major corporations, huge property tax cuts and tax credits,’ Fitzgerald said. ‘We just couldn't afford it.’   He said in 2012, the state had $927 million in surplus and most of that has been depleted.   Governor Kim Reynolds announced cuts in education, courts, healthcare, and public safety.   Resident Louise Orozco said cuts aren't the answer.   ‘We've always had such excellent education standards and I feel like we are headed in the wrong direction with not enough money and cutting too many services,’ Orozco said.   Lee County Supervisor Gary Folluo is familiar with all of this because the county had to cut more than a million dollars from its budget.   But if the backfill dollars get cut from the state, he said it will cause real problems.   ‘It could effect services, it could the effect economic development condition for Lee County,’ Folluo said.”   KHQA: Iowa State Treasurer tours SE Iowa “ ‘Quit trying to bribe corporations with either huge property tax giveaways, or tax credits and use that tax money to build our schools, pay for our courts and bring Medicaid operations back within the state government where it's operated efficiently where we take care of our folks,’ said Fitzgerald.”

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