Q&A: State Senator Bob Dvorsky Explains Budget Negotiations in Des Moines and the Impact in Johnson County

As budget discussions continue in Des Moines, Democratic State Sen. Bob Dvorsky took some time to speak with Iowa City Patch about what's at stake in debate.

Iowa City Patch: Why has there been a hold-up in negotiating the new state budget?

Bob Dvorsky: Well, there isn’t a hold up. The negotiations are sort of off and on, but people are continuing to negotiate.

Iowa City Patch: What are the main differences between the Republicans and Democrats in these negotiations?

Dvorsky: The big thing is setting the budget for fiscal 2012, and from the Senate Democrats' point of view, the bottom line number the Republicans have is a very low number. So that means a lot of cuts to a lot of programs that we think are important to Iowa. This is an unprecedented low number ...

In Iowa we have a 99 percent law: we can’t spend more than 99 percent of the revenues we bring in. (The remainder is) set aside into what’s called a Rainy Day Fund. So we put that in place in the '90s. I don’t think any administration has ever spent less that 99 percent. This proposal is 96 percent. That’s an enormous drop. The money is available and the Republicans and the government just choose not to spend that. They just want to spend 96.2 [percent] … Their number one and pretty much only priority is to cut government spending.

Iowa City Patch: What's at stake for Iowa City, in particular, in this budget debate? What would be at stake if that low budget number were approved?

Dvorsky: They're talking about cutting maybe 41 million dollars or about seven percent overall in about 60-plus percent of the regents universities. They’re talking about cutting community college, maybe a lesser percent, so Kirkwood serves this area. The proposal [for K-12 education] is the next fiscal year, fiscal 2012, would be zero [percent allowable growth] and 2013 would be two percent ...  The ones that take a big hit are education and then health and human services. The rest of the budget is really tight on everything else, but those are the big ones since those are the largest numbers.

Iowa City Patch: By "the largest numbers," you mean the most budget money is allocated to those areas?

Dvorsky: Yes.

Iowa City Patch: You said there hasn't been a hold-up in negotiating the budget, but there still has been talk about a possible government shutdown if a budget isn't finalized by July 1. Do you expect lawmakers to reach a resolution by then, or do you think a government shutdown is likely?

Dvorsky: Do I think it’s likely? No. Is it possible? Yes. I hope you understand that I’ve been a part of a lot of these negotiations as the Senate Appropriations Chair. This is a different viewpoint maybe for me than for people who aren’t there. There’s still some negotiation going on this week, of course.

Iowa City Patch: What consequences would a government shutdown have in the Iowa City area? Would it leave many people without work?

Dvorsky: Well, the governor’s office has not been forthcoming with a plan. The regents are currently putting together how they’re going to continue to operate. The Regents have funds from research grants and the federal government and tuition revenue, so they could go ahead and continue, certainly in the short term, and they have a plan to do that. School districts, they’re all under a formula [for how] that money is distributed out to them. That could affect them if they had to borrow money to continue or something, so that would be a problem. It really varies from agency to agency what will happen, but it’s unprecedented. [A government shutdown] has never happened before.

Iowa City Patch: Is there anything else you'd like to add, or that you think is important to keep in mind as legislators continue to negotiate the budget?

Dvorsky: The big thing is to talk about this unprecedented low number [the Republicans' budget proposal]. The state will have about a billion dollars in place and the Republican majority in the house and the government just choose not to use this money, and they choose not to invest it in education.