Expense money running out, but Legislature not ready to adjourn

The last day of the 2004 Legislative session is supposed to be this Friday, April 29th. That’s the final day legislators will get daily expense money. But Senate Co-Leader Stewart Iverson, a Republican from Dows, says lawmakers are far from ready to adjourn for the year. “We’ve been spinning our wheels for a long time and that’s one of the frustrations,” Iverson says. “Right now there is no plan for adjournment.” One of the stumbling blocks has been the lack of agreement in the Senate which is evenly-split between Republicans and Democrats. Yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) impasse over the death penalty isn’t helping. “We haven’t reached a resolution on the budget. We haven’t reached a resolution on (the death penalty) and some other issues,” Iverson says. But House Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, says the House will leave the Senate behind, at least temporarily. “We’ll adjourn on Friday and then we’re done,” Rants says. The House will not meet for three days, waiting for the Senate to make some decisions on key legislation. “It would be my hope that Iowans would look at the Senate and say ‘Get the job done,'” Rants says. “I would think Iowans would look at the Senate and say ‘You know, guys, that’s enough. Ladies and gentlemen, get your act together.'” Last night the House debated a bill that would reestablish the Iowa Values economic development fund to hand out high-dollar state grants to new and expanding businesses.