Republican legislators revealed their overall spending plan for next year’s state budget, and it includes 128-million dollars in yet-to-be-identified cuts. Jeff Lamberti , a republican from Ankeny who’s chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says lawmakers are waiting for a list of cuts being developed by a consultant the Governor hired. Lamberti says the G-O-P plan does require “fairly significant cuts” through the “reinvention” of government. Bill Dix, a republican from Shell Rock who’s chair of the House Appropriations Committee, admits the G-O-P is proposing about 40-million more in cuts than Governor Tom Vilsack envisions. Dix says the Governor’s consultant should propose a quarter of a billion dollars in savings, because many of the proposals will be too tough to get through the legislature. Dix won’t say whether any programs will be eliminated, or employees laid off. Dix says the details are “yet to be determined.” The overall G-O-P budget plan calls for spending just about five billion dollars next fiscal year, which begins July 1st. Lamberti says the G-O-P plan spends about 138-million less than the Governor recommends. Republicans propose spending about 29-million dollars less on education than Governor Vilsack recommends, and Lamberti says the cuts would come in the budgets of Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I. The Republicans spending plan outlined today does not include recommendations for spending state gambling taxes as that money’s placed in a separate account to be used for “infrastructure” projects.
