Gov. Branstad Announces Proposed Budget

By Lynn Campbell
Iowapolitics.com

Gov. Terry Branstad on Tuesday proposed a $6.244 billion state budget for fiscal 2013, which spends 96 percent of available state revenues.

The budget includes $230 million in spending increases, mostly in education and human services. That's a 3.8 percent increase over this year's $6.014 billion budget.

The governor’s four-point jobs plan would:
* Reduce commercial property taxes by 40 percent over eight years; 5 percent each year. The state would reimburse local governments by $50 million the first year, then $100 million, then $150 million. After that, growth in the commercial and industrial property tax base will determine whether taxes continue to be reduced.
* Invest $25 million a year in the High Quality Jobs Program, which would replace the Grow Iowa Values Fund, which ends June 30.
* Develop a supply chain cluster where surrounding towns attract smaller support businesses that feed anchor manufacturers like John Deere
* Encourage formation of employee stock option plans to encourage sale of local businesses to employees who have made that company a success

Branstad’s education reform plan would:

* Cost $25 million, which would include $17 million new money, plus $8 million in repurposing money from professional development and class-size reduction
* Retain third-graders who do not meet basic literacy requirements
* Require a 3.0 grade-point average for admission into teacher preparation programs
* Evaluate teachers annually instead of every three years
* Make seniority a minor factor in deciding which teachers are laid off
* Establish state task forces to study teacher leadership, compensation and extending the school day or school year
* Give all preschool students a kindergarten readiness assessment
* Continue the state-funded, 4-year-old preschool program. “We don’t touch preschool,” said chief of staff Jeff Boeyink. “We don’t want to reopen that debate.”
* Require high school students to take end-of-course exams before they graduate
* Eliminate requirements around seat time for academic credit
* Widen the pathway for starting charter schools by giving the State Board of Education authority to approve charter applications from universities, community colleges and nonprofits
* Give school districts greater flexibility to meet state requirements so schools can better apply innovative ideas to improve learning

The governor also proposed $40 to $60 million in savings from the Road Use Tax Fund, rather than increasing the gas tax.

While Branstad proposed a casino tax increase last year, he does not propose any tax or fee increases this year.

Branstad began his 17th Condition of the State speech at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Iowa House chamber before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature. Branstad’s budget will be distributed and posted online at https://governor.iowa.gov/

The governor’s budget is based on his goals of creating 200,000 new jobs, raising family incomes by 25 percent, restoring Iowa’s ranking of being No. 1 in education , and looking for ways to reduce the cost of government by 15 percent.

See the text of Branstad's speech:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=257724

Hundreds of people from more than 50 Iowa counties will occupy the state Capitol on Tuesday to demand state government put the common good before corporate greed, with a “State of the 99 Percent” rally scheduled for 11:15 a.m. in the 1st Floor Rotunda.

The “Occupy the Statehouse: State of the 99 Percent” rally and lobby day is organized by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund (Iowa CCI Action) and co-sponsored by the Iowa Federation of Labor, the South Central Fed, AFSCME, SEIU, the Iowa Building and Constructions Trade Council, the Des Moines Teachers Association, SEIU, and Occupy Des Moines.

“It’s time for state government to start putting the common good before corporate greed and people before profits, politics, and polluters,” said Barb Kalbach, the CCI Action board president and a fourth generation family farmer from Dexter.

“We want factory farms to stop polluting our air and water, we want corporations to pay their fair share of taxes so that essential public services can be adequately funded, and we want to get big money out of politics, because only then can we have government of, by, and for the people, government where our votes and our voices are not drowned out by special interest money.”