Legislators say they’ll look closely at Governor’s budget

Governor Tom Vilsack had a few surprises in his State of the State address today — including a call for gun restrictions. Vilsack wants legislators to require that handguns sold in Iowa have safety locks.Republican legislators like House Speaker Brent Siegrist say the trigger-lock proposal was a surprise, but it’s something they’ll look at.Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says Senators are open to the proposal.However, don’t expect the trigger-lock proposal to be a slam dunk. Representative Michael Jager of LaPorte City says trigger-locks aren’t a cure-all and are redundant in some cases. He wants to know what happens to gun owners that have guns locked in a storage cabinent or a locker. Jager takes issue with Vilsack comparing trigger locks to safety caps on aspirin. Jager says handguns aren’t sold over the counter at Hy-Vee. He calls the the comparison disingenuous and says it’s part of the “liberal Democrat” agenda that’s in opposition to law abiding citizen’s second-amendmandt rights under the constitution. The democrat governor’s spending ideas are raising the eyebrows of Republican legislators. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says the Governor outlined alot of expensive initiatives and he wants to know how they’ll be funded.Vilsack proposes providing state-financed health insurance for more poor kids, but House Speaker Brent Siegrist, a republican from Council Bluffs, says the G-O-P priority is to improve coverage for the poor kids who already qualify.Vilsack’s address lasted an hour and 12 minutes — the longest “State of the State” speech in modern Iowa political history. Republicans say the only Vilsack proposal which is “D-O-A” is his call for eliminating federal deductability — that’s Iowans ability to deduct their federal tax bill from their state income tax liability.