Iowa’s democrat Governor and Republican legislators continue their bickering over plans for next year’s state budget.Governor Tom Vilsack drew stick figures and numbers on a chalkboard Monday morning, illustrating for reporters the unresolved differences between his budget proposals — and the ones Republicans have devised. Vilsack says the question is, “Will the state provide more money for education at a time when it’s critical in this state?” House Speaker Brent Siegrist, a republican from Council Bluffs, says Vilsack is just mad he’s not getting his way on every item in the budget. He says Vilsack has obviously listened to President Clinton and is trying to play “the Washington, D. C. politics of fear” to try and get what he wants. Siegrist says it won’t work.Vilsack says his own budget plan is just 13-million dollars higher than the Republican budget plan — but the G-O-P says it’s more like 80 million. An indepenent auditor — the head of the Legislature’s Fiscal Bureau — says the truth is somewhere in between.
